The 18th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) 2011 continues a long tradition of scientific meetings focusing on the exchange of industrial and academic knowledge and experiences in life cycle assessment, product development, sustainable manufacturing and end-of-life-management. The theme “Glocalized Solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing” addresses the need for engineers to develop solutions which have the potential to address global challenges by providing products, services and processes taking into account local capabilities and constraints to achieve an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable society in a global perspective. Glocalized Solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing do not only involve products or services that are changed for a local market by simple substitution or the omitting of functions. Products and services need to be addressed that ensure a high standard of living everywhere. Resources required for manufacturing and use of such products are limited and not evenly distributed in the world. Locally available resources, local capabilities as well as local constraints have to be drivers for product- and process innovations with respect to the entire life cycle. The 18th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) 2011 serves as a platform for the discussion of the resulting challenges and the collaborative development of new scientific ideas.

The 18th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) 2011 continues a long tradition of scientific meetings focusing on the exchange of industrial and academic knowledge and experiences in life cycle assessment, product development, sustainable manufacturing and end-of-life-management. The theme “Glocalized Solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing” addresses the need for engineers to develop solutions which have the potential to address global challenges by providing products, services and processes taking into account local capabilities and constraints to achieve an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable society in a global perspective. Glocalized Solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing do not only involve products or services that are changed for a local market by simple substitution or the omitting of functions. Products and services need to be addressed that ensure a high standard of living everywhere. Resources required for manufacturing and use of such products are limited and not evenly distributed in the world. Locally available resources, local capabilities as well as local constraints have to be drivers for product- and process innovations with respect to the entire life cycle. The 18th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) 2011 serves as a platform for the discussion of the resulting challenges and the collaborative development of new scientific ideas.

This edited volume presents the research results of the Collaborative Research Center 1026 “Sustainable manufacturing - shaping global value creation”. The book aims at providing a reference guide of sustainable manufacturing for researchers, describing methodologies for development of sustainable manufacturing solutions. The volume is structured in four chapters covering the following topics: sustainable manufacturing technology, sustainable product development, sustainable value creation networks and systematic change towards sustainable manufacturing. The target audience comprises both researchers and practitioners in the field of sustainable manufacturing, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

As companies and organizations continue to grow economically, it has become pertinent to also implement business and management practices that help relieve environmental and social stressors created by manufacturing processes. Strategic Management of Sustainable Manufacturing Operations features an inclusive overview of various management practices that contribute to the sustainability efforts of an organization. Highlighting successful techniques being implemented and utilized by different companies, this publication is an essential reference source for researchers, academics, consultants, policy makers, and practitioners interested in sustainable performance measurement, supply chain design, and operations management.

This book provides details on the innovations made to achieve sustainability in manufacturing. It highlights the trends of current progress in research and development being done to achieve overall sustainability in manufacturing technology. Green-EDM, Hybrid machining, MQL assisted machining, sustainable casting, welding, finishing and casting, energy- and resource-efficient manufacturing are some of the important topics discussed in this book.

This monograph provides a methodological approach for establishing demand-oriented levels of energy transparency of factories. The author presents a systematic indication of energy drivers and cost factors, taking into account the interdependencies between facility and production domains. Particular attention is given to energy flow metering and monitoring. Readers will also be provided with an in-depth description of a planning tool which allows for systematically deriving suitable metering points in complex factory environments. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field of factory planning, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

The 19th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering continues a strong tradition of scientific meetings in the areas of sustainability and engineering within the community of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP). The focus of the conference is to review and discuss the current developments, technology improvements, and future research directions that will allow engineers to help create green businesses and industries that are both socially responsible and economically successful. The symposium covers a variety of relevant topics within life cycle engineering including Businesses and Organizations, Case Studies, End of Life Management, Life Cycle Design, Machine Tool Technologies for Sustainability, Manufacturing Processes, Manufacturing Systems, Methods and Tools for Sustainability, Social Sustainability, and Supply Chain Management.

The changing manufacturing environment requires more responsive and adaptable manufacturing systems. The theme of the 4th International Conference on Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual production (CARV2011) is “Enabling Manufacturing Competitiveness and Economic Sustainability”. Leading edge research and best implementation practices and experiences, which address these important issues and challenges, are presented. The proceedings include advances in manufacturing systems design, planning, evaluation, control and evolving paradigms such as mass customization, personalization, changeability, re-configurability and flexibility. New and important concepts such as the dynamic product families and platforms, co-evolution of products and systems, and methods for enhancing manufacturing systems’ economic sustainability and prolonging their life to produce more than one product generation are treated. Enablers of change in manufacturing systems, production volume and capability scalability and managing the volatility of markets, competition among global enterprises and the increasing complexity of products, manufacturing systems and management strategies are discussed. Industry challenges and future directions for research and development needed to help both practitioners and academicians are presented.

The three volumes IFIP AICT 438, 439, and 440 constitute the refereed proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2014, held in Ajaccio, France, in September 2014. The 233 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 271 submissions. They are organized in 6 parts: knowledge discovery and sharing; knowledge-based planning and scheduling; knowledge-based sustainability; knowledge-based services; knowledge-based performance improvement, and case studies.