David Herberger is a lecturer for factory planning at Leibniz University Hanover and a manager for production, supply chain, and procurement in a globally operating strategic consultancy. Dr.-Ing. David Herberger previously was team leader and research associate in the factory planning division at the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) at Leibniz University Hanover from 2016 until 2020. He studied mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Marco Hübner is manager for production logistics at a leading digital solution provider in the metals industry. Previously he was a research associate in the production management division at the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) at Leibniz University Hanover from 2015 until 2020. He studied mechanical engineering at Leibniz University Hanover with exchanges at The University of British Columbia (UBC) and Keio Unitversity in Tokyo.

Arturo Alba is a professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences of the UAI in Santiago, Chile, researcher at the Smart and Mining Centers, leading the design of Digital Transformation programs, Agile Project Management, IT Business Value, Strategic Alignment and Strategic Execution programs and Operational Excellence. He has more than 30 years of experience in executive functions at different companies. Arturo Alba also is a Founding Partner of AKLO.

Thomas Bauernhansl has been head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart and the Institute of Industrial Manufacturing and Management at the University of Stuttgart since 2011. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bauernhansl is author of many books and member of many scientific societies. Both the digital and the biological transformation of value creation are core research fields in his institutes.

Olga Battaïa, a Full Professor in Operations Management and Information Systems at Kedge Business Scool in Paris, France. Prof. Battaïa earned her PhD from École des mines de Saint-Etienne in 2007, receiving the Best PhD Thesis Award. She is serving as Associate Editor for renowned journals and holding memberships in CIRP and IFAC, her expertise spans Supply Chain Management, Sustainable manufacturing, and Operations Research. With 200 publications, 11 co-supervised PhD students, and involvement in European projects, she also organizes international conferences.

Wolfgang Boos is a research professor at RWTH Aachen University with a background in mechanical engineering and stamping/forming technology. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Boos earned his doctorate with honors and is currently an adjunct professor at the Machine Tool Laboratory (WZL) where he founded WZL Aachen PS GmbH and WBA Aachener Werkzeugbau Akademie GmbH. Boos specializes in the digitalization of processes and the development of the Internet of Production (IoP) to create resilient and sustainable production systems.

Rüdiger Daub has been head of the Chair of Production Technology and Energy Storage Systems at IWB at Technical University of Munich and at the Fraunhofer Institute for Foundry, Composites and Processing Technology IGCV since 2021. Previoulsly Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Daub has held several positions at BMW Group Munich, most recently as head of technology development and prototype construction for lithium-ion cells.

Oliverio Cruz Mejía holds a PhD from Lancaster University (England), has been a Professor of Industrial Engineering and graduate tutor in Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Prof. Dr. Cruz Mejía is a Researcher SNI 2 of CONACYT as well as member of the editorial board of the Journal of Supply Chain Management (JCR FI 6.842 Q1) and Journal of Business Logistics (JCR FI 5.77 Q1).

Thomas Friedli has been professor for Production Management at the University of St. Gallen since 2004 and is director of the Production Management division at the Institute of Technology Management. Prof. Dr. Thomas Friedli is also head of the TECTEM Benchmarking Centre where scientific knowledge is transferred into real life solutions. The key areas of his research are in the fields of global production, smart manufacturing & services and operational excellence.

Juan Carlos Quiroz Flores is an expert in Lean Supply Chain and Operations, with more than 20 years of experience in leadership, operational management, and process improvement. Currently, he is the Director of Consulting in an operational excellence consulting firm in Peru, leading projects to increase customer profitability. Previously, he was Operations Manager, implementing Continuous Improvement, PDCA, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma projects. As a research professor at the University of Lima, he has supervised research projects achieving more than one hundred scientific publications indexed in Scopus.

David Gillen has been professor of Transportation Policy and director of the Centre for Transportation Studies in the Operations and Logistics Division at Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, Canada, since 2005. The research interests of Prof. Dr. David Gillen are industrial organization, corporate and management strategies, competition policy, transportation and regulatory economics, aviation and air transport economics, urban transportation, travel demand analysis, choice modeling, application of management economics to transportation policy and planning, performance and productivity analysis, economics of strategy.

Vera Hummel has been a Professor at Reutlingen University, faculty ESB Business School, since 2010. Prof. Dr. -Ing. Vera Hummels research work focuses on the design of smart factories with use of innovative technologies and approaches that increase efficiency of production and logistics systems as well as on learning factories as innovative methods for education and training. She is currently the head of the Reutlingen Zentrum Industrie 4.0 as well as the initiator and director of the Werk150 of the ESB Business School. Since May 2023 she is elected president of the International Association on Learning Factories IALF. She holds the position of an extraordinary Professorship at Stellenbosch University, department Industrial Engineering.

I.S. Jawahir is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing (ISM), Endowed Chair in Manufacturing Systems and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY, USA). His current research focus areas are: Sustainable manufacturing (Product and process design for sustainability and sustainable manufacturing processes) for circular economy and Predictive modeling and optimization of manufacturing processes. His institute, ISM heavily focuses on basic and applied research on sustainable manufacturing at product, process and system levels and developing and disseminating sustainable manufacturing technologies.

Daniel Jurburg holds an Industrial Engineering degree from Universidad de Montevideo (Uruguay), a master’s degree in research in Applied Engineering from Universidad de Navarra (Spain), and a PhD degree from TECNUN - Universidad de Navarra. Dr. Jurburg is currently the Director of CINOI (the Industrial Management Innovation Centre from the Engineering Faculty at Universidad de Montevideo). He is an active member within the Uruguayan National System of Researchers (SNI - ANII) and is part of the Honorary Advisory Board of the National Institute for Quality (INACAL).

Sami Kara is a researcher and a lecturer in the School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering at UNSW in Sydney, Australia. Prof. Sami Kara is also founder and academic-in-charge of the Sustainable Manufacturing & Life Cycle Engineering Research Group at UNSW. In addition, he is the joint-director of the Joint German-Australian Research Group (JGARG) "Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Management".

Bernd Kuhlenkötter was responsible for the product management and technology at ABB Robotics Germany until 2009. In 2009, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Kuhlenkötter took over the Professorship for “Industrial Robotics and Production Automation” at the Technical University of Dortmund. Since 2015, he holds the professorship of “Production Systems” at Ruhr University Bochum. In parallel, he is the vice president of the Academic Society for Assembly, Handling and Industrial Robotics (MHI e.V.).

Asela K. Kulatunga is a Professor in Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Prof. Kulatunga has more than 15 years of experience in the area of Sustainable Manufacturing & Life Cycle Engineering. He has collaborated with various foreign-funded projects from UNDIO, UNEP Life Cycle Initiative, IGES-Japan, and Ministry of Primary Industries - New Zealand, US Aid – USA etc. in the areas of Sustainable Manufacturing, Sustainable Supply chain and Life Cycle Engineering.

Yván García López is a professor and coordinator of External Cooperation and Internationalization of the Industrial Engineering Career at Universidad de Lima. He is a researcher, data scientist and professor at undergraduate and graduate levels. Yván García López has been vice dean of Information Engineering at the Universidad del Pacífico, and director of the Master of Information Technology at Centrum Católica.

Joachim Metternich has been head of the Production Management division at the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW) at Technical University Darmstadt since 2012. Previously, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Metternich was head of the worldwide lean production system at Knorr Bremse, head of a manufacturing group at Bosch Diesel in Jihlava, Czech Republic and assistent of the managing director of production at Trumpf.

Lourdes Perea Muñoz is an associate professor and researcher at the Engineering Faculty in Austral University, Argentina. Dra. Eng. Perea Muñoz is co-founder of the Center for Industry 4.0 at Austral University where she has coordinated research and outreach activities since 2020. She was a board member of the Engineering Faculty from 2015 to 2019. She lectures and does research on Digital Transformation Management, as well as Simulation and optimization of operations and supply chain. She has lead the Digital Transformation Program for SMEs 4.0 carried out together with the National Government in 2019.

Aydin Nassehi is professor of Production Systems at the University of Bristol, a Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), and the technical secretary of the Academy for production system and organisations as well as the chair of CIRP UK. Prof. Nassehi is the senior editor for the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing and leads working groups for international standardisation in smart manufacturing and contributes to ISO/IEC work on smart manufacturing reference models, digital twins for manufacturing and cyber physical manufacturing systems.

Sylvia Novillo-Villegas is a researcher and lecturer associated with the Innovation and Liason Faculty and the Industrial Engineering career at Universidad de Las Américas in Quito – Ecuador. There she lectures and researchs on the fields of supply chain, operations management, innovation, and internationalization. Dr.rer.pol. Novillo-Villegas has worked as consultant for Argentinian and Ecuadorian SMEs. She graduated from Business Studies and Economics Faculty at the University of Bremen (UBremen).

Verena Nitsch is a full professor and Director of the Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics (IAW) at RWTH Aachen University since 2018. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Verena Nitsch is also Head of the Department of Product- and Process Ergonomics at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE). Prior to her appointment at RWTH Aachen University, she led the Human Factors Institute at Bundeswehr University Munich. Today, in addition to her research and teaching activities, she advises various companies, Think Tanks and Expert Groups on the topic of human-friendly automation.

Peter Nyhuis has been head of the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) at Leibniz Universität Hannover since 2003. Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Peter Nyhuis was a member of the German Science Council (2014-2018) and has been Chairman of the Science Council of the AiF (GAG 3) since 2015. He is also a member of the German Academy of Technical Sciences acatech and the Scientific Society for Production Technology (WGP).

Ricardo Rabelo is a full Professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Prof. Dr. Rabelo heads the Industry 4.0 Program at UFSC, working in close cooperation with governments, industries, and the innovation ecosystem. His research focuses on digital transformation, collaborative networks, systems integration and interoperability, collaborative innovation, human-machine interaction, and manufacturing performance evaluation.

Sekhar Rakurty is the research team manager at The M. K. Morse Company, based in Ohio, USA. Dr. Sekhar Rakurty has over 20 years of research and development experience in manufacturing, specifically developing sustainable manufacturing processes. He is on multiple Industry Advisory Boards for academic institutions and an ad-hoc faculty member at the University of Akron.

Oliver Riedel is head of the Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW) at the University of Stuttgart and holds the chair of Production Engineering Information Technologies. Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Oliver Riedel studied Engineering Cybernetics at the Technical University in Stuttgart and earned his doctorate at the Faculty of Engineering Design and Production Engineering. For over 20 years, Prof. Riedel has been involved with the basic principles and practical application of virtual validation methods in product development and production.

David Romero is a professor of Advanced Manufacturing at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico. Prof. Dr. Romero serves on different national and international editorial and scientific committees and advisory boards. He is the Secretary and Communications Officer for the Working Group (WG) 5.7 on Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). His research focuses on Circular Manufacturing, Service Engineering and Product-Service Systems, Cyber-Physical Systems and Human Systems, and Advanced Production Management Systems.

Matthias Schmidt has been head of the Production Management practice at the Institute for Product and Process Innovation (PPI) at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg since 2018. Previously Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Schmidt was the head of research and industry at the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) at the Leibniz University Hanover. His research focuses on production management, supply chain management, and production planning and control.

Günther Schuh has held the Chair of Production Systems at the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) at RWTH Aachen University since 2002. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günther Schuh is also a member of the board of directors of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT and director of the Research Institute for Rationalization (FIR) at RWTH Aachen University. He is the initiator and managing director of RWTH Campus GmbH and founded, among others, the Schuh & Co. Group.

Volker Stich has been the head of the Institute for Industrial Management (FIR) at the RWTH Aachen University since 1997. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Stich has worked for 10 years for the St. Gobain-Automotive Group and led the management of European plant logistics. In addition he has been responsible for the worldwide coordination of future development project. His research focuses on operations management, logistics and business applications systems.

Daniel Suarez Anzorena is an associate professor at the Engineering Faculty in Universidad Austral, Argentina. He currently also serves as Director of the Industries Department in that Faculty. He is currently carrying out activities in conjunction with the Industrie 4.0 Maturity Center GmbH, Aachen Germany to promote the development of Industry 4.0 in companies in the region.

Sebastian Thiede is a full professor of Manufacturing Systems at the University of Twente (Netherlands) within the Department of Design, Production and Management. Before Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Thiedewas was heading the Sustainable Manufacturing research group at the Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology of Technische Universität Braunschweig. He is Associate Member of CIRP, the International Academy of Production Engineering, and member of IALF, the International Association of Learning Factories.

Juan Pablo Soto Zuluaga has been the Vice Dean of Corporate Relations at the School of Management at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Columbia, since 2017. He holds a PhD in Economics and Management from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. He was Academic Coordinator and Assistant Technical Director at Centro Español de Logística and ITM Coordinator and Co-Director Master in International Retail at Escuela Superior de Comercio Internacional de Barcelona. His areas of research are: Retail Logistics, Logistics and Closed Loop Supply Chain, Green and Reverse Logistics.