| General note |
During most of 20th century, the subject of Economics (or later called engineering economics) was a part of the Department of Humanities, and included mostly macro-economics and general economic laws. The micro-economic illustrations were more to suit the trade and commerce fields, rather than manufacturing fields. So, this author who was handling this subject used to add on his own, short introduction on additional topics like make or buy decisions, EOQ, value analysis, Cost/benefit analysis for machinery replacement etc. which are needed for the engineering managerial decisions, and so would be of more interest to the engineering students. Later, while looking into the syllabi of foreign universities, especially of New York Canton University, Texas A&M, and even a Turkish university, he found they covered the manufacturing field oriented economic analysis illustrations whichhe was actually teaching,more than the macro-economics. This fact, which concurred with his concept, motivated him to retain all the teaching notes, to be able to write a book on Engineering economics suitable for engineers. The result is this book, ‘A Text Book of Engineering Economics - the Principles and Applications’, highlighting the engineering applications of economic theories for use of the decision makers of the manufacturing sector. A feature of this book is that the first chapter gives an introduction to engineering economics and then distinguishes it from economic theory in the later chapters, to make the reader appreciate the former topic as significant to his day to day performance, with the emphasis given to the economy-oriented decisions a manager is confronted with, like the make or buy decision or the economic order quantity. Several university syllabi, both Indian and foreign, from where the topics have been chosen, are appended at the end of the book. Another feature of this book is that all the accountancy and finance management topics included in these syllabi are listed, categorized chapter wise and explained. Since each of them need a separate chapter to explain them fully, this book makes an attempt to give short paragraph explanation for them with examples, so as to make the engineer understand them enough so as to get a general knowledge. In addition to the Bibliography at the end of the book, chapter wise indication of books and other references for further reading is done, to aid the reader. Each chapter ends with criteria questions, to enable the reader assess himself, his understanding of the subject. |
