Towards Intelligent Manufacturing Systems This book contains the selected articles from the third International Conference on lriformation Technology for Balanced Automation Systems in Manufacturing. A rapid evolution in a number of areas leading to Intelligent Manufacturing Systems has been observ@d in recent years. Significant efforts are being spent on this research area, namely in terms of international cooperative projects, like the IMS initiative, the USA NIIIP (National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols) project, or the European ESPRIT programme, and a growing number of...

Decisions about Re-engineering is more analytical and thought provoking than most books on the topic of Business Process Re-engineering. It raises the key issues calling for decisions, delineates the options and trade-off factors that typically arise, and suggests how to tackle them.

The theme of the 1997 INTERACT conference, 'Discovering New Worlds ofHCI', signals major changes that are taking place with the expansion of new technologies into fresh areas of work and leisure throughout the world and new pervasive, powerful systems based on multimedia and the internet. HCI has a vital role to play in these new worlds, to ensure that people using the new technologies are empowered rather than subjugated to the technology that they increasingly have to use. In addition, outcomes from HCI research studies over the past 20 years are now finding their way into many...

Advanced Technical Ceramics Directory and Databook is a world-wide directory of the properties and suppliers of advanced technical ceramic material used in, or proposed for, numerous engineering applications. The information is subdivided into sections based on the class of ceramic, e.g. Nitrides-silicon nitride, sialon, boron carbide, aluminium nitride etc. Each section consists of a short introduction, a table comparing basic data and a series of data sheets. The book adopts standardised data in order to help the reader in finding and comparing different data and identifying the required...

Distribution and interoperability in heterogeneous computing environments are the key requirements for state-of-the-art information processing systems. Distributed applications are making a critical contribution in many application sectors, such as office automation, finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, aerospace, and transportation. Users demand support for the construction, integration and management of their application systems as well as for the interoperability of independent application components. DAIS '97 provides a forum for researchers, application designers and users to...

Since the publication of the first edition of The Physics of Glassy Polymers there have been substantial developments in both the theory and application of polymer physics, and many new materials have been introduced. Furthermore, in this large and growing field of knowledge, glassy polymers are of particular interest because of their homogeneous structure, which is fundamentally simpler than that of crystalline or reinforced materials. This new edition covers all these developments, including the emergence of the polymer molecule with its multiplicity of structure and...

The usage of data communications and computer networks are ever in creasing. It is one of the few technological areas which brings benefits to most of the countries and the peoples of the world. Without it many industries could not exist. It is the objective of this book to discuss data communications in a readable form that students and professionals all over the world can understand. As much as possible the text uses dia grams to illustrate key points. Most currently available data communications books take their view point from either a computer scientists top-down approach or from an...

In this book leading experts including George Box, Noriaki Kano, Yoshio Kondo, John Oakland and James Harrington, analyse and document various aspects of Total Quality Management. Contributions range from discussions of the principles, strategy, culture, leadership, eduction and benchmarking to world class experience and achieving excellence both in the manufacturing and service industries. With over 100 contributions this book is an invaluable resource for the total quality managment journey. It will be of special interest to educationalists, academics, senior managers and directors, and...

In the latter half of the 20th century, forces have conspired to make the human community, at last, global. The easing of tensions between major nations, the expansion of trade to worldwide markets, widespread travel and cultural exchange, pervasive high-speed communications and automation, the explosion of knowledge, the streamlining of business, and the adoption of flexible methods have changed the face of manufacturing itself, and of research and education in manufacturing. The acceptance of the continuous improvement process as a means for organizations to respond quickly and effectively...

Design frameworks have become an important infrastructure for building complex design systems. Electronic Design Automation Frameworks presents a state-of-the-art review of the latest research results covering this topic; results which are also of value for other design frameworks. The book contains the selected proceedings of the Fourth International Working Conference on Electronic Design Frameworks, organized by the International Federation for Information Processing and held in Gramado, Brazil, in November 1994.