Assemble-to-Order Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Increasingly, manufacturing firms are adopting assemble-to-order (ATO) systems for their production and inventory management since ATO systems enable firms to deliver responsive service to customers while simultaneously effectively eliminating the costly inventory of final products. In a general ATO system consisting of multiple components and multiple products, the components are ordered from external suppliers and stocked in advance. Once a customer order for a final product has arrived, the required components are extracted from the component inventories and assembled into the final product in response to that demand. Assemble-to-order systems have the potential to provide delayed customization and mass customization and are popular in a number of industries, such as consumer electronics, furniture, etc. Sustainability is becoming a central theme in contemporary manufacturing systems. Manufacturing companies aim to provide more environment-friendly products and manufacture them in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. This Special Issue will focus on sustainability issues in assemble-to-order systems. The topics can include, but are not limited to:

• Closed-loop assemble-to-order systems.
• Reverse logistics of assemble-to-order systems.
• Big data analytics in assemble-to-order systems.
• Socially responsible assemble-to-order systems.
• Lifecycle analysis of products manufactured by assemble-to-order systems.
• Environmental issues of assemble-to-order systems.
• Carbon emission in assemble-to-order systems.
• New technologies to improve sustainability in assemble-to-order systems.

Dr. Kai Huang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• assemble-to-order systems
• sustainability
• supply chain management