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                       2nd CALL FOR PAPERS

                        Special Issue of
            IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
            on Mass Customization Manufacturing Systems


          edited by Thorsten Blecker and Gerhard Friedrich


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Deadline for submission: October 31, 2004

Call for Papers: http://www.manufacturing.de/calls/ieee-tem.htm

IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management editorial policy:
http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~ieeetem/guidelines.html

Submission website: http://tem-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com/

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Customization is fundamentally not a new feature in industrial markets.
However, mass customization, as an emerging business strategy, aims at
associating both the advantages resulting from the satisfaction of
individual customers' needs and the benefits of mass production
efficiency. Mass customization has been made possible owing to the
advancements achieved in the fields of manufacturing systems and
modular product architectures. The main challenge that mass
customization has to face, concerns the design of manufacturing systems
that are capable of producing customized goods for high volume markets
with respect to cost efficiencies, as well as quality and time
considerations.

Mass customization induces a considerable proliferation of product variety.
Moreover, customers are more demanding and their requirements regarding
tailor-made solutions are changing rapidly. This significantly influences
manufacturing and involves high operations' complexity. Thus, the
development of a mass customization manufacturing system is much more
challenging than a mere optimization of an existing manufacturing system.
It is not satisfactory to simply adjust a mass production manufacturing
system to lower volume and higher variety. Instead, major changes are
necessary, eventually leading to a radical reconfiguration and redesign
process within manufacturing. Furthermore, a main concern has to be
assigned in order to learn of how to optimally plan and control the
production processes in a variant-rich environment. In addition, product
life cycles are becoming increasingly shorter. That is why the
reconfigurability of a manufacturing system that means stepwise
expandability and the possibility to adapt to different product variants,
as well as dynamic plant layouts gains more in importance. However, the
performance of manufacturing systems for mass customization depends not
only on the configuration of the manufacturing system itself, but also
on manufacturing related tasks, such as product family design,
supply chain management, information system integration, etc. These have
to be also addressed in order to fulfill all of the requirements of
efficient and effective mass customization manufacturing systems.

A number of failed projects of providing customized products have
initiated a discussion about the practicability and suitability of
existing approaches and theories dealing with mass customization
manufacturing systems. This special issue of IEEE-TEM is intended
to discuss the state of the art, as well as actual research results
in mass customization manufacturing systems. Practitioners and
academic researchers are invited to submit papers presenting their
findings and results. Furthermore, due to the complex and interdisciplinary
disposition of the topics, we expect contributions from management,
economics, industrial engineering and information technology.

Topics of interests include, but are not limited to:

.       Mass Customization Product Design and Configuration
.       Product Family Management
.       Optimization and Management of Modular Product Architectures
.       Flexible Manufacturing Systems
.       Plant Layout and Factory Planning
.       Process Planning and Scheduling
.       Manufacturing Systems Engineering for Variant Rich Processes
.       Mass Customization and Supply Chain Management
.       Definition of the Degree of Coupling/Decoupling
.       Technology Strategies and Management for Mass Customization
      Manufacturing Systems
.       Custom Order Control in Mass Customization Manufacturing Systems
.       Information System Infrastructure and Integration
.       Multi Agent Systems for Variety Formation and Production Planning
      and Control
.       Adaptive Manufacturing Control in Mass Customization
.       Self-organized Order Management and Production
.       Complexity of Mass Customizing Systems
.       Key Performance Indicators for Variety Management
.       Impacts on Intrafirm and Interfirm processes

Papers submitted to this special issue will be reviewed in accordance with
the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management editorial policy
(http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~ieeetem/guidelines.html).
Papers must be submitted via the IEEE electronic submission website
(http://tem-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com/).
Authors should indicate in the cover letter that the paper is being
submitted to the special issue on Mass Customization Manufacturing Systems.
Abstracts to ensure appropriateness to the special issue may be submitted
in advance of the deadline by email.



Dr. Thorsten Blecker
University of Klagenfurt
College of Business Administration
Department of Production/Operations Management,
Business Logistics and Environmental Management
Universitaetsstr. 65 - 67
A-9020 Klagenfurt, Austria


Dr. Gerhard Friedrich
University of Klagenfurt
College of Informatics
Department for Computer Science and Manufacturing
Universitaetsstr. 65 - 67
A-9020 Klagenfurt, Austria