[agents] IMCM+PETO'08 Call for Papers - extended Deadlines

[Thorsten Blecker]

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                            Call for papers

                 3rd Joint conference: IMCM 2008 + PETO 2008
                     June 19-20, 2008, Copenhagen, Denmark

             International Mass Customization Meeting (IMCM’08)
                               &
     International Conference on Economic, Technical and Organizational
             Aspects of Product Configuration Systems (PETO’08)


                    Theme: "Mass Customization Services"

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Conference website:       http://www.ipl.dtu.dk/IMCMPETO2008

            

                !!! Extended Deadlines!!!

Abstract due (Max 800 words):  February 25, 2008
Notification of authors:       March 10, 2008
Final paper submission:        April 21, 2008
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Many industrial companies have successfully applied mass customization to 
physical products. Some of them are excelling in providing individualized 
products at relatively low prices and are now very popular examples in 
industry and academia. However, little is known on the transmission of mass 
customization principles to service industry. Looking at the objectives of 
mass customization and services, one can notice some overlapping areas. For 
instance, services are successful only if they are customer-oriented. The 
same holds for mass customization, which aims to deliver customers with 
what they want. But services are labor-intensive, costly and success is 
tied to interaction between service provider and receiver. This, however, 
does not match with the concept of mass customization, promising high 
flexibility at high efficiency. Therefore, the question is if the service 
industry can benefit from research advances in mass customization. More 
importantly, how the mass customization of services can be achieved in the 
practice.
The main topic of the IMCM+PETO 08, is also related to the services 
associated with the production and sales of mass customized physical goods. 
Nowadays, one can hardly imagine a product  even standard  without the 
delivery of secondary services. Irrespective of mass customization, 
customers are expecting additional services such as financial services or 
quickly and reliable on site repair and maintenance. In the case of mass 
customized products, the task faced by manufacturing companies is even 
harder. Customer service begins with the interaction/configuration process 
and ends up with the after-sales phase along product usage. The customer 
may later initiate a new configuration process hoping to add features to 
his system. This requires a configuration system able to span product 
families and generations.
In this regard, there are still open research questions. While the 
phenomenon of mass confusion during the interaction process is well known, 
solutions that cope with this problem are still lacking. Furthermore, 
after-sales services for mass customized goods can be challenging because 
each individual product has its own identity and may call for specific 
support procedures.
The goal is to provide a platform for discussing and investigating areas, 
in which mass customization and services can be related. However, we 
welcome original contributions that advance mass customization research in 
general. More information is provided in the topics’ section.


Topics of the IMCM 08 + PETO 08

The topics accepted in the conference include but are not limited to:


Focused Topics
·	Transmission of the mass customization principles to the service
industry
·	Mass customization of logistics services
·	Modularity in the service industry
·	The customer interaction process as a service for mass customization
·	Practical examples on the mass customization of services
·	After-sales  service and sales in mass customization
·	Product compatibility across product family and - generations


General Topics
·	Supply chain management for mass customization
·	Product family management
·	Modular product architectures
·	Implementation of configurators in practice
·	Product models
·	Variety and complexity management for mass customization
·	Effects on innovation
·	Organizational issues when implementing mass customization




Submission of Abstracts

Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished research results/best
practices for consideration in IMCM’08 & PETO’08.

Abstracts for papers should describe the nature and relevance of the
problems, the research method­ology, and work-in-progress or final research
results. Abstracts must not exceed 800 words and should be in MS.Word and
PDF format. The font type for body text should be ‘Arial’ size 11 while the
title size 12 with ‘BOLD UPPER CASE’. Abstracts for Papers should include
three to four keywords and all authors’ contact information. The official
conference language is English. Guidelines for final paper preparation are
published under the rubric "Author Guidelines" in the menu.

Submission information: 
http://www.dtu.dk/Sites/IMCMPETO2008/English/Submission.aspx


Price

Student fee     EUR 300,-
Regular fee     EUR 450,-

All registrations include the admission to lectures and the social 
programme (dinner, lunch etc.). A copy of the conference proceedings book 
will be provided to all participants.

To register with a student rate, it is necessary to provide a copy of a 
valid student ID or a letter from the head of school or department that 
certifies the student status.




Chairs

Ass. Prof. Dr. Kasper Edwards
Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management
Technical University of Denmark
Building 423
2800 Lyngby, Denmark
Email: edwards at ipl.dtu.dk

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Blecker
Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)
Department of Business Logistics and General Management (5-11)
Schwarzenbergstr. 95
21073 Hamburg, Germany
Email: blecker at ieee.org

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Friedrich
University Klagenfurt
Department of Computer Science and Manufacturing
Universitaetsstr. 65 - 67
9020 Klagenfurt, Austria
Email: gerhard.friedrich at uni-klu.ac.at

Associate Prof. Dr. Lars Hvam
Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management
Technical University of Denmark
Building 423
2800 Lyngby, Denmark
Email: lhv at ipl.dtu.dk

Prof. Dr. Fabrizio Salvador
Instituto de Impresa
Department of Operations and Technology Management
María de Molina 12-5
28006 Madrid, Spain
Email: fabrizio.salvador at ie.edu