Controls Books

I occasionally teach a course in PLCs to student electricians. This book provides a number of handy and simplified lab exercises that are a great way to introduce these students to the world of PLCs without being too complicated for them.

A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is basically a PC that has been specially adapted for use in industrial control circuits. That's basically, and basically means that a lot of the same electronic circuitry is used in both systems. Having said that, the PLC has a lot of differences in the way they are built, PLC's have to operate in filthy, hot, electrically noisy environments that would kill PC's.

More important, the engineers that program PLC's are taught to use different programming methods, different kinds of flow charts, different kinds of terminology than conventional computer programmers.

This book starts out by showing the ladder type logic diagrams used by PLC people. It then leads to a series of 'process control' applications that utilize concepts already familiar to the student, i.e. a logic chart to decide whether or not to date someone. Other tasks, a burglar alarm and a traffic light are less interesting, but closer to the actual applications the student will find in real life.

Don't be scared by the rather daunting title, this book reads beautifully and gives even the casual reader a vivid and lasting sense of what it's like on the front line between Israel & Lebanon. While I am sure that this book is bound to become an important academic work, it's also incredibly engaging and accessible and deserves to be read by a wider audience. Waldman is off to a brilliant start for such a young writer / scholar.

Before reading this book I knew just a bit about the Israeli-Arab conflict. This amazing study examines a little-known but fascinating (and important) aspect of Israel's experience in Lebanon. This study is all the more important because of the current situation between Israel and the Palestinians; Mr Waldman offers a close look at a model that was tried in Lebanon and may offer some hope for progress with the Palestinians. Mr Waldman, who writes from personal experience, writes lucidly and in language that makes it easy for even someone with just a rudimentary background to grasp the nuances of the arrangements in Lebanon and the possible implications for the future.Highly Recommended!

I had been looking for an introductory textbook that motivates the study of controls before presenting the analysis and design techniques, and presents a range of topics besides classical continuous-time, frequency domain control. This book is it! It has material on digital, multivariable, and nonlinear control, which can be used beyond the first controls course - a consideration given the price of textbooks. The didactic discussions of concepts complement the explanation of techniques. The math is kept simple and introduced as needed.

From basics (Laplace) to advanced control theroy (Kalman), this book hit it all. The math is even easy to follow. This book will serve you well as either a stand along self teaching guide, or as a supplemental reference to a formal control systems course.

The book is clearly written. The developmental approach and lucid style of the text reinforces the readers confidence and understanding at every stage. The text is a motivator for acquiring and applying the tools of controls engineering.

This is the best controls book for engineers who are first learning controls. The author has a great step-by-step approach that really simplifies controls for the average student and makes a very complicated subject much easier to learn. The pictures are great too! Especially Figure 1.2!

"Automating with S7...STL/SCL" is a reference book for any EXPERT programmer using Siemens S7 PLCs. Hans Berger, the author, is the "father" of S7 PLC family (in a technical way). If you want to reach the EXPERT level, YOU MUST HAVE THIS BOOK!!! On the other side, if you know you will stay to ladder logic level at least 95% of the time (or, you "know and use / program" ten types of PLCs, ten types of drives, etc) then, YOU DON'T NEED THIS BOOK!

A must for the person using Siemens PLC's. This is the book for the beginner or for the experienced Siemens S7 Programmer. Book cover the things you need to know or reference when programming.

This book explains the basics of the networks and protocols used in industrial automation. It goes into detail about specific protocols, explaining their intended purpose, how they evolved, and what they're used for today. It explains the models that separate fieldbuses from control networks and where the lines blur. There is good discussion of field control vs distributed control. It explains how redundancy and failsafes come into play with each type of network.

I approached this book as an engineer who designs industrial products without any training in the purposes behind the various industrial communication systems. Users of industrial products often understand the relationships between the various standards intuitively but cannot explain it well to a product engineer with little manufacturing experience. This book clears it all up in under 150 pages of easy-to-follow text and diagrams.

Anyone who wants to take a couple hours to learn what's behind the apparent hodgepodge of communication standards used in industrial automation should read this book.

Dick Caro has a wealth of knowledge about automation networking--and it shows throughout this book. From his rendering of the history of industrial networks and fieldbuses to the technical review of the leading contenders, the book is a veritable encyclopedia on the subject. It has a permanent place on my reference shelf.
Gary Mintchell
Editor, Automation World

"We feature Automation Pays! in our point-of-sale training video. An excellent resource."; Larry Jackson, Business Technology Association.

This is the foreword to Automation Pays! by Corley Phillips President, Telephone Response Technologies, Roseville, CA: Computers are becoming an integral part of our everyday lives. This is especially true in businesses, where computers have gone from being a luxury to a necessity. Companies, such as Wal-Mart, have shown retailers how sophisticated inventory management through automation can give a company the competitive edge it needs to become a leader. It was this distinct advantage of automation that led my company to choose its mission statement: "Helping Growing Businesses Operate More Effectively."; Automated businesses truly are more effective. Those who do not automate find themselves at a particular competitive disadvantage. Their automated competitors always seem to have the popular items in stock, while those with manual systems have "dust collectors" soaking up carrying costs and profits. Competitors conduct rifle-shot marketing campaigns based upon current customer data, while those without customer information are still scattering their marketing dollars in shotgun fashion. Their competitors respond instantly to new trends based on up-to-date information, while the ones with manual systems find themselves guessing - often wrong. So, where do you turn for information on automation? In an industry as young as the PC software industry, it's unusual to find a guy like Chuck Atkinson who can provide a decade and a half of automation experience. His deep-seated conviction that automation is not only a necessity but a very profitable investment comes from years of experience in developing products for retailers and seeing the resulting benefits. This book will clearly demonstrate the advantages of automation in very practical terms.

"Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America," by Ted Galen Carpenter is arguably the best book ever written on the American war on drugs in Latin America. This book is engaging and enlightening. Moreover, it is one of the most thoughtful and perceptive analyses we've ever had on Washington's campaign against drug production in Latin America.

This book is truly special. The "Introduction" exposes thirty years of American failure. From there the author explains policy from Presidents' Nixon, to Reagan, to Bush and to Clinton. He then goes on to focus on the dangerous implications of Plan Colombia and of many other flawed strategies that create an "ugly American" image. Finally, the author's narrative arrives at Mexico and the potential for disaster.

In conclusion, author Ted Galen Carpenter bravely outlines a blueprint for peace and for ending the war on drugs. This man has unique vision and this is a very worthy book. Hats off to a tier-one scholar! Highly recommended.

Bert Ruiz

"Ted Galen Carpenter's new book is an indispensable, up-to-date examination of `Washington's futile war on drugs in Latin America,' as its subtitle states the topic. The author, a vice president at the Cato Institute, surveys the history of this policy, dissects the `ugly American' tactics used to carry it out, and concludes with `a blueprint for peace.'

"The title Bad Neighbor Policy cuts to the quick by twisting Roosevelt's `Good Neighbor' phrase of the 1930s to fit the current reality of destructive buck passing that characterizes the U.S. drug war in Latin America today. Most Americans, including drug policy analysts, seldom take this international aspect seriously. Although U.S. policymakers since the Cold War have trumpeted U.S. support for legal, democratic, and market reforms in the region, the `prohibitionist [drug] strategy works at cross purposes to all of these objectives' (p. 167). Indeed as Venezuelan American journalist Carlos Ball remarks, `The war on drugs has done more harm to democratic institutions in Latin America than all the communist guerrillas of the last four decades of the twentieth century combined' (personal correspondence, Ball to William Ratliff, June 24, 2003)....

"Public and government `hysteria' in America reached `record levels' in 1986 after the death of basketball star Len Bias from an overdose of cocaine. This hysteria provoked passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act and the declaration that drug trafficking is a national-security issue that requires significant involvement by U.S. military and intelligence forces. The invasion of Panama to seize Manuel Noriega in 1989 was the most overt U.S. military intervention to date....

"The core of recent drug policy is the Plan Colombia, originally an integrated $7.5 billion project that was born dead during Clinton's last years. Little beyond the antidrug military component (about a quarter of the total) was delivered (by the United States), while the economic and other development aid depended in large part on nonexistent Colombian and seldom forthcoming European funds. Neighboring countries have become unwilling hosts to drug producers and traffickers driven out of southern Colombia by expanded eradication campaigns -- the inevitable `push-down, pop-up' phenomenon.... Arrogant policies -- such as the potential annual `decertification' of Latin American governments that are determined not to have `cooperated' enough with the United States -- have weakened fledgling institutions, angered the public (who think the United States should be decertified), and driven peasants into the arms of narcoguerrillas. `The bottom line,' Carpenter notes, `is that, no matter what the specific configuration of tactics, the supply-side campaign against illicit drugs is doomed to fail. As long as there is a substantial global demand for those drugs, the supply will continue to flow' (p. 121). In the end, as The Economist has stated, `by any reasonable measure, America's "war on drugs" is a disaster' (May 3, 2001, qtd. from the on-line edition).

"In his final chapter, Carpenter concludes that the only way out is drug legalization -- that is, `treating currently illicit drugs as alcohol and tobacco are now treated' (p. 232). The book's strength, however, is its detailed dissection of U.S. drug policies in Latin America, not its summary statements (however much we may agree with them) on other matters that must be examined in detail when changing a complex, fundamentally flawed, decades-old policy with vast international repercussions. The monster the U.S. government has nurtured in Latin America and beyond is now on its own seeking whom it may devour....

" ...Rather than dodging this dilemma, we need to highlight it, pointing constantly to the baleful international consequences of the prohibitionist drug strategy and to the extremely difficult options it throws in the laps of American policymakers, who of course made the bad policies in the first place and are in a position to change them. Most Americans are moralistic about foreign policy, so one important tack would be to emphasize the moral abomination of this policy, abroad as well as at home.

"Some other recent studies touching on Latin America offer valuable supporting or contrasting perspectives. Ivelaw Griffith's edited volume The Political Economy of Drugs in the Caribbean (New York: St. Martin's, 2000) and Robert MacDoun's and Peter Reuter's coedited book Cross-National Drug Policy (London: Sage, 2002) touch on many of the broad issues. The latter includes a thoughtful essay by Francisco Thoumi. Robin Kirk's More Terrible Than Death (New York: Public Affairs, 2003) relates many examples of the horrors in Colombia and places great responsibility on the United States, but for the most part it targets users, not government policy. Russell Crandall's Driven by Drugs (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2002) provides considerable detail on how drugs drive U.S. policy toward Colombia. My essay co-authored with Edgardo Buscaglia, War and Lack of Governance in Colombia: Narcos, Guerrillas, and U.S. Policy (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 2001), focuses on domestic as well as international factors affecting drugs and chaos in Colombia. Articles by Pamela Falk and Kenneth Sharpe in Stephen Thompson's edited volume The War on Drugs: Opposing Viewpoints (San Diego: Greenhaven, 1998) are useful, but their brevity illustrates how even books that bring together drug war specialists seldom look seriously at the problem's international aspects. Finally, a different twist in several ways is Walton Cook's Buzzword (Boalsburg, Pa.: Public Policy, 2001), a novel that discusses the possible control of narcotics-producing plants by the use of natural or enhanced organisms."

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Excerpted from a review by William Ratliff in "The Independent Review," Winter 2004.

This book is built around the proposition that we can all be more effective by making our efforts build on one another's rather than working at cross purposes. Most would agree with that point. You cannot build a bridge if another part of your group is demolishing what you have done.

The culprit when this kind of conflict occurs turns out to be a misunderstanding of what the common purpose is. So think of this book has a paean to, guide and workbook for overcoming the communications stall about your what your organization's purpose is.

Properly done, that purpose creates economic value. In a for-profit company, this means having cash earnings in excess of input costs and the opportunity costs of capital. For an individual, you can apply the same concept. In a non-profit organization, you can define economic value as creating benefits for those you serve in excess of their costs and the opportunity costs of the efforts involved.

Professor Thakor makes an intersting argument about why one should overcome this stall. He feels that this is the path to greater self-fulfillment. "Creating value is how we achieve self-fulfillment and realize our unique potential." He also argues that there are career advantages. Those who "get ahead fastest . . . with the [most] energy and enthusiasm, and are the happiest" are those who are highly successful in value creation. I didn't quite follow the argument on this point (which is not spelled out very much, except for stating the conclusions), but would have enjoyed learning more about his research in this area. Why is this so? Perhaps it is related to the joys of learning, creativity, accomplishment, and recognition.

To establish greater value creation, he starts with the reader. He poses questions for you to answer, whether you are the CEO or a file room clerk.

1. "What does value mean to your organization?

2. "What does value mean to you?"

3. "What are all the activities your organization is involved in that create value?"

4. "What activities are you engaged in that create value?"

5. "What is your organization's strategy?"

6. "What is your personal strategy in the organization?"

7. "How do you and your organization measure success?"

8. "How do you personally set your own expectations?"

9. "How fast are you at creating value?"

10. "What can you do to improve speed without compromising quality?"

The author identifies four major hurdles that must be overcome to improve economic value: a fuzzy sense of value and what creates it (thinking about market share while profits are killed); self-focused behavior that harms the organization (spending budgets to protect them for the next year); negative internal competition (sales contests that expand volume unprofitably); and functional operation focuses (trying to get costs down in ways that hurt customers).

To overcome these tendencies, Professor Thakor proposes getting the right balance of creativity, collaboration, control and competitive focus in each individual and function. He calls this the Wholonics Model, and provides a map as a way to illustrate the differences between where things are now and where they should be.

For example, procurement, manufacturing and finance focus too much on control and not enough on creativity. Sales, marketing, new product development, and distribution are too much on creativity and not enough on collaboration and control. Human resources needs to facilitate growth and reduce bureaucracy. Each function is treated separately in part of a chapter. This material lends a great deal of perspective to the arguments.

To round out the theme of self-fulfillment, the afterword encourages you to check daily for whether you are having fun, whether your value-creating efforts are being perceived and recognized in the company, and whether you are creating value faster than others in your company. This provides you with a personal scorecard for how you are doing, which can provide meaning to your work even if the organization isn't where it needs to be yet.

This book is quite complementary to The Balanced Scorecard and The Strategy-Focused Organization. While I prefer these two books for an overall look at how to create a stall-busting approach to improving organizational performance, I thought that Becoming a Better Value Creator did a better job of developing the issues from the perspective of the individual. Obviously, a book that combined both perspectives would be even better.

My suggestion is that you read these books in this order: The Balanced Scorecard first, The Strategy-Focused Organization second, and Becoming a Better Value Creator third. You should be better able to integrate the perspectives in these books after reading them in that order. To complete the individual perspective, I also suggest How to Be a Star at Work as the fourth book you read. If you are the CEO or other senior executive, you can skip that last book.

After you have finished with your reading and application of these many valuable ideas, I suggest that you consider how these points apply to your own family. What are all of your trying to accomplish together? How can you be more effective in achieving the results of that mutual support? What needs to be done that is not being done now? Who needs to do what? These perspectives would be good ones to add to a fine book like Relationship Rescue.

Have fun at and with your work!

This volume is one in the University of Michigan Business School Management Series. According to Thakor, sustained value creation depends on a mastery of five "secrets" of great value creators:

1. A clear definition of what value creation means to your organization and to you

2. A clear understanding of the multiple value creation perspectives and activities that exist at the individual and organizational levels

3. A clear understanding of the organization's strategy as well as a clearly defined personal strategy for success

4. A personal measure of success that exceeds organizational expectations

5. A mastery of speed without sacrificing quality

Thakor correctly stresses the importance of understanding what "value" means, both to you and to your organization. (Is your definition of "value" in proper alignment with your organization's definition of it?) Also, he stresses the importance of continually refining your personal strategy as well as continually improving your motivation to derive internal satisfaction from your efforts. Also, he offers a caution and then a recommendation: "No matter how well you are creating value, there is always somebody out there doing something better than you are. Find out what that something is. Learn that what makes these people better at it [hence more valuable] than you. Discover their `rules' and adapt them to your setting to improve your effectiveness."

Most organizations claim that their most valuable assets "walk out the door at the end of each day." Of course, the reference is to people -- human capital. Perhaps no employee is indispensable but some employees are most valuable than others. However harsh it may seem, employees who create no value have no value. Read Thakor's book. It can help you to create greater value for your organization and thereby increase and enhance your own value to that organization...while perhaps, in process, increasing and enhancing your appeal to other organizations. Think about it....

I am only the purchaser of the book. I will not use it.

A must read for educators of emergent readers. Marie makes it clear how young readers learn and how they need to be guided through the process. She does not promote any specific program but outlines the components of a balanced approach to teaching reading. Thank you Marie!