COMPUTERS IN INDUSTRY Call for papers for Special Issue on Competence management in industrial processes Guest co-editors Dr X.Boucher, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de St Etienne, center G2I, France Dr N.Matta, Université de Technologie de Troyes, laboratory GSID/Tech-CICO, France Dr E.Bonjour, Université de Franche-Comté, laboratory LAB, UMR CNRS 6596, France (The call for papers is coordinated in France by the CNRS research group C2EI within GDR MACS) Scope For the last ten years, in the field of design and control of production systems, the scientific community has progressively shifted from a focus on an information-based integration towards an even more complex view on integration, which aims at incorporating the firm’s cognitive dimension. The management and control of knowledge and know-how and more recently the management of firms’ competencies have turned out to be essential factors of industrial processes’ performance. The aim of this special issue of Computers in Industry is to contribute to an international state of the art about the scientific advances on competence management in industrial processes. In a context of distributed enterprise, the latest methods and tools for the management of processes are developed to match the industrial need as regards organisational reactivity and organisational innovation. Such organisational changes require much more than methods for processes optimisation: process management requires controlling the evolution of processes, taking into account the life cycles of organisations. Knowledge and competence management are key issues for such perspectives. Focus We call for papers focusing on the integration of knowledge, competence and related concepts in the field of process modelling methods and enterprise modelling frameworks. From a conceptual point of view, the papers should contribute to put forth how the approaches for the management and control of industrial processes are enriched and renewed by the integration of knowledge and competence. Can the qualitative models usually defined for competence management be completed with more quantitative and formal models to provide decision aid frameworks and tools ? How could formal and rigorous modelling approaches link performance systems with the knowledge, skills or competences used along industrial processes ? Does the integration of competence management induces new tasks in enterprise engineering such as competence development or knowledge valuation and reuse ? What type of computer-supported decision tools could be developed to support current and prospective managers' requirements in competence management ? Competence and knowledge management are strongly related to “change management” applied to industrial processes. We encourage contributions focusing on the link between processes’ evolution and the concepts of knowledge, skills or competence, through the formalization of processes transformations, processes dynamics, organisational life cycles or organisational trajectories. Authors are encouraged to submit original papers dealing with theoretical and applied issues. A wide range of enterprise modelling application fields will be considered, regarding industrial processes where knowledge and competencies appear as an important regulation factor : enterprise re-engineering (including processes configuration), management of distributed production systems (distributed supply chain, firms networks, virtual enterprise…), management of design processes (design of products, processes, or production systems), or framework for production planning and supervision. Topics - Integration of knowledge and competence within enterprise modelling frameworks - Formal models for knowledge and competence management applied to industrial processes - Impact of knowledge, skills and competencies on the design and management of production systems - Constructs, modelling languages, ontology on skills, competences and related concepts - Integration of knowledge and competences within decision aid frameworks and tools applied to industrial processes - Configuration and optimisation of industrial processes including a competence based approach. - Knowledge and competence to manage the evolution of business processes Important deadlines The authors are invited to inform the guest editors (boucher@emse.fr) on their intention of submission. Submission are to be directly addressed to Computers in Industry. Submission: 31st of May, 2005, Preliminary acceptance: 31st of July 2005 Revised submissions: 31st of October 2005 Acceptance notification: 14th of November 2005 Manuscript Submission: 1st of Dec 2005