Production Economics ― Evaluating Costs of Operations in Manufacturing and Service Industries

This book will serve a unique purpose within the world of production engineering. It will cover the economics of modern manufacturing and focus on examining the techniques and methods from a cost perspective. Additionally, it will deal with the computation of direct and indirect cost for manufacturing operations, including a variety of overhead operations in such an environment. Costing of manufacturing methods such as casting, forging, turning, milling, and welding is addressed along with inventory analysis and MRP costing. Related topics such as equipment replacement, comparison of alternatives, depreciation, buy versus make decisions, interest factors and equivalence are covered as well.

Dr. Anoop Desai is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Southern University. He received his PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2006. His areas of research interest include Product Development, Design for Manufacturing, Six Sigma and Quality control and Engineering Economic analysis.

Dr. Desai is the author of "Product Development: A Structured Approach to Consumer Product Design, Development and Manufacture", "Fundamentals of Work measurement: What Every Engineer Should Know" and "Global Sustainability and Innovation (Edited)."

Dr. Desai is also the author of twenty-five journal papers mainly focusing on the area of Design for X, environment conscious design and manufacturing and the economics of production processes. He is one of Elsevier Science's most cited authors.

Aashi Mital holds a Master of the Arts in American History and minor in Classical Archaeology through the University of Cincinnati. She is the CEO and founder of Pivotal Solutions Consulting. Her innovative methodologies involving resource utilization, strategic initiatives and impact growth have caused several businesses to reinvent their approaches in today’s multi-disciplinary environment. Being amongst the most sought out consultants in the region, she is known for her ability to generate and execute strategies to improve operations and processes, critical thinking, problem solving and a deeper understanding of multifaceted problems.

She has a strong background in resource management, community development and marketing. All of which have contributed to publications covering a sundry of interdisciplinary topics, such as geopolitical patterns and historical forecasting, business and engineering economics, human productivity and sustainability.

Some of her latest works include Product Development: A Structured Approach to Consumer Product Development, Design and Manufacture, as well as chapters "Changes in US Manufacturing Worker Productivity with Working Hours" and "A comparison of US Manufacturing Workers’ Productivity with Similar Workers in Selected Developed and Fast Developing Economies" found within Human Work Productivity: A Global Perspective. She has also worked with various publications, such as International Journal of Industrial Engineering: Theory, Applications and Practice (IJIETAP), the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and Archaeological Magazine.

Ms. Mital is a recipient of the Craig Waff Researcher’s Award, CPA Innovative STEM Educator’s Award and MHS Preservation Award.