In the competitive business arena your organization must continually strive to create new and better products faster, more efficiently, and more cost effectively than your competitors to gain and keep the competitive advantage. Computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) are now the industry standard, in all major industries. The seven volumes in Computer-Aided Design, Engineering, and Manufacturing: Systems Techniques, and Manufacturing provide a comprehensive treatment of the techniques and applications of CAD, CAE, and CAM.
A strong trend today is toward the fullest feasible integration of all elements of manufacturing, including
maintenance, reliability, supportability, the competitive environment, and other areas. This trend toward
total integration is called concurrent engineering. Because of the central role information processing
technology plays in this, the computer has also been identified and treated as a central and most essential
issue. These are the issues that are at the core of the contents of this volume.