Dr Riccardo Manzini is a professor of Logistics and Reliability & Maintenance in the Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna, Italy. His academic research principally deals with planning, design and control of production systems with particular reference to reliability modelling and maintenance system management and optimisation. He has carried out several research projects in co-operation with - and funded by - private and public companies on logistics, industrial plants and maintenance problems. He is the author of about 70 published papers on production systems, logistics and reliability, and a referee of several ISI journals. Dr Alberto Regattieri is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna, Italy. He received his PhD from Parma University. His current research interests include the optimal design of complex production systems; reliability modelling of production systems; and the maintenance of industrial plants. In 2005 he received the Williamson Award Emerald Literati Club for his studies. He has authored or co-authored several books and over 70 technical publications. He manages a Masters course in Maintenance Engineering at the University of Bologna and has carried out several research projects in co-operation with - and funded by - large private and public companies on maintenance problems in Italy. Dr Hoang Pham is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rutgers University, Piscataway. Before joining Rutgers, he was a senior engineering specialist at the Boeing Company and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. His current research includes system reliability modelling; maintenance; and environmental risk assessment. He is the author of three textbooks, 30 book chapters and has published more than 150 papers. He is the editor of two handbooks and more than 10 books; the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Reliability, Quality and Safety Engineering; associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Part A; editor of Springer Series in Reliability Engineering; and a fellow of the IEEE. Dr Emilio Ferrari is a full professor in industrial logistics in the Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna. His current research mostly includes industrial logistics and industrial plants maintenance, design and management. He is the author of more than 70 publications. At the Faculty of Engineering he is currently chairman of the undergraduate course in Engineering and Management, director of the Masters degree in Integrated Logistics, director of the international summer school Francesco Turco and director of the Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering.