(with thanks to Bruce Mayer, PE) Engineering 1 Chp.8 Computer Tools Tom Rebold (with thanks to Bruce Mayer, PE)

OVERVIEW Internet Searching Word Processing -- Tables Spreadsheets PowerPoint

Engineering Info Searches – These ARE the Good Old Days Consider Two Typical Engineering Research Projects Your are Designing a Product, and You need a very specialized Component You are vaguely Aware of this Part, But do Not know ANYTHING in detail Your Company is Considering The Development of a New Product Your Job is search to The TECHNICAL & TRADE Literature to Assess the Risks

Case-1 → Supplier Search Remember, You Only Vaguely Know that This Product Exists You Don’t Know Exactly What It’s Called Terms of the Trade? Any Companies that Make It What it Costs What are The Performance Metrics (specs) What is the Lead Time

Case-1 Supplier-Search cont. First go To an Industrial “Yellow Pages” The Classic Book was the Thomas Register 20-30, 3” Volumes For Which Your company Paid about $1000 This was an invaluable Tool in the Paper Age After Looking in the Industrial Ph Book, Then Call all the Suppliers Ask Them to Send Hardcopy Catalogs Then Wait…and Wait

Case-1 Supplier Search cont. After Getting Catalogs and Comparing Performance Specifications Select 3-4 Candidate Suppliers If This is a Significant Purchase, Then Write a Request For Quotation (RFQ) Mail The RFQ to the Prospective Suppliers WAIT for the Formal Quotation To Arrive by Mail From All Suppliers Finally, Select A Supplier

Case-1 Summary To Purchase a Component Consult an Expensive Hardcopy Industrial Phone Directory Call Sales Engineers Wait for Catalogs Read Catalogs, Write & Mail RFQ Wait for Formal Price & Delivery Quotation Review Quotes Select Supplier

Case-1 Today You do NOT need to Leave your Desk Fire Up an Internet SEARCH Engine My Experience Suggests that GOOGLE is the best

Class Exercise – Search Engines Which Search Engines Have you Used ? Which One to Do Like the Best?

Case-1 → Other Search Engines Yahoo! Search AltaVista Ask Jeeves AOL Search MSN Search Lycos InfoSpace Overture Excite HotBot Dogpile MetaCrawler WebCrawler AllTheWeb Teoma WiseNut Vivísimo Many Others

Case-1 Cont. Use the Search Engine to Find Potential Supplier Websites Once a Candidate Supplier is Identified, then Go Deeper into The Website Examine Product Literature DownLoad Catalogs for Off-Line Reading Use the Company Credit Card, or Purchase Order to Place Order OnLine Receive Part the NEXT Day if Stocked

Supplier Search Example ThermoElectric Cooler A Solid-State (NO Moving Parts) Refrigerator/HeatPump that can fit in the Palm of Your Hand Useful for Spot Cooling of Electronic Parts Use GOOGLE to Search “Thermoelectric Cooler”

Looks Like a Good Technical Article

Similarly for Literature Searches Pre-Internet SCRAMBLE to Just Learn the Sources LEG WORK to Visit The Library TEDIUM to Find Relevant Articles Construction of Important Article Lists from the Ref. Listing in the Papers you Did Find Copy the Articles at the local Library Contract for Copies at Remote libraries WAIT

Literature Searches Today Use A General Search Engine to Find Articles in the Trade Literature General Interest Sites Visit Potential Competitor's Websites Searching The Heavy-Duty Technical Literature Really Need Access to a Web-Based Tech Literature Search Tool The Most Widely Known is the DIALOG DataBase

Tech Literature Searching Many Sources of Tech Lit Searches Technical Literature Publishers IEEE APS Elsevier “Knowledge” Services; e.g., TelTech Provide Tech & Business Lit Search Access Networks of Expert Consultants (searchable) Industrial “Intelligence” Robots