Not getting enough sleep? Blame it on your cross-disfunctional team
Psychological strain from co-workers and bosses turn out to be a major reason for people not getting enough sleep.
Commentary, opinions, and kibitzing by editors of Machine Design Magazine on developments in the news that relate to engineers.
Archive for April, 2008
Safety for automation
Rockwell Automation Inc. visited our offices yesterday and talked about how to tie safety in with standard automation systems. A critical point: safety is a main business driver. Why? Because an older safety system might completely shut down a machine during a safety incidence, whereas newer systems don’t shut everything off. A lot of components go into the makeup of an automation system, including sensors, acturators, and power supplies. An efficient way to integrate safety into a system is building a sensor, for example, that works for safety as well as its usual function. The premise: if you have control of all the moving elements, you don’t have to shut down the whole machine.
The best way to ensure safety is to design the automation system with safety in mind, upfront. Start with a risk assessment. The EN1050 standard covers principles of risk assessment asking such questions as, “How frequently is a worker exposed,” and “What is the danger level?” Perform the assessment, then see what equipment is needed to eliminate issues.
Machine builders have more risk than they realize, often resulting in huge losses. Performing risk assessments are a good way to show you have followed good engineering practice.
So, what is it about the new technology that makes it easier to build in saftey? Compare old and new systems:
BEFORE NOW
Electromechanical Microprocessors
Sensor-specific relays PLCs
Monitoring via hard wiring into PLCs Monitoring via network connections
Fixed I/O Remote I/O via safety networking
Can use PLCs with light curtains
Is math taught better with abstractions or examples?
If there are two trains speeding toward each other, what is the acceleration of coins tossed at algebra instructors?
Item: Abstract Math Produces Tangible Learning, Study Finds
A huge Asia Pacific medical show
The China Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) which I just attended in Shenzhen, China over the last few days is Asia Pacific’s largest medical device event. We hear so much about the “global” economy — it has happened big time in Asia and Europe and with a few of the larger American companies such as Phillips and Laserage. Each country is angling to find the next best market and it seems as if everyone is partnering to do this: Pavilions at the show included ones from Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Spain, and Canada, to name a few.
Products and technologies covered a wide range, from imaging, surgical, diagnostics, electronics, as well as CM services, to name a few. Probably the most exciting ones I saw included a device which — because FDA hurdles are so hard to jump — will not be introduced to the U.S. market anytime soon. The eZscan is a non-invasive diabetes sceening device that lets the disease be caught early on. Tradtional methods don’t catch the disease until it has already progressed, and they require a fasting blood sample, ingestion of glucose, and multiple blood samples. The new device, on the other hand, works like this: The subject places his hands and feet on flat nickle electrodes. The eZscan applies low dc voltage to varying combinations of anodes and cathodes and measures the low currents generated by electrochemical local reactions to generate a diabetes risk score. The method is rapid and can be used by healthcare personnel with no need for laboratory analysis. The device was invented by Phillippe Brunswick, CEO of Impeto Medical in Paris, France.
The other particularily interesting technology came from Masimo Corp. in Irvine, Calif. The technology is a simple upgrade to one of the company’s existing devices that transforms an existing monitor to one that performs noninvasive total hemoglobin monitoring. Previous methods were invasive and provided only intermittent measurement.
Update on China travels
The last few days have been a whirlwind attending the China International Medical Equipment Fair and the International Component Manufacturing & Design Show in Shenzhen, China. On a personal note, I had some amusing experiences because there are ways of doing things here I am not used to. For example, you open your hotel room with a typical card key. Right inside the room is a slot with a sign above it that says, “Insert card for room lights.” So I inserted the card briefly, just as you would a room key or an elevator-activator key, then removed the card. The room lights went on for about five minutes and shut off again. I tried this a few times and finally called the front desk. People here in China — especially service staff — work hard to cater to your every whim. So suddenly five employees head to my room to show me what was wrong. It turns out, the card must stay in the slot for the light to work. Duh! It’s actually a great idea, because I know I am guilty of not always turning off hotel room lights when I leave the room. With the Chinese method, the lights go off automatically each time a patron leaves their room.
A better experience yet was getting a traditional Chinese massage. I went with our tour guide and one of the other journalists on our tour. Like most service establishments, the spa had what seemed like hundreds of employees — mostly young Chinese women in short tight suits and high heels. Not wanting to be wimps, we opted for the traditional, rather than the soothing massage. From head to foot, my massause methodically pushed and prodded on all the pain points in my back, neck, thighs, and calves. It is said the pain is good for you — get’s rid off all the noxious toxins that have collected in our bodies over time. I felt like screaming STOP, STOP, but managed to bite my lip hard enough not to screech in agony. Afterwards, I actually felt pretty good, but sore all over.
More later on some amazing innovations I saw at the show. Some are only to be introduced to the Asia market for various reasons I will discuss in future blog items and editorial. My plane from Shanghai has just arrived…..
Palm trees in China?
I flew on Wednesday from Cleveland, to Chicago, to Shanghai, to Shenzhen. I arrived a day later, that night. My first impressions here: things seem huge: cities are huge, buildings are huge, airports are huge. Both cities a quite Westernized in that, for example, you see hugh billboards selling upscale clothes and the models are your typical chiseled chin blond man and pouty lip long-legged female. Very few images of Chinese people. The cities seem clean, at least what I have seen so far. Very modern. Tons of skyscrapers. Lots of new, foreign cars (haven’t seen one SUV) — Toyotas, Volkswagons, Mercedes, and the like. The people are very friendly and helpful except for some of the Chinese businessmen. They remind me of some of the corporate types you encounter when traveling — pushy and arrogant. But everyone else is nice. The young people love the Western look. Many girls have dyed their hair with red, and they have the big shiney purses with tons of jingly things dangling from them, tight jeans, the whold works. Shenzhen feels almost tropical. In fact, it has palm trees!!
I am staying at the Sheraton in Shenzhen. Tomorrow it’s off to the big medical trade show nearby. I got a real kick out of opening the desk drawer in my room. In it was everything you are likely to need: a small stapler, a container of lead replacements for a lead pencil, staples, staple remover, eraser, large clip, and highlighter pen.
More tomorrow…
Want water-efficient energy? Forget biofuels and ethanol
Virginia Tech researchers claim the creation of ethanol and biofuels consume the most water of any source of energy. The most water-efficient energy sources are natural gas and synthetic fuels from coal gasification.
Live from Shenzhen, China
Tomorrow I am headed to Shenzhen, China, which is just north of Hong Kong. Actually, the trip there will last two days, what with the long flight and the time change. I will be attending the China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) and the International Component Manufacturing & Design (ICMD) show to be held from April 18 – 21. Needless to say, I am very excited. I have been wanting to go to China for a long time – it seems so much is going on over there and I would like to be in the midst of it all.
A quick Google search on the city has informed that its economy produces agriculture from lychees, to bananas, to sisal hemp. Animal products include seahorses, oysters, and abalone. Industry includes electric power generation, electronics, food processing, garments, household appliances, metallurgy, plastics, and textiles. Mineral resources include coal, iron, germanium, kaolin clay, peat, pyrite, quartz, and tellurium.
Shenzhen is one of three Special Economic Zones in Guangdong province. According to Wikipedia, “A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic laws that are more liberal than a country’s typical economic laws. The category ‘SEZ’ covers a broad range of more specific zone types, including Free Trade Zones (FTZ), Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Free Zones (FZ), Industrial Estates (IE), Free Ports, Urban Enterprise Zones and others. Usually the goal of an SEZ structure is to increase foreign investment. The SEZ was created to be an experimental ground of capitalism in ’socialism with Chinese characteristics’”.
Once a fishing village, Shenzhen became the first SEZ in China. The SEZ was established in 1979 because of its proximity to Hong Kong, then a prosperous British colony.
More to come…
COFES 2008
Attending the COFES 2008 (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software) conference has been a nice surprise. For one thing, the event is being held at the beautiful Scottsdale Plaza Resort near Phoenix, Arizona. Think bright blue skies, hot sunny days, and unusual fauna such as the bottle brush tree, which has what looks like thousand of red, bristly bottle brushes hanging from its branches.
For another thing, the event is way more intellectually oriented than are most trade shows. That sounds boring, but is in fact, quite inspiring. Here are a few of the things I have seen and heard, in no particular order: Karl Ulrich from the Wharton School of the Univ. of Pennsylvania gave a talk that could have easily been titled: Quantifying innovation. He qualifies extreme innovation as something that makes a lot of $$ and gave the example of the Oral B toothbrush, which has the largest market share in the world of any toothbrush. The company used what is called a “tournament structure” to come up with the best design: designers generated hundreds of ideas; the company made models of the best 50 and tested them with consumers. Out of this came the best five. The company tested these thoroughly in the lab using mirrors to watch participants brush their teeth from every angle. The winner was the now widely known brush with a co-molded handle.
Pixar used the same method to pick a movie to make. The company got 500 one-sentence pitches and out of these picked the best, “A hot-rod racecar gets waylaid in the desert and finds the meaning of friend and family.” This resulted in the movie Cars. He also says tournaments are not always needed. A good example is the problem, “What should a roof beam look like in engineering software?” This problem and others like it only take one or two passes to solve. Ulrich says Six Sigma is the wrong logic for innovation because it aims to produce the same thing the same way every time. Instead, it is better to think of innovation statistically using the tournament framework to:
– Take more draws from a larger distribution
–Shift the mean of the quality of ideas upwards
–Increase the variance in the qualities
–Increase accuracy in evaluating opportunities
In one case, this method produced a money-making idea from an Indian doctor — that of brokering “medical tourism” for semi-elective surgery.
Coming soon: A new RP format that replaces STL
Clinton, Obama don’t want to debate on science
It is interesting to read Dan Greenberg’s comments on Science Debate 2008, proposed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, the Council on Competitiveness, to name just a few of the more noteable backers. Both Clinton and Obama said they couldn’t fit this into their schedules, though they will attend a “compassion forum” where they will discuss “policy and moral values.”
Greenberg sees the Science Debate idea as a thinly veiled appeal for more science funding without a lot of explanation about why taxpayer funds should be diverted to it from other uses. One of this comments: “For added measure, the appeals are braced with alarmist warnings of threats to American leadership in science from China, Russia, Brazil, etc. Yet to be explained is why the U.S. should fear a cancer cure from abroad.”
Here is the link: http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/article/?id=367&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
