Need to identify the scope of a project and justify its costs? The Work Structure Library will help get you started with topics such as automation benefits, project justification, project management, and interpersonal skills.
Fundamentals
Automation and Control Systems Economics, 2nd Edition Paul G. Friedmann
Covering the economic aspects of automation and process control, this newly revised 2nd Edition expands on how the tools of economic and financial analysis can be applied to automation projects, especially those concerned with continuous processes. New sections have been added to extend application of economic and financial analysis to control of discontinuous processes, including batch and discrete parts manufacturing. A new glossary has also been added to help define economic terms.
Hands-On
Ideal Enterprise: Managing by the Law of the Sphere Hans D. Baumann
An entertaining guide on how you can successfully organize a business for maximum efficiency and profits - written by a successful entrepreneur who built a very profitable manufacturing company. Explore strategies on how to get started in business and how to sustain success as your company grows. The easy-to-read, often witty, text covers how to start your own business, how to manage, role of incentives, value of meetings, budgets, computer communications, why smaller is often better in business, mergers, acquisitions and much more. Learn from author Hans Baumann's extensive business experiences as a corporate officer with several major multi-national corporations. His straightforward often blunt analysis of mergers, business fads, and other issues makes this an engrossing, must read book, for any follower of business trends and the automation industry. Hans Baumann is a prolific technical writer, the holder of over 120 patents, and co-author of a university study on the relationship between profitability and company size.
Management
Practical Project Management - Learning to Manage the Professional G.W. Cockrell
The pressure’s on. In today’s economy, organizations must perform faster, better, and cheaper. Projects have to conform to ever-tightening schedules and budgets. Yet most technical professionals have no training in project management. For years, the construction and defense industries have implemented project management strategies—now this book focuses specifically on techniques proven to be effective in the instrumentation and automation field. Starting with an overview of what every project manager needs to know, this book serves as a practical tool for the instrumentation and automation professional. It defines each unique phase of a project and then provides practical knowledge in areas such as budget and cost estimates, contracts, negotiating, team building, scheduling, and choosing project management software. This book devotes special attention to often-neglected project completion and closeout activities, including tips for how to write and make the most of final project reports. In addition, the book includes a number of appendices that provide sample forms, contracts, and bids used for automation projects.
Reference
The Road to Integration: A Guide to Applying the ISA-95 Standard in Manufacturing Bianca Scholten
ERP systems are only valuable if you supply them with current data, and these data originate largely from the process control layer. When integrating these systems, both IT departments and engineering departments must confront the high degree of heterogeneity found in technology, metadata, programming languages, user interfaces, and more. Good communication with the system’s end user is essential as several departments are usually involved, such as production, maintenance, the lab, and the office. Against this backdrop, ISA decided in the 1990s to develop the ISA-95 standard for integrating enterprise and control systems in order to reduce the risks, costs, and errors that go hand in hand with implementing manufacturing control systems and integrating them with ERP systems. This handy resource explains how to apply ISA-95 in manufacturing enterprise systems (MES) and vertical integration projects, as well as reveals the most important ISA-95 models and terminology. It is ideal for those just starting out who need to get up to speed on ISA-95’s background information but also for those who have some practical experience with ISA-95 and require additional support in carrying out analyses to determine a specific company’s MES strategy and to define user requirements. If you develop MES functionality or realize interfaces based on ISA-95, then this guide will help you understand and apply the ISA-95 object models. Most important, the guide explains how to integrate ERP and MES systems using ISA-95.
Diversion
Bungee Jumping & Cocoons: The Dual Nature of the Industrial Marketplace John D. Kenworthy
"I am a boomer. Born in 1960, I was ushered into the modern era decades before the information age altered our lives forever. For me, the innovation of the personal computer and the Internet were the twin defining events of my generation." Thus begins the introduction to this unique tale of two contrasting thoughts: Bungee Jumping and Cocoons. Bungee Jumping is "our present culture's predilection for embracing all things extreme," the author explains. "In our advertising and in our leisure, we want bigger, better, more." Cocoons represent "our willingness to nest within our homes with no need or desire to come out and mingle with the wicked world." This book sheds some light on how to get beyond the crossroads we are seemingly at - in terms of industrial maturity, economic transition, and societal metamorphosis. Venture into this dual world of extreme fantasy adventures and isolation and be prepared to alter the way you think about the future. But first, you must take the headlong leap into the abyss – the bungee jump.
ISA has selected libraries of books to represent each of the seven domain areas: Basic Continuous; Basic Discrete; Advanced Control; Reliability, Safety and Electrical; Integration and Software; Deployment and Maintenance; and Work Structure. Each library includes works which complement each other in providing the reader these resources:
Fundamentals — a primer on the domain, but includes advanced concepts
Hands-On — a practical guide with lots of applications and examples
Management — covers everything from project management to cost justifications
Reference — a handy, fact-filled volume with quick answers to common problems
Diversion — a sometimes offbeat look at the industry, to keep it all in perspective
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