Manufacturing and logistics undergo changes incurred by the development and implementation of advanced information technologies. Network-wide cooperation is required in order to take advantage of these shifting paradigms. So far, existing potentials such as intra-company knowledge are not adequately tapped.

Corporate networks are strengthened by the application of best practices and by sharing their experience with supply chain partners for achieving integral improvements. Ecological awareness influences existing processes by the application of green principles to logistics and supply chain management.

The 8th International Heinz Nixdorf Symposium will take place on April 21–22 in the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn. On April 21, distinguished professors and senior executives from large manufacturing and logistics companies will deliver invited speeches. On April 22, contributions are invited from both researchers and practitioners in the fields of manufacturing, logistics and supply chain management. Papers can be submitted to any of the six conference tracks.

=========================================================================================
Conference Topics
=========================================================================================

Track 1: Production Logistics I

Track Chair: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Egon Müller

* Design of dynamic production and logistics networks
* Integrated design of products and production systems
* Late product differentiation
* Lean supply chain management
* Mobile network structures
* Optimization of procurement and customer service level

Track 2: Production Logistics II

Track Chair: Prof. Dr. Dirk Van Oudheusden

* Artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems
* Autonomous decentralized schedule execution
* Hierarchical agent-based control
* Integration of production and in-bound logistics
* Supply chain event and risk management
* Uncertainties in production and logistics processes

Track 3: Industrial Engineering

Track Chair: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gert Zülch

* Knowledge management in supply chains
* Rapid manufacturing
* Reorganization of work structures at variant diversity
* Resilient logistics and production planning
* Working time models under volatile demand

Track 4: Operations Research Techniques

Track Chair: Prof. Dr. Leena Suhl

* Green strategies
* Online planning / optimization with rolling horizon
* Optimization in large networks
* Robustness and flexibility of transport schedules
* Sustainable supply chain management

Track 5: Simulation

Track Chair: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sigrid Wenzel

* Graphical parameter interfaces
* Integration of mathematical programming and simulation
* Online integration in production environments
* Simulation as training tool set
* Simulation-based decentralized real-time control

Track 6: Humanitarian Logistics

Track Chair: Alexander Blecken

* Operations research and humanitarian logistics
* Performance measurement
* Collaboration and coordination of actors
* Modeling humanitarian operations
* Supply chain planning in humanitarian supply chains