Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Volume 20, Issue 2

I occasionally use the opportunity of an Editorial to reflect on how this journal has changed in terms of its readership, authors and subject content. I also try to consider whether the aims and scope of the journal are keeping up with developments and trends in both research and practice in manufacturing. As well as shaping the editorial direction this also led to the change of journal title from Volume 15 in 2004, from “Integrated manufacturing systems”to its current title of Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management(JMTM).

When I first became Editor of Integrated Manufacturing Systems in the early 1990s it was a distinctly European journal in terms of its papers and readership, with some authors and readers also coming from the USA and a much smaller number from the rest of the world. This perhaps was simply a reasonable reflection of the geographical focus of manufacturing research and practice at that time. However, during the last 15 years there has been a marked change in demographics such that almost a quarter of authors are now from the Far East,while nearly a quarter of the journal’s users are from the USA. This could also be a reflection of the shift in centre of gravity of manufacturing towards Asia and it possibly indicates the concern among US academics and practitioners that they must keep abreast of developments elsewhere.

When looking at the editorial objective and scope, which can be found be found on the inside back cover of the journal and on the homepage www.emeraldinsight.com/jmtm.htm. I see that these have not been changed for some time. Although the things that are listed are still relevant there are a number of other topics that have emerged over the last few years, or are likely to emerge in the future, and probably need to be explicitly included. One of these must be sustainability or “green manufacturing” because it represents an inescapable concern to all companies everywhere and it is the theme of many conferences at the moment. For example, the Annual Conference of the International Association for Management of Technology has this year the theme “Management of green technology”and the Academy of Management Annual Conference has the theme “Green management matters.” In fact, “green manufacturing” concerns have already been recognized in the editorials of the last three issues of JMTM(see the Editorials in Volume 19, Issues 7 and 8, by Breno Nunes and the one in Volume 20, Issue 1 by João Quariquasi).

Volume 18, Issue 8 of JMTM was a special issue on “The future of manufacturing” that addressed a number of other emerging matters that must undoubtedly be added to the editorial scope, including manufacturing networks, post mass production paradigms, workforce ageing, firm and national manufacturing competitiveness and the changing role of strategy. I have also tried to speculate on the future of manufacturing in a couple of presentations during the last few months; one I made in Brazil and another in China, which just themselves are important countries because they are the “B” and“C” of the BRIC nations that Goldman Sachs predicted in 2003 would together overtake the economies of the six richest countries in the world by 2040.

So, just briefly summarising what I speculate may be among the important emerging issues relating to manufacturing, which should probably be added to JMTM’s editorial scope, I list the following: energy use in production and “green manufacturing”/sustainability issues; production and distribution of food-and agro-based goods; resolving the complexity question in manufacturing that arises from greater customer choice and product variety; revisiting manufacturing strategy; workforce demographics; the role of the “BRICs(and Africa?); the turbulent world economy and its effect on the geography of manufacturing; risk and security; manufacturing scale issues.” If any readers of JMTM have further suggestions, or would simply like to discuss some of the things I have mentioned, I would be pleased to hear from them.

David Bennett