Industrial Engineering and Management: Current Issues and Trends Ⅱ

Dear Colleagues,

Society faces a complex set of challenges and problems whose resolution may be short-, medium-, or even long-term, depending on their degree of complexity and urgency. These challenges clearly involve the need for sustainable development and a circular economy. In addition, developed countries have an obligation to adopt a philosophy of inclusive development, allowing all countries to have access to essential goods in a more responsible way than ever. Thus, even if it is a bit redundant to do so, we would call this inclusive sustainable development, as it is a form of development that meets everyone’s needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This indeed is the great societal challenge of the coming years and even decades, which has already been delayed by many decades: how to respond effectively in an inclusive way to today’s environmental, economic, and social challenges.

Organizations, and particularly enterprises, are the driving force behind societal development, through economic development and environmental care. In this way, enterprises have become increasingly large and complex. Even in management theory, approaches have changed from classical theories, after the industrial revolution, to the neo-classical theories of today, in which rigid solutions have been dropped and plans, what we would call “conditioned freedom”, have been adopted to face mass customization needs, which are very far away from the mass production paradigm. To achieve this, more than ever, new solutions must be created. Consequently, new tools and methods are required to embrace mass customization in a sustainable way.

In this context, the central role of industrial engineering and management (IEM) has arisen, with a holistic, systems-thinking, and ethics-based view of processes and complex systems. The IEM is not only a combination of engineering and management, but a “new” integrated applied science along the entire value chain and product and service lifecycle. It is characterized by its multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach, crossing the exact sciences, engineering sciences, information systems, and social sciences, among others. Moreover, it is particularly devoted to the analysis, design, performance improvement, and control of integrated systems of people, materials, equipment, and energy, among others. Its application fields are the whole value chain and lifecycle of products/services, from their development to their end-of-life stages.

This Special Issue, focused on applied research in industrial engineering, aims to contribute to the achievement of enterprises’ challenges. Researchers are encouraged to submit manuscripts in a broad multidisciplinary topic of IEM (e.g., operations management, supply chain management, energy management, quality, operations research, modeling and simulation, information systems, lean and agile production, industry 4.0, and decision support methods, among others) pertinent to the continuous improvement of industrial and service systems.

Prof. Dr. João Carlos de Oliveira Matias
Dr. Carina Pimentel
Dr. Anabela Carvalho Alves
Guest Editors

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