Call for Papers for Engineering Management Review: Automation & Control-Driven Sustainability in Manufacturing and Production Management

Call for Papers for Engineering Management Review:  Automation & Control-Driven Sustainability in Manufacturing and Production Management

Scope and Motivation

Automation and control-driven technologies are transforming manufacturing and production systems, and their integration with sustainability principles is now essential to meet ambitious climate and circularity targets. This Special Issue invites contributions that explicitly demonstrate how advanced control, optimization, and automation architectures can accelerate the transition towards zero-carbon, circular, and regenerative production across sectors.

The Special Issue is particularly interested in works that leverage automation & control-driven approaches with strong relevance for managers and practitioners, combined with data-driven decision support, to deliver concrete sustainability outcomes, including reduced resource consumption, lower carbon footprint, reduced material use, higher circularity, and improved resilience of value chains, in line with the principles of a regenerative economy, circular economy, and net-zero economy. All contributions should clearly articulate managerial and/or organizational implications of the work.

Topics of Interest

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

• Automation and control architectures for sustainable, regenerative, and net-zero manufacturing, including carbon capture, green fuels production, and renewable energy conversion
• Optimization and control of energy, water, and material flows for energy-flexible and demand-responsive industrial operations
• Control-theoretic approaches to production planning, scheduling, and inventory management for sustainable operations
• Automation-enabled industrial symbiosis, reverse logistics, and material recovery for circular manufacturing
• Digital twins and cyber-physical systems as control enablers for real-time sustainability performance management
• Closed-loop life cycle assessment (LCA) enabled by real-time data and automation for dynamic environmental monitoring
• Resilient and autonomous control architectures for sustainable value chains under uncertainty

Target Audience

The Special Issue addresses researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of automation, production management, and sustainability, combining methodological rigor with industrially relevant, real-world case studies. It aims to provide a forum for an international community to showcase how automation and control technologies can act as key enablers of measurable progress towards sustainable manufacturing, in line with emerging priorities on circularity, resource efficiency, and industrial resilience.

Timeline

Publication date subject to the journal’s editorial schedule.

To register your expression of interest: https://emrspecialissue.vercel.app/

Journal References

For further information on IEEE Engineering Management Review, visit: https://www.ieee-tems.org/engineering-management-review/

Submission guidelines and article formats: https://www.ieee-tems.org/information-for-authors/

Article Formats: IEEE EMR welcomes contributions in all its formats for the special issue:

• Technology Manager’s Notebook (TMN) — 500–2000 words
• Shorter Articles and Case Studies — 2000–4000 words
• Longer Articles and Reviews — 7500–10000 words

Guest Editors

Francesco Alessandro Cuzzola  —  Politecnico di Milano, Italy  (Chief Guest Editor) francescoalessandro.cuzzola@polimi.it

Chunguang Bai  —  University of Electronic Science and Technology of China cbai@UPC.edu.cn

Tariq Samad  —  University of Minnesota, USA tsamad@umn.edu