eTransition in the multi-life cycle CIM context

The purpose of this special issue on eTransition is to offer an insight and some explanation to the exciting analytical and computational manufacturing systems engineering methods, tools and technologies that enable companies to move from traditional CIM-enabled enterprises, to truly collaborative, lean and distributed digital enterprises, which will prosper even when surrounded by dynamically changing market conditions. This major change process, affecting every aspect of the enterprise, is driven by national and international competition, which forces advanced manufacturers continuously to innovate and make their product design, manufacturing and service processes lean, flexible and market driven. Simultaneously, the time to market is still shrinking. This means that marketing and sales departments have to explain and sell their increasingly more complex hardware and software integrated products to an increasingly more educated and globally distributed customer base, via a dynamically changing supply chain, at a competitive price and in a short time.