INTRODUCTION

INNOVATION: THE CHALLENGE FOR THE
MANUFACTURING OF THE FUTURE

Welcome to the official site for the 45th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems (CIRP CMS). CIRP CMS 2012 will be hosted by the University of Patras, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, in Athens from 16-18 May 2012.

Our societies face challenges, requiring innovative solutions:  Returning to growth and to higher levels of employment, combating climatic changes and moving towards a low-carbon society, using our natural resources more wisely, are grand challenges that also provide powerful opportunities for manufacturing.  Economies, around the world, need to move from cost competition towards strategies based on innovation.  The globalization of the economy and the rising living standards open new markets for innovative products and services and their growing capabilities create new prospects for world-wide collaboration in the product design and manufacturing.  Recent developments in information and communication technology, the wide spread of the Internet, the e-commerce and the other Web based business activities present manufacturing with new opportunities and allow manufacturing companies to become global players, irrespective of their size and location.  The manufacturing scientific community is expected to generate world class breakthroughs and help in turning innovation into new manufacturing knowledge.  The manufacturing education paradigm has to change rapidly in order to provide industry with a new generation of engineers with an innovative philosophy.