Service operations are critical in modern business. Service providers, such as those in the telecommunication industry and other retailing sectors, are providing services to the market with a goal of optimizing their own profit. However, a service operation is different from the operations which manage the “physical products.” For example, many traditionally critical decisions such as the optimal production quantity and product quality control are no longer relevant. This calls for totally new engineering mindset and new analytical models in order to optimize the performance of the respective service systems.

This special issue is devoted to publishing the latest and significant results on scientific research in service optimization and control. This special issue puts high emphasis on the advance of optimization methods and real world applications from a systems engineering perspective. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Mathematical modeling and optimization of service systems
• Systems engineering methodology for service optimization
• Sustainable service systems
• Services on analytical branding
• Optimal control of service operational policies
• Closed loop service systems
• Risk analysis of service systems
• Retailing service systems
• Mass customization service operations management
• Analytical service marketing problems
• Industrial applications of service systems
• Heuristic algorithms for service operations management
• Cases on after-sales analytical service systems operations

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