With its long-standing history in production engineering, the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP) has always been at the forefront of innovation and research. The mission of the academy to promote research and development, facilitate the exchange of ideas, and disseminate scientific findings is at the core of our community. At CIRP, we aim to serve as a forum for discussion, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and in-depth understanding of scientific topics.
Even if documents and knowledge repositories are today more open and accessible than ever, the extreme specialisation of knowledge has led publications to be written, revised, and read primarily within their respective communities and, consequently, inaccessible or incomprehensible to outsiders. Understanding this language and content requires grounding in intermediate knowledge sources, such as books (reference books, handbooks, etc.) that, for newer fields, are often unavailable.
To this aim, CIRP has launched the CIRP Novel Topics in Production Engineering (CNTPE), a collection of specialised essays in emerging areas of production engineering published in a book yearly.

The essays in CNTPE introduce readers to new fields, offering a comprehensive exposition of novel research areas. They are designed to be accessible to both seasoned professionals and newcomers, combining in-depth analysis with a broader contextual understanding. Real-world examples and cases are presented wherever possible. CNTPE is a resource for current researchers and practitioners and an invaluable tool for educating future engineers and scientists.
To balance the need for an authoritative source of knowledge to address novel topics at the cutting edge of technology, the Scientific Technical Committees (STCs) of CIRP examine and select the topics and authors of the essays in each volume of CIRP Novel Topics in Production Engineering (CNTPE). These essays are primarily based on the contributions of CIRP members and researchers unaffiliated with CIRP. One representative for each STC is a member of the Editorial Board of CNTPE so that the entire editorial process conforms to the quality standards of the CIRP. The contributors of CNTPE, including experts from CIRP and other scientific organisations, bring high standards of academic and industrial excellence. The editorial process, led by the CIRP Editorial Board and its Scientific Technical Committees (STCs), ensures the accuracy, relevance, and clarity of contributions.

This endeavour marks a pivotal moment within the CIRP community as a collective effort to consolidate, update, and disseminate the vast and expanding body of knowledge in design, process, systems and machines, instruments and metrology, life cycles and organisations, and new production engineering development trends, including the three paradigms of manufacturing advancement. As creating and disseminating scientific knowledge is a cornerstone of CIRP, CNTPE will enhance the academy’s ability to reach a broader audience, including researchers, educators, students, and industry professionals.

CIRP Novel Topics in Production Engineering - Volume 1 (2024)

The first volume features contributions at the product design level where the new approach of modeling and design as a service proves to be extremely important, especially in a situation where product updates are very frequent. Modifications and introduction of new products, in turn, imply continuous modifications at the production network level and at the factory level, where the fast and continuous evolution of production systems introduces the need for very fast ramp-ups. The evolution of factories should consider the role of the humans operating in factories both in terms of human-robot cooperation and automatic analysis of the impact on the quality of manual operations. The evolution of factories also requires new ways of controlling processes and the machines implementing them to improve their performance or the introduction of new processes. Taking a wider view, manufacturing as we know it today may be complemented in the future by new ways of making parts, considering the potential of creating parts by atom manipulation. 

Editorial Board

Prof. Tullio Tolio, Politecnico di Milano - Editor in Chief
Prof. Yasushi Umeda, University of Tokyo - STC-A
Prof. Dirk Biermann, TU Dortmund - STC-C
Prof. Dimitris Mourtzis, University of Patras - STC-Dn
Prof. Luigi Maria Galantucci, Politecnico di Bari - STC-E
Prof. Stefania Bruschi, Università di Padova - STC-F
Prof. Peter Krajnik, Chalmers University - STC-G
Prof. Hans-Christian Möhring, University of Stuttgart - STC-M
Prof. Stephen Newmann, University of Bath - STC-O
Prof. Robert Schmitt, RWTH Aachen - STC-P
Prof. Han Haitjema, KU Leuven - STC-S
Prof. Marcello Urgo, Politecnico di Milano - Terminology Committee

CIRP Members   have free access to the CNTPE online from their Dashboard.