Manufacturing and process industry has become a demanding sector due to continuously evolving technology and business strategies. The new emerging markets have brought new challenges to the more classical manufacturing approaches. The so called flexible and agile manufacturing is a key aspect on answering to these challenging events. Nevertheless the implementation of new manufacturing systems must consider the reduction of production cost without compromising the quality or inducing social and economical problems.
The new manufacturing systems must rely on effective use of Information Technology (IT) to promote a wider understanding of which are the potential problems and how they may be handled. The definition of new methods to implement and manage manufacturing is thought of has one of most important research areas for industrial processes. These new methods, inevitably involving IT, are based on the use of: distributed intelligence, acquisition, management and provision of knowledge and efficient support to decision.
This special session aims at bringing together experts in the areas of manufacturing systems and Information Technology to promote the discussion on the latest tendencies and define future trends in IT in manufacturing projects.

Topics:

• Ambient Intelligence in manufacturing
• Decision support in manufacturing
• Knowledge Management in manufacturing
• Life-cycle management in manufacturing
• New services for manufacturing
• Service Oriented architectures in manufacturing
• Distributed Intelligence in manufacturing
• Intelligent devices in manufacturing