Today, industry and government focus significant engineering and management attention on making goods more producible. Facing increased pressure to reduce outlays, many companies, organizations, and enterprises recognize that addressing producibility early, as part of the design process, is the most effective way to reduce costs and improve the quality of manufactured products. This guidelines document brings together concepts, techniques, and tools into a single explanation of what constitutes a successful producibility system, how to establish one, execute it, and measure its results. The Best Manufacturing Practices program's Producibility Task Force (PTF), selected from industry, government, and academic experts, gathered for the first time in the spring of 1997 to develop a common-sense approach to producibility. The PTF determined there are five basic steps in building and maintaining a successful producibility system. These five steps represent the criteria from numerous successful producibility programs and provide the basis for this document. By bringing together the basic elements of producibility, the PTF guidelines present a clear, easily understood picture of what any enterprise, regardless of size, can do to make its products more producible. This guidelines document has significance for the future of U.S. manufacturing industries. We are now competing on a global scale where high quality is demanded and low cost is expected. The recognition of the importance of addressing producibility early in the product development cycle and the employment of an effective producibility system from design though production are critical to maintaining a vibrant position in the world marketplace.

Offers instruction in manufacturing engineering management strategies to help the student optimize future manufacturing processes and procedures. This edition includes innovations that have changed management's approach toward the uses of manufacturing engineering within the business continuum.

The trusted handbook—now in a new edition This newly revised handbook presents a multifaceted view of systems engineering from process and systems management perspectives. It begins with a comprehensive introduction to the subject and provides a brief overview of the thirty-four chapters that follow. This introductory chapter is intended to serve as a "field guide" that indicates why, when, and how to use the material that follows in the handbook. Topical coverage includes: systems engineering life cycles and management; risk management; discovering system requirements; configuration management; cost management; total quality management; reliability, maintainability, and availability; concurrent engineering; standards in systems engineering; system architectures; systems design; systems integration; systematic measurements; human supervisory control; managing organizational and individual decision-making; systems reengineering; project planning; human systems integration; information technology and knowledge management; and more. The handbook is written and edited for systems engineers in industry and government, and to serve as a university reference handbook in systems engineering and management courses. By focusing on systems engineering processes and systems management, the editors have produced a long-lasting handbook that will make a difference in the design of systems of all types that are large in scale and/or scope.