One of the great challenges in flexible production and supply chains is the availability of necessary information at any time and place. Autonomous logistics processes can bring about fast and flexible adaptations to change. This book identifies autonomous logistics processes and details how they differ from conventionally managed processes. Coverage also describes the changes that autonomy will cause in order processing.

Dr.-Ing. Katja Windt is leader of the sub-department "Intelligent Planning and Control Methods for Logistic Systems" within the Bremen Institute of Industrial Technology and Applied Work Sciences (BIBA) at the University of Bremen. She supervises one sub-project ("Process-Orientated Basic Studies for Autonomous Cooperation and Control") of the Collaborative Research Center named "Autonomous Cooperating Logistic Processes - A Paradigm Shift and its Limitations" which is supported by the German Research Foundation. In July 2004 she became member of die Junge Akademie (The Young Academie) in Germany and is elected as speaker of the plenum for a one year period in 2006/2007. In her research she focuses on planning and control methods for production and logistic systems. Prof. Dr. Michael Hülsmann is head of the unit "Management of Sustainable System Development" and academic director of the SCOUT-Institute for Strategic Competence Management in the Faculty for Business Studies and Economics at the University of Bremen. Additionally, he is member of the board of the Collaborative Research Centre 637 "Autonomous Cooperating Logistic Processes - A Paradigm Shift and its Limitations", which is supported by the German Research Foundation. In his research he focuses on strategic management and organisation theory, especially for logistics.