Innovative production methods are essential to retain or sharpen the competitive edge any manufacturing company. 15 presentations developed jointly by experienced industrial engineers and technical researchers for the Aachen Machine Tool Colloquial are presented in this book. Various aspects of modern production engineering are scrutinized. The evident trend away from the single machine concepts towards high-performance integrated systems examined, as in the role of quality management as a key function throughout production. Over 150 specialists have contributed to produce this compendium of the new developments in manufacturing industry. In the global market of today, companies have to take this into account to maintain their competitiveness.