21st Century Manufacturing - Softcover

For one-semester, junior/senior- and first year graduate-level courses in survey of manufacturing processes and management of technology, in departments of engineering and business. This text covers today's technologies and the future of manufacturing-with details of the product design process, rapid prototyping, a survey of manufacturing techniques relevant to today's production of consumer electronics or electromechanical devices, and the field of Biotechnology. It gives students a broader appreciation of the impact of manufacturing process and not just manufacturing per se. An exploration of broader issues includes: the time to market, development of a new product, launching products into the marketplace, quality control, and the impact of technology on the next generation of products.

This book is built around the idea that your new company will be brainstorming a new technical idea, analyzing the market, developing a business plan, creating a conceptual product, fabricating a prototype, executing detailed designs, outsourcing the various aspects of electronic and mechanical manufacturing, and then launching the product for sale. The main chapters in the book deal with these topics, with particular emphasis on manufacturing technologies. Biotechnology has been added because of the substantial future career opportunities in this field. The book also aims to provide a balanced view for the management of technology.

• Each chapter tries to move beyond the basic science and technology in each field to strategic issues such as time-to-market.
• There are extensive references to research articles and books for the future specialist. These also appear on a Web site, which will be updated often.
• It is written in a conversational style rather than being jam-packed with equations!