Subject: Re: Fighting Complexity
From: edmoore@vcd.hp.com (Ed Moore)
Date: 10 Nov 1996 04:33:28 GMT
Jonathan Priluck (jamcorp@world.std.com) wrote:
: How woud you explain to a person who is
: convinced that they don't need to build the prototype becuase they already
: know the answer that maybe their analysis is not as foolproof a they think.
: Here comes the hard part of the assignment. You have to explain it without
: telling or even implying that they might be wrong. The reason for this is
: that it's not worth the managerial problems it would create over the long
: term.
I've sat here for quite a while staring at your question. I wish I could
answer it. The situation reminds me of something Tony Rizzo said here a
couple years ago. Paraphrasing (very loosely, probably), learning cannot
begin until one admits the possibility that one doesn't already have all the
answers. A tactic that might work in a few situations is to challenge the
other person to put his money behind his answer. I don't see how that would
fit in your predicament. I think a lot of analysts would seek verification
by prototype before betting their own money on their predictions.
: >Reminds me of when I was young. I loved stress analysis. I could
: >calculate what the stresses would be in a part. I had an older lead
: >engineer who often would show in minutes that the stresses were low
: >enough that we didn't care what they really were. It took a lot of
: >fun out of the job, but it saved an enormous amount of time.
: In other words, is it relevant? That's such a difficult question to ask,
: people always assume their questions are relevant. Of course most questions
: are not relevant, some questions don't even really make sense they only
: appear to becuase they have the proper gramatical form and can be asked.
When I was in a large CAD group at Boeing, a business graduate was hired into
the organization. I was really surprised. What could a non-technical person
contribute to a CAD organization? Quite a lot, in fact. We engineers are
trained to solve problems. This fellow was trained to manage problems. When
a new problem appears, the engineer starts thinking about solutions. This
business fellow, who was actually a friend of mine, started asking "silly"
questions. Does this problem need to be solved? Should it be solved here
or elsewhere? Though he never solved a technical problem himself, he justified
his cost by preventing us sometimes-myopic technical folks from wasting time
on problems that could simply be ignored or left to others.
: That's just it Ed, most engineers I work with these days just don't beleive in
: prototypes.
That's news to me. Maybe I've been out of college too long. In my 29-year
career I've spent only the last 4.5 years in a high volume, low cost product
business. I find prototypes almost worshiped here. I would expect that in
any business that builds parts by the millions.
: Interesting. LBM is itself a high volume low cost item. Right now that's
: not the case but that is the goal and it's not a matter of figuring out if
: it can be done or not, it's simply a matter of making it so. At the same
: time, the most important applications for LBM are in aviation and other
: areas with similar ground rules. Will aviation people use a material that
: is stronger and lighter if it also costs less? I half way suspect they will
: not.
I never worked on military aircraft, so I can't comment on that industry. But
the jet transport business is so competitive that I'd expect your material to
be considered on its merits without any resistance to its low cost.
Thanks for starting this thread. I hope others contribute their perspectives
on prototyping.
--
Ed Moore
Hewlett-Packard The keyboard is my employer's, but
Vancouver, WA, USA the keystrokes belong only to me.
Subject: FS: ChE/Civil/Mech/BioChem Handbooks, at least 50% off
From: chiang@cs.uiuc.edu (Sam HK Chiang)
Date: 12 Nov 1996 03:08:16 GMT
All books are at least 50% off publisher's price (see
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com and http://www.wiley.com).
No reasonable offers refused.
Sam.
----------------------BEGIN---------------------------------------
CHEMICAL/CIVIL/MECHANICAL ENGINEERING BOOKS
===========================================
<1>
R.H. Perry. Perry's Chem. Engr's Handbook, 6th ed, (cur rel),
McGraw-Hill, 1984.
Hard cover. Publisher's price $129.5
Good condition.
Ask $65
Description:
This is the new edition of the single most comprehensive and
authoritative reference source available to chemical engineers.
It has been significantly revised and updated to incorporate
the many developments that have taken place since the previous
edition was published over a decade ago. The handbook retains
its usual broad coverage of all classical chemical engineering
topics, and in addition, users will find never-before-included
coverage of waste treatment and biochemical engineering. It
provides current state-of-the-art information on principles,
design approaches, and equipment, supplemented by substantial
amounts of data essential for performing calculations and solving
design problems.
<2>
H.M. Freeman, Standard Handbook of Hazardour Waste Treatment and
Disposal (cur rel), McGraw-Hill, 1989.
Hard cover. Publisher's price $115
Like New.
Ask $59
Description:
The timing is right for this kind of in-depth, state-of-the-art
analysis. Emphasizing current alternatives for managing hazardous
waste and cleaning up abandoned disposal sites, this handbook
examines technologies now in use in the field, as well as those
under development for the future. It also summarizes current
legislation for the treatment and disposal of hazardous
wastes--stressing in particular the ``cradle-to-grave'' approach
now in vogue.
<3>
H.C. Vogel, Fermentation & Biochem. Eng. Handbook,
Noyes publications, 1983.
Hard Cover. Publisher's price ?
Excellent condition.
Ask $59
This well-rounded, up-to-date handbook of fermentation and
biochemical engineering presents the latest techniques for
the commerical production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals
via fermentation. Emphasis is given to unit operations-
fermentation, separation, purification, and recovery.
Principles, process design, and equipment are detailed.
The practical aspects of development, design, and operation
are stressed, and some theory is included to provide the
necessary insight for a particular operation. Problems
addressed are the collection of pilot data, choice of
scale-up paramenters, selection of the right piece equipment,
pinpointing of likely trouble spots, and methods of
troubleshooting. The text, written from a practical and
operating viewpoint, will assist development, design,
engineering and production personnel in the fermentation
industry. All of the contributors were selected based on
their industrial background and orientation.
<4>
R.W. Rousseau, Handbook of Separation Process Technology,
(cur rel) John, Wiley & Sons, 1987.
Hard cover. Publisher's price $145
Like New.
Ask $73
Description:
Surveys the selection, design, and operation of most of the
industrially important separation processes. Discusses the
underlying principles on which the processes are based, and
provides illustrative examples of the use of the processes in a
modern context. Features thorough treatment of newer separation
processes based on membranes, adsorption, chromatography, ion
exchange, and chemical complexation. Includes a review of
historically important separation processes such as distillation,
absorption, extraction, leaching, and crystallization and
considers these techniques in light of recent developments
affecting them.
<5>
J.E. Bailey, Biochem. Eng. Fundamentals, 2nd ed.(cur rel),
McGraw-Hill 1986.
Soft cover. Publisher's price (hard cover) $81.82
Ask $29
Description:
This book, written to introduce students to the fundamental
concepts, knowledge and methodology of biochemical engineering,
provides students with a self-contained presentation of all of
the information required for the first overview course in this
field. The book provides students with an overview of biochemistry,
microbiology, metabolic chemical reaction networks, enzyme kinetics,
and molecular genetics so that they can learn the biological basics
and continue thestudy of engineering aspects. This material is
up-to-date and includes modern topics extremely important for
future technological development, such as recombinant DNA
technology and cell fusion techniques for genetic manipulation.
<6>
E.B. Nauman, Chem. Reactor Design, John Wiley & Sons,
1987.
Hard cover. Publisher's price ?
Like New.
Ask $29
Description:
This book reflects the tremendous impact of the digital computer
on themodeling and solution of reactor design problems. No other
book incorporates such a heavy emphasis on numerical methods and
computation. Throughout, readers are shown how to use and understand
modern computer-aided design (CAD) techniques, focusing specially
on design optimization. It also serves as an invaluable reference
source for industrial engineers who need the latest available
solution techniques. In addition, it provides advanced undergraduate
and graduate students with new information and a new philosophy on
the application of numerical methods to chemical reaction engineering.
<7>
F.G. Shinskey, Process Control Systems, 3rd ed. (cur rel is 4th ed.),
McGraw-Hill, 1986.
Hard cover, publisher's price $69
Like New.
Ask $29
Description:
The best-selling guide to the design of control systems for the
fluid process industries--now updated and expanded Emphasizing
performance-based design and tuning, the new edition of the
best-selling guide to process control provides engineers with
reliable coverage of control technology principles for industrial
fluid processes--from basic theory to advanced control applications.
Written by the foremost authority on process control, the book
serves as a complete reference to controller selection and tuning,
controller performance evaluation, and as a design guide for
configuring optimum systems. Using time-domain and relative-gain
analysis throughout, Greg Shinskey shows you how to solve common
control problems and apply proven system solutions--with a minimum
of effort and mathematical skill. You'll also learn how to use your
personal computer to speed computations, handle more complex
situations, and create more accurate process imulations that save
you time nd make your job easier. Thoroughly revised and updated,
the Fourth Edition includes new information on inventory control,
internal model and model predictive control, minimizing deviation
and integrated error following load changes, closed-loop responses
for distributred-lag processes, tuning rules for the Smith predictor
and PID controller with deadtime compensation, the dynamics of the
static mixer with and without recirculation, process design guidelines
for pH control, set-point filtering, sampling effects, and more.
Shinskey's clear explanations--illustrated by more than 250 simulations,
line drawings, graphs, and response curves--and worked problems at the
end of each chapter make the book an ideal self-study guide and a
must-have reference for all engineers who want to keep on top of the
state of the art in process control.
--
+------------------------------------+
Computer Science Dept.
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
chiang@cs.uiuc.edu
Subject: Re: Fighting Complexity
From: Jonathan@actors.demon.co.uk (Jonathan Haigh)
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 10:26:07 GMT
I've come a bit late into this thread, so haven't worked out all the
players, but somebody suggested having three teams compete by picking
holes in each others designs.
This strikes me as very negative and probably none too helpful. It's
the easiest thing in the world to find fault, and IMHO will almost
always lead to a compromise solution
If you want to use three teams, how about getting them to find the
*best* features of each design and incorporating them into a single
whole?
Or, (and especially since you only have one team) how about training
them in the ideas of TRIZ (Russian for the Theory of Inventive Problem
Solving) which starts with the idea of an Ideal System - one that
carries out all the required functions of the system, with no actual
devices. It then offers ways of Trimming - removing all unnecessary
functions - and finally suggests ways of _really_ solving problems
_without_ compromise, optimisation, negotiation or trade off.
Solutions from this are often so elegant that my guess is that any
engineer would be really turned on by them.
There's also an excellent piece of software, Invention Machine Lab,
that helps this process. We're resellers in England (interest
declared! - see Web site below) or have a mooch round
www.invention-machine.com for more detail.
Cheers,
Jonathan
J. Haigh, Next Step Associates, England (+44) 1 983 760 819
Innovation services for people, products, projects and processes
http://www.enterprise.net/amb/nextstsep