Industrial Books

I purchased this book to supplement my course materials for my mba class. It was the perfect compliment to my research and explained the material nicely, foregoing the often complicated and alienating academic language for common wording and explanations. Truly easy to read and informative!

The invisible fog is trying to solve a problem that can't be solved. It is a fog because the solutions don't work, and it is invisible because focusing on solutions prevents seeing that there isn't a problem to be solved. There is no magic bullet here, and Johnson acknowledges that. What is here are tools for coping with (managing) dualities or polarities inherent in many troublesome situations. Johnson provides the clarity to get above the fog and find a way to address (manage) the situation.

The concepts and underlying explanation are a solid 5-star.
Four stars because I found just a bit too much padding/repetition for a 5 star book.

Polarity Management is one of my favorite "business" books of all time. Johnson's theory, which explains the dynamics of polarized issues, is so simple yet so comprehensive. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why major issues can be so divisive and how we can move forward when we seem to be at a standstill.

I have not read his book yet. Our company has utilized his seminars and what a difference! We are using the Polarity map in meetings, conferences, and now in my personal life. This is a great tool for any organization or individual that is either in a struggle or is successful - you walk away with more than a tool but a way of looking at your professional and personal life.

This book really shows how we become stuck in dilemmas and static thinking, and how we can instead move at one with change. I am finding it tremendously helpful in analyzing entrenched organizational dysfunction that persists in spite of the efforts of well-meaning managers.

This is one of the best technical/theoretical books I have ever read. It sets the example for teaching the fundamentals of communication theory to a capable audience without diluting the content. Yes it is old, but OLD is GOLD in this case.

This book (combined with Van Trees' "Detection, Estimation, and Modulation Theory, vol.1) is an excellent manuscript for a fundamental understanding of communication theory.

(1) Especially valuable is the chapter 4 (about optimum receiver principles), that makes this book a great buy. For the more enthusiastic student,

(2) Chapter 5 gives the derivation of the Shannon Capacity Theorem, a concept that makes one proud to understand.

(3) Chapters 2 & 3 provide very strong background on probability and random processes. You may have had these on your other courses, but this is a very nice treatment and referred by the later chapters.

(4) Chapter 6,7,8 are about implementation, channel models, and waveform communications, and they are obviously outdated, (e.g., Viterbi algorithm was not invented yet when this book was written) . However, if you feel the need to implement a Fano decoder, this is the best place to look, explanations by other books appear to be wrong!

RECOMMENDATION:
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This is one of the most valuable books for me in my personal library. Definitely buy it, you will not regret it.

This book sets the standard so high that other contemporary books on communication theory in general (examples: Proakis, Sklar) look like second rate, and rush job, copy and paste books on certain specialties such as space-time coding, MIMO (example: Paulraj et. al.) recyclable paper quality.

LONG LIVE: Wozencraft and Jacobs!

This 1965 textbook is arguably the most scholarly textbook ever written for communication engineers. Although the Proakis and Sklar (and also McKay) books are the standard textbooks for digital communications and estimation/detection theory nowadays; they don't even come close to this textbook. The Proakis textbook has gotten the unfortunate reputation as having the most comprehensive treatment regarding "hard-core" communication theory. However, the divergence between modern textbooks which are "practical" versus older textbooks which focus more on "theory" is very clear. Somewhere along the way, today's textbooks have truly lost much of the hard-core theory, and this book has it.

The Chapters are as follows: (1) Introduction (2) Probability Theory (3)Random Waveforms (4)Optimum Receiver Principles (5)Efficient Signaling for Message Sequences (6) Implementation of Coding Systems (7) Important Channel Models (8) Waveforms Communications and appendixes (A-D)

The chapter on probability is bar-none the most comprehensive I have ever seen in any digital communications book, and covers multidimensional pdf's and explains the significance of moments and other things you might only find in a book dedicated specifically to stochastic processes. The coverage of the topics on signal-spaces is fantastic, and the chapter on optimum receivers is also extremely thorough despite the age of this book. Wozencrafts treatment of "channel capacity" and the derivations which he provides are unlike anything in any other book, covering the sphere packing argument quite thoroughly (the only other author to ever get this comprehensive was Shannon himself, and Pierce in his 1960'is vintage book on information theory). His coverage of various important bounds is covered very well (i.e. Chernoff bound) such that even an undergraduate can understand it. Other chapters are equally well written. No, the book obviously is not as up to date as Sklar or Proakis and doesn't cover alot of the more "practical" aspects of modern communications.... but if you want a die-hard communication theory book... this is a classic must-have.

This book is the best "text book" ever written for graduate-level digital communications, though some contents of the latter half part of this book is outdated.

The highlight of this book is its excellence in explaning "signal space concept" and "sufficiency of observables for optimum detection". Forget other textbooks and references you have. Read this book. I haven't yet found any other book that has better explanation on these topics.

This book is like a rite of passage for communication engineers. If you're one of those and haven't read the book, then (1) don't tell anybody about it and (2) read the book immediately! Maybe we can conjecture that if someone knows communication then this person read Wozencraft and Jacobs. It must be said that the book is outdated, but the basics are there in a unequalled presentation.

I used parts of this book in a digital communications course at UIUC. The book is written in a very lucid manner, atleast the chapters that I referred to - 3, 4 & 5. They provide a solid understanding to the subject material and it may seem mind boggling that even though the book was written way back in 1965 it is still a classic and is considered as one of the best references for optimum receiver principles. It makes for some smooth and sufficient reading (chaps. 3,4,5) when compared to other books such as that by Proakis etc. A must buy for any person in the Communication Area!

I consider this book the most valuable resource in the field! If you are really interested in implementing kalman filter localization, particle filter localization or SLAM algorithms, this book really will help you. This book was my reference during my Master Thesis and the algorithms are so comprenhensive that I hadn't any problem to put them running.
I think the autors made a really good effort to explain complex mathematical concepts as clearly as possible. Great Job!

i think this book is very helpful for beginner of probabilistic robotics.
it has a lot of example and pictures :) for our understanding.
easy to learning.
If i met the chance to buy another book about probabilistic robotics, i am sure purchase this book.

have a nice day~~

This is by far the best resource that I have found for collating a large number of internally consistent SLAM algorithms into a single volume. The book carefully leads the reader through the requirements of SLAM presenting one algorithm at a time, building upon the algorithms presented previously. This approach lends itself very well to develop-while-you-read. If you care to do so, I recommend reading it through once in its entirety and then starting over for the develop-while-you-read approach. The once through does a good job of presenting the big picture and giving you the opportunity to decide which primary SLAM path you prefer; Kalman and particle filtering are the two main approaches discussed. I'm currently implementing FastSLAM with particle filtering and have not run into any large hurdles using this book to lead the way.

The only major challenge that I've encountered is that it assumes a very good understanding of probability distributions. A good college statistics book makes a good companion for this read.

I also read Thrun's FastSLAM monograph. There's very little new information in that monograph which Probabilisitc Robotics doesn't already cover. After reading PR, Google becomes your best resource for finding the latest algorithms and code samples. Because even with the descriptive pseudo code algorithms, a perfect follow-up to this book would be "Probabilistic Robotics Implemented" with lots of code samples.

Uncertainty is an important issue facing intelligent systems.
Thrun, Burgard, and Fox have made important contributions to
this area of research. Probabilistic Robotics is a more narrowly focused text than the title might suggest. At 650 pages perhaps it could not be broader and yet do justice to the topics the authors want to cover. Perhaps the title should have been Probabilistic Robot Navigation. My other criticism would be the lack of executables

The authors took 6 years to write this book. And it shows. This is a mindblowing tour through the algorithms used at the cutting edge of Robotics.

What is good

1. Every algorithm has descriptive text, mathematical derivations AND pseudo code. More importantly it all meshes into a cohesive whole.

2. The progression of chapters is excellent, starting with basic algorithms and proceeding to more advanced/refined algorithms.

3.There is a consistent practical focus with algorithms being explained in the context of solving real world problems in robotics.

4. The exercises are few in number , but are *perfect* to illuminate each chapter's ideas and encourage the reader to start thinking on his own.

5. There is a comprehensive errata page on the book's website.

6. Last but not least, the tone of the writing is very engaging. The reader is not talked down to. It is almost as if the authors were in your study carefully guiding you through an intellectual wonderland.

The bad.
Hmmm i can't think of anything. It is great book. I just wish the authors would write MORE books like this :-)



About the only caveat is that a reader should have *some* degree of mathematical insight before attempting this book. The authors do cover elementary probability theory etc in the initial chapters, and they do a good job given the space constraints. But in my opinion if you have absolutely no experience in probability theory or calculus, you should probably learn from other books and then tackle this one. This is, after all, a graduate level text.

I knew most companies were listening to someone. This Book mentions who and adds to that body of literature called process improvement. After reading this book I was able to contribute to the on-going process and become a more valuable employee.

Great Book!!! The book is written interestingly and in a very well wording way. The standpoint of the writer integrating naturally into the real life of the reader needs accompanied with a blaze of practical examples which the writer has taken from the real life of his experience. Personally I have done a fascinating use the book to redesign software related process, and I can certainly say that from background in engineering, one can do a tremendously use of this book in any related technical \ business areas and probably more. Recommended!

I must admit that I felt a bit uneasy when I found out that this book, which was recommended to me by a friend, had been written by someone with a PhD. In my experience, books written by PhDs are often very academic, difficult to read, and end up telling me what I already know in a very convoluted way.

This book, however, dares to enter "dangerous academic territory" by, for example, defining "knowledge" and measuring it in different instances of business communication. Even in doing so, its ideas make sense and are logically consistent. It also wraps everything up nicely by proposing a methodology (MetaProi) to put the ideas in the book into practice and showing the results of the use of that methodology.

I think this book might get a "thumbs down" from academic ivory tower dwellers. From me (what do I know?), it gets two thumbs up!

Ned's book is great! I used his nine-step system (MetaProi) to facilitate four Business Process Improvement Teams in a local audio visual supply company. All four teams modeled, redesigned, and developed an implementation plan for at least one business process. Three of the four teams went on to successful implementation of their plans. One dynamo team solved several problems. Other than the kickoff, there were no face-to-face meetings. The widely distributed teams used collaborative technologies for nearly all interactions, resulting in minimal impact to daily operations. Participants were excited about growing with new methodologies and technologies.

Phoenixville, PA

This book will be essential reading for those wishing to develop insight into process improvement methodologies, which span popular business process reengineering and total quality improvement movements, and the use of computer mediated communication (groupware) to support these process improvement efforts. In particular, the marriage of the Metaproi methodology and groupware techniques, presented and illustrated with field experience, will be invaluable for those researching or undertaking process improvement projects.

This book is very good for all types of projects. It covers setting up a project, organizing the work, managing a project, handling several projects at once, dealing with project issues and crises, using modern technology such as groupware and the Internet. The approach of establishing an issues data base and relating issues to specific tasks in a project is unique. It is very useful.

This is one of the best project management books for introducing employees to modern project management in an interesting way. Most project management books are ver dry and lack realistic examples. Thus, it is difficult to motivate people to read and use such materials. This is a very practical, down to earth book that has many guidelines that you can use immediately as you read the book. Some of the strengths of the book are: 1) best description of matrix management; 2) use of collaborative tools in managing projects; 3) how to deal with multiple projects; 4) how to share resources across several projects; 5) how to deal with risk in projects. The authors have developed a very creative and useful approach in dealing with project risk that associates project risk with unresolved issues. I highly recommend this book.

Project management for the 21st century is one of the most usable, easy to read, and complete project management books. There are good examples. Techniques are modern--better than that available in other books. This books stresses working together, sharing information, and dealing with resources that are spread among various projects. Very good reference.

This book provides the basics of project management in an easy to use casual style. It proceeds step by step through building a plan and then managing a project. The chapter on project costing is good, but could use some more detail. The modern and historical examples are usefully examined. These could be expanded more later.

This book not only gives you all of the basics, but also highlights how to use the Internet for project management. Very useful material.

Viscosity estimation and other properties of gases

When you need physical property data, and you don't have exact information; this book provides best available estimations of the physical properties. It has been a great help to me, over the years.

Having worked on a piece of an earlier edition, as a grad student at U of Mo - Rolla; where Bruce Poling was a professor, I know how much work it is putting this together for the industries. My hats off to Bruce and his co-authors, and especially to Nanci, his wife, for doing yoman's work on this 5th edition of a classic!

If you are a chemical engineer and do not own this text, you will have a hard time. This text covers all physical properties of organic, and some inorganic, gases and liquids. It offers complete theoretical development and practical equations which are amenable to spreadsheets and numerical analysis. Particularly useful is a comparison at the end of every topic showing the accuracy of each method in predicting a property. Presented in tabular form, it allows the reader to choose a method which is sufficient for his/her needs. You may decide to choose a method that is less accurate but easier to program. Every chemical engineer should have this text. My only regret is that we did not have time in undergraduate to use this text. I learned its value from watching the graduate students.

If this review was helpful, please say so. Thanks.

The book is an absolutely practical treatise of applied thermodymamics. The explanations of how to use property estimation methods are excellent, but invaluable are the comments on their accuracy and recommendations as to when to use which method.

The book served as my operating manual for the ASPEN software for modeling chemical processes. The book documented nearly every method used by ASPEN.

I was a bit unconfortable when I bought this book since I was suspicious that this one was one of those unreadable thermodynamic books. Fortunately I was wrong. This book provides you with a complete treatment of the properties of gases and liquids in a plain language stressing the understanding of the basic laws governing the behavior of liquids and gases instead of the mathematic that goes with it. The treatment of the topics is very suitable for engineers since it allows quick understanding of the phenomena and provides a wealth of correlations and methods for estimating properties. The appendixes contain all kind of basic information indeed helpful for applying the correlations showed. Without any hesitation, this book is well worth its price.

A breakthrough new way of thinking!

Meanwhile JIT/Lean can not be implemented for highly variable product offer and variable demand larger than +/- 20% (when smoothing your p-schedule is not feasible anymore), the author describes a new path that can be followed (push-pull). The new 21st century's main objective is to compete - on speed. Reducing the lead times does not stop in manufacturing and the author gives a comprehensible overview how to proceed - including as well the softfactors making things work or fail.

Meanwhile JIT/Lean and the kanban-philosophy aims to reduce waste and the outcome is reduction in lead times and WIP (and improvment of quality), the QRM way targets the reduction of lead time. Many thinking from JIT/Lean can be used as well for QRM as cell manufacturing for flow, lotsize reduction/ setup (SMED) and preventive maintenance (machine availability) etc. Considering JIT/Lean systems are pull-systems, QRM-principles provide a robust framework as well for production systems where the variability of the product scope is broader and the customization is higher. Applying these tecniques will not only reduce your lead-times and increase your quality and service level, but as well simplify and improve your production system (sales and operations planning) and therefore finally improve your service level for deliveries. Reducing WIP goes hand-in-hand with the reduction of lead-times and a therefore a reduction of the binding capital (inventories/ WACC). Rajan Suri will even provide in his books the pitfalls of traditional management accounting and gives you strong arguments how to sell a company wide project to apply this new thinking.

This book is written for beginners as well as for experts in manufacturing and for further insights, the book Factory Physics (Hopp/Spearman) is strongly recomended. Reading and applying Japanese
tecniques as SMED, TPM and ZQC etc, were very useful to me to understand what tools do exist and can be used for QRM as well. Excellent software-packages for QRM are available, but I do strongly recommend to understand the fundamental and basic equations of QRM about manufacturing interactions, before applying this new tecniques (queuing theory etc.) - this will help you to analyse what improvements and where have to be targeted.

Meanwhile SCM-books do not provide the tools to improve operations in many companies, QRM provides you the required knowledge how to trim every single chain element in the supply chain and even provides a simple way to measure the performance of your suppliers (quality, cost and especially the delivery performance). This is the way to go for many companies, whether small or large scale - wherever JIT/Lean can not be applied or the company's culture might not be capable of adopting the Japanese way!

QRM is a manufacturing strategy that focuses on speed throughout the manufacturing process. All efforts are focused on lead-time reduction. Unlike other lean manufacturing clones, QRM distinguishes itself with some unique approaches. While I'm not willing to accept everything the author is pushing, I certainly found some valuable insights.
The author does an excellent job of explaining the concepts, providing enough detail and examples to ensure the reader does not go away confused.
I thought this was a really good book and would recommend it to anyone involved in manufacturing, but even more so to anyone involved with engineer-to-order or make-to-order manufacturing.

This book was great! I couldn't put it down. The author is able to pull together the best of Lean, Kanban, JIT etc... and apply them in a methodology that truly works for a diverse manufacturing plant. We make hundreds if not thousands of different products, some only once and some are repeats but always in small batches. It was really great to read a manufacturing book that will help a plant like ours. Some really great stuff in this book!

As a former manager of strategic planning, now returned to the manufacturing side, I consider this book to be one of the most important I have read over the past several years. What I am seeing in manufacturing is that the cookie cutter products, high tech or not, are moving to either Asia or Mexico. The remaining products are being sold to customers who require a high level of customization on a very short lead time. The author has developed a system to accomplish this. He focuses not just on the nuts and bolts of the shop floor, but also on streamlining the support systems needed to achieve this level of service. If you are in high level manufacturing or corporate management, you need to read this book. If you are at a lower level, you will still be exposed to many ideas which you can incorporate into improving your service, to both internal and external customers, and reducing your lead times. I think it ranks right up there with The Goal as one of the most important business books written in the era of modern manufacturing.

It was hard to put this book down when I first read it. As a manufacturing manager, it almost seemed as if Prof. Suri had spent time in my plant. Most of the topics he addresses in QRM are relevant to the issues I was struggling with. He writes about reducing lead time in all aspects of operations, even product development. His concept of POLCA to create a pull system for low volume, high mix manufacturing is innovative.

I recommend this highly to anyone who is trying to understand a manufacturing operation and how to improve it. It is easy to read and understand with concepts that work.

This book was a great reference tool for starting my 'chicken raising experience'.

This is a great book, growing up on a poultry farm I can agree with the author - it's not easy!

Hens can be difficult, getting the feltch balance is so hard, just how much do you give them? And should it be straw fed?

Managing cocks is just plain difficult! Cocls tend to get trapped in small places and rarely do what you want. If I had 10c for every time I have trapped a cock in the door I wouldn't need pocket money!!

Overall though a good book.

I think this book is great for starting out. It shows everything you need to know. Check it out!

I own a small hatchery and poultry farm. We sell hundreds of baby chicks every month. When someone with little or no poultry experience asks for some good reference material for their new chicks, I point them to this book. Will Graves covers every aspect of raising poultry in great detail, but does not bore his reader. This book is also a great reference item for the current poultry owner. If I have a question, I turn to Mr. Graves first. I highly recommend this book.

My four Rhode Island Reds are my first ever to care for and this book helped me to quickly know what to do without having to take a college course. It is helpful in building of and requirements of a coop, requirements for the growing chick into adulthood (food, lighting, temperature, water, protection and cleanliness.)I highly recommend this book and also bought one for a christmas present for an owner of a small flock.Plus there is much more information like, illness& diseases, butchering, ducks, turkeys, and incubation.

This is a phenomenal work. This book provides the attributes and tools of what it really means to "grow" a business. Hess brilliantly reveals some of the most fundamental concepts that make a "great" business great. Pages full of evidence and stories about engaged and loyal people, humble servanthood leadership, dynamic client service, and clear and conscise business models will stir entreprenuers as they read this excellent volume.

Hess has done it again. The Six Keys to Organic Growth
cuts through traditional leadership thought to show what great organic
growth leaders really do - execute. This book offers terrific insight into
some of the great organic growth companies. The Six Keys to Organic
Growth should be required reading for all young executives and MBA students who want to win.

Ed Hess has written a book with strikingly original research, compelling analysis, and real soul. This is an inspiring, challenging, and practical book for executives, consultants, and other business leaders (present and future) who believe that the best, most satisfying, and most sustainable kind of growth comes from within. For the good of their businesses and people--as well as the larger economy and society--organizations would do well to follow Ed Hess' road to organic growth.

Ed Hess has successfully identified the keys to building and growing a successful business: useable business and growth model, owning the customer, obsession with measurement, engaging loyal people, finding leaders for the company, and attention to execution and technological details. This is a must read for those building entrepreneurial businesses.

Thomas Kinnear, Chair and President of the Venture Michigan Fund and Executive Director of the Zell Lurie Institute, Ross School of Business

A great book! I loved it. It is broken into nine chapters as follows:

1. Why is organic growth important?
2. Discovering the DNA of organic growth.
3. The organic growth winners: Interesting Facts.
4. An elevator-pitch business model.
5. Instill a "small-company soul" into a "big-company body."
6. Measure everything.
7. Build a people pipeline.
8. Leaders: humble, passionate, focused operators.
9. Be an execution and technology champion.

Chapters 4 - 9 are the ingredients to building a company through organic growth. If a biz can be explained in a just a few words while riding up an elevator, then it's leaders/managers can probably focus well on growing the business from within. If a biz is comprised of workers who care about the company instead of just showing up to work and collecting a paycheck, then the business will probably grow from within. The business will probably also have a pipeline of new managers if the employees care about coming to work for reasons other than just collecting a paycheck. These are the types of things discussed in the last six chapters of the book.

Generally speaking, companies either grow through "organic growth" or by "mergers and acquisitions." Many companies grow by using both methods, but the author only discusses the organic growth method in this book. There is talk that growth may take place by playing accounting games and engaging in financial manipulations. However, this really is not a method to create growth. Manipulations are just that - shifts of revenues and expenses from one accounting period to another. If there is gain today via manipulation, then there is going to be a loss next week or next month - guaranteed.

A small company soul is what this book is about. And I really enjoyed reading it. I liked the list of "Growth Questions" at the end of each chapter. They helped pull the chapters together for me. If you are putting together a business plan for a start up company, then I recommend you read this book. You will want to incorporate many of the ideas and concepts discussed here into your business plan and your implementation of your business plan.

I would have liked the book better if the print had not been so large. And since the spine of the book was not all that thick I got the feeling that the book was padded by increasing the font size of the text. The book could have been longer if there had been more examples of real world situations regarding what was being discussed. And I would have liked a chapter comparing organic growth to mergers and acquisitions. To discuss organic growth as the best way to grow a company, and to ignore M&A's as though they were a bad way, just didn't feel right to me. In fact, M&A's are a great way to grow a business. But the book was well-written and informative. 5 stars!

As a collector of, and dealer in Central Asian garments, I have long been fascinated by the printed, cotton linings of these garments. Some of the fabrics are so beautiful, that my customers turn the coats inside out, and wear them in reverse. How delightful to find a book on these fabrics. The book shows many different patterns of fabric, as well as a number of coats, turned inside out, to show the wonderful patchwork patterns. Well done.

while this extravagantly illustrated compilation of Russian printed fabrics from 1900 to 1950 will be invaluable to both artist and collector, it is a visual delight to the general reader as well. The author skilfully weaves the history of the Cental Asian tribal peoples into the tapestry of mass migration and technology which produced stunning roller and block-printed cotton clothing.

This book is stunning in a visual sense. Each print illustrates the creative choices of the Central Asian people and also reflect the influences of the world around them. More than a book reviewing Russian textiles, it records the history of a region of the world that is not commonly explored. So beautifully photographed, one can almost feel the weave of the prints. Cloth is so commonplace we take its history for granted. This book reminds us its importance. Its interesting that a swatch of fabric can weave a story of time and people.

This book is not only visually stunning, it is also a fascinating read. This is the first time that these beautiful and unusual fabrics have been given their due recognition both as designs and as an important part of Russian/Soviet history.

A book that will appeal to history buffs, appreciators of indigenous cultures, and those ready to plunge into viewing page after page of artistically-laid-out photos of visually stunning Central Asian robes and their Russian linings. The opening chapters introduce us to the peoples of Central Asia, the "social life" of cloth, and how the Russian textile industry came to play such an important "undercover" role in the clothing worn by Central Asians.

It is a book that you can leave on your coffee table as a wonderful treat for the eyes, or you can read the text and become that much more knowledgeable about a part of the world which continues to gain in strategic importance day by day.

An extraordinary synthesis, this book makes for a great gift to oneself or others.