To Err is Human, Just not Desired

For my Industrial Engineering System Design, which is mercifully coming to a close, I had to buy two books. The first and most expensive I already reviewed. The second much less expensive book was Set Phasers on Stun: & Other True Tales of Design, Technology, & Human Error by Steven M. Casey. Yeah it’s a long name. This book is a collection of 20 stories told by Casey. He uses them to demonstrate disastrous interactions between humans and design choices. Each story offers a different example of how easily a seeming innocuous design choice can cause reactions and outcomes that are completely unintended. The book is well written and Casey makes the stories entertaining without being too long. It’s a good reads for any engineer, and most people that would like to understand why testing and iteration of designs are so important. Throwing technology at a problem doesn’t work unless the technology is used judiciously with the user in mind. It makes a good case for why Industrial Engineering is important.

Click for the rest of the rambling >>.

Beginning of the End

I’m in a bit of a celebratory mood today. I turned in the final group project report for the Industrial Engineering class that I’m taking. It was about 30 pages long and we’ve been working on it for most of the week. The past 2 nights I haven’t gotten to bed until after 2 AM. The class has been sucking up more time than a normal 4 credit hour class usually would. Now all that’s left is the final presentation on Friday and the exam on Monday. But for now the hardest work is over. And that means I Am going to celebrate a little. And I should also have time to finish the book reviews I’m late on.

Click for the rest of the rambling >>.

The Design of Designing

This semester I’ve been taking Industrial Engineering 201: System Design. In the class we are divided into groups. Each group is given a design project for someplace on or near campus. Our group was given the project to improve Freshman Move-in day. We narrowed the cope of the project to the High rise dorms, and have been working on the project ever since. All along we have been studying how to manage a design project to develop the best solution in the time and in the constraints provided. The book we have been using to facilitate this is Product Design and Development by Karl Ulrich, Steven Eppinger, Steven Eppinger. If you want a taste of the cost of engineering textbooks follow the link. Since we are in the final parts of the project, we have finished with the book, hence the review.

Basically the book does a pretty good job at what it is supposed to do. It helps direct you down the path of product design and development. You start at finding a need, defining the need and constraints, and moving on from there. The book works best in an environment where an instructor fills in some info and provides additions reasoning and points of view. You can read it on your own, but you really need a project to get the most out of it. When we finish with the other book I’ll post a review of it. Now we have to finish the project report, and maybe they will implement it next year.

Click for the rest of the rambling >>.