Decision Making in Support of Manufacturing Enterprise Transformation

Call for Papers

Strategic, tactical, and operational decision making is essential as part of transformational leadership: both in manufacturing enterprises (MEs) competing in worldwide markets and in small and medium-sized MEs that must be agile to survive. This special issue will characterise (1) common transformational decision-making needs in MEs and (2) the state of play in decision-making methods and technology. It will identify gaps in current decision-making sciences and consider the extent to which ongoing research can fill those gaps.

We invite authors to submit original research as well as review articles that will provide a good balance between market pull and technology push. Selected papers should illustrate the multidisciplinary nature of decision support in MEs and will reflect state-of-the art around the globe. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The description of need (or market pull):
  • Organisational decision-making theories and concepts
  • Examples of ME decision making accounting for uncertainty arising from complex and dynamic relationships between complex entities
  • Strategic, tactical and operational roles of enterprise transformers and their need for quality (timely, accurate, and cost-effective) decision making
  • Examples of how holistic decision-making support can collectively advance the enterprise
• The description of solution methods and technology (or technology push):
  • State-of-the art and emerging methods of modelling MEs to define decision support needs
  • State-of-the art and emerging methods of modelling and implementing information systems to satisfy decision support needs
  • State-of-the art and emerging localised decision support tools; their capabilities and application constraints
  • State-of-the art and emerging holistic decision support tools
  • Model-driven decision making
  • State-of-the art and emerging intelligent decision systems and tools; their capabilities and application constraints
  • Decision support architectures and components
  • State-of-art on IT infrastructures; their decision support capabilities and application constraints
  • User interface issues
  • Frameworks, implementation, reconfiguration, and change issues
  • The importance of decision support taxonomies and their state of play

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ads/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Richard H. Weston, MSI Research Institute, Wolfson School, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

Guest Editors

• Albert T. Jones, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
• Bernard Grabot, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France
• Bernard Hon, Department of Engineering, Liverpool University, Liverpool, UK