Design Tools and Methods in Industrial Engineering, Proceedings of the International Conference on Design Tools and Methods in Industrial Engineering, ADM 2019

This book collects the proceedings of the ADM 2019 International Conference, entitled “Design Tools and Methods in Industrial Engineering”, held in Modena, Italy, on 9–10 September 2019. This is not the first time that an event organized by ADM (formerly known as Italian Association of Machines Design, today renamed the Italian Association of Design Methods for Industrial Engineering) or by our scientific sector (ING-IND/15) takes place in Modena. I am pleased to remember the “ADM day” held at the Military Academy of Modena in 2008, as well as the ING-IND/15 workshop organized in 2009 in the hills of Bologna, not far from Modena. However, this conference is particularly significant, for the reasons I wish to summarize here. Firstly, the ADM Conference constitutes a new international, permanent event held in Italy, aimed at disseminating cutting-edge research to a national and international audience. For several years, our association has had a collaborative relationship with the Spanish members of INGEGRAF and the French members of Smart (formerly AIP-PRIMECA), with whom we organize the International Joint Conference on Mechanics, Design Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing (JCM) every two years. This event is hosted alternately by one of our three countries. Therefore, the ADM International Conference was born from the need for an event “in the middle”, to strengthen the international research network and to meet our colleagues in Italy. As a matter of fact, the ADM 2019 scientific committee was joined by Spanish and French colleagues, as well as German, Swedish, Norwegian and American ones, thanks to partnerships created by our “Enzo Ferrari” Department of Engineering (Modena) over the years. Secondly, I am honoured to play the role of conference chair, a position that has led me to be one of the editors of this book. In more than 45 years of experience in this sector, I have seen many developments and evolutions. From the first use of CAD in the industrial sector, today we have reached a high multidisciplinary level and integration with information technology and electronics. The integration of novel tools and approaches in the industrial world is also due to the activity of our scientific sector, capable of developing and integrating innovative tools and methodologies with the traditional themes of industrial engineering. Finally, this conference is held in 2019, an important year for me, marking the conclusion of my mandate as Rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, as well as that of Full Professor for our scientific sector. As the Dean of the ADM association and the scientific sector, I enthusiastically accepted the proposal of Francesco Leali, my collaborator for years and now my colleague, to nominate the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and in particular our “Enzo Ferrari” Department of Engineering, as the location for the ADM 2019 International Conference. I would like to thank both him and my departmental colleagues, in particular the researchers of my lab, LaPIS lab, for organizing this event at the “Enzo Ferrari” Department of Engineering, so dear to me, having been one of its first promoters and founders. Equally, I would like to thank the ADM President Prof. Vincenzo Nigrelli, and Prof. Caterina Rizzi, Coordinator of the ADM Scientific Council, whose members, in turn, I gratefully thank. Further thanks go to the publisher, Springer, who honoured us by publishing the proceedings of this first ADM International Conference in the series “Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering”. Therefore, as editor of this first book, I hope that it will be the first of a new series of international conference proceedings underlining the leading role of our scientific sector in the international scene. The colleagues who will be hosting the next ADM conferences will have the burden, but above all the honour, of continuing this project that today we have started in Modena. Angelo Oreste Andrisano Honorary Conference Chair