University of Arkansas Faculty Co-Author Engineering Textbook

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Kim LaScola Needy and John A. White

Kim LaScola Needy, head of the department of industrial engineering, and John A. White, chancellor emeritus and Distinguished Professor of industrial engineering, have co-authored a text entitled Fundamentals of Engineering Economic Analysis, First Edition. Other co-authors are Kenneth E. Case of Oklahoma State University, Kellie Grasman of Missouri University of Science and Technology, and David B. Pratt of Oklahoma State University.

Fundamentals of Engineering Economic Analysis, published by John Wiley & Sons, is designed for use in courses teaching engineering economic analysis. Engineering economic analysis is often a required course in undergraduate engineering programs. It teaches students to consider and compare the economic viability of engineering decisions. The typical course covers many topics, including the methods of selection and replacement of equipment; calculating the break-even points of operation; desirability of new processes or projects where the asset's life, rate of return on investment, first, fixed, differential, marginal and sunk costs are considered; and the impact of asset depreciation and taxes.  Engineering economic analysis is a topic on the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, a part of the Professional Engineering registration process.

This book features learning objectives, key terms, real-world vignettes with discussion questions, enhanced summary sections, and over 800 end-of-chapter problems.  The online companion tool, WileyPLUS, provides video lessons, video solutions, algorithmic problems and tutorials.  Needy explained that the authors included actual engineering economics problems from large corporations such as Walmart, J. B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., ConocoPhillips and Intel in order to prepare students for the types of issues they are likely to face in their future engineering careers.

The new textbook is based on Principles of Engineering Economic Analysis by White,  Case and Pratt. This text, first published in 1978, is considered a classic in the discipline and is in its sixth edition. Fundamentals of Engineering Economic Analysis is a streamlined presentation of the material in Principles, designed to be covered in a one-semester course. 

"Fundamentals of Engineering Economic Analysis, as the title suggests, targets individuals who have not been exposed to economic analysis," explained White. "It lays the groundwork for a broad cross section of engineering students. Principles of Engineering Economic Analysis contains material for a person who wishes to learn both the fundamentals and more advanced aspects of the subject. Given today's price of textbooks, we felt it was important to present in Fundamentals of Engineering Economic Analysis material for a single, introductory course, not multiple courses."