Overview
The changing manufacturing environment requires more responsive and adaptable manufacturing systems. The theme of the 5th International Conference on Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual production (CARV2013) was "Enabling Manufacturing Competitiveness and Economic Sustainability." Leading-edge research and best implementation practices and experiences were presented. Proceedings include advances in manufacturing systems design, planning, evaluation, control and evolving paradigms. 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 R&D needed to help both practitioners and academicians are presented. Editors: Dr.-Ing. Michael F. Zaeh, Professor, Manufacturing Technology and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gunther Reinhart, Head, Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM).
