Dr Mohamed Ben-Daya has been a professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, since 1999. He gained his PhD in Operations Research in 1988 from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, where he also gained his MSc in 1984. Dr Ben-Daya's research interests are: mathematical programming; production and inventory control; scheduling; and maintenance engineering and quality control. Dr Salih O. Duffuaa has been a professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, since 1994. His research interests include: mathematical modelling; network flow; mathematical programming; quality assurance and control; maintenance engineering; and management optimization of quality and maintenance systems. Dr Duffuaa gained his PhD in Operations Research in 1982 from the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Dr Abdul Raouf has been a professor at the Institute of Management and Technology, University of Management and Leadership in Lahore, Pakistan, since 2000. He gained his PhD from the University of Windsor. Dr Jezdimir Knezvic established the self-financing centre for Management of Industrial Reliability, Cost and Effectiveness (MIRCE) at Exeter University in 1991, where he is still a professor. He has contributed to over 300 publications worldwide including books, papers and reports. Dr Knezvic gained his Bachelors degree, Masters degree and PhD from the University of Belgrade. Dr Daoud Ait-Kadi has been a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Universite Laval, Sainte-Foy, Quebec, since 1990. He gained his PhD from the Universite de Montreal in 1985. Dr Ait-Kadi's research interests include: design and control of production systems; optimization of the maintenance and reliability systems subject to random failures; optimization of a system's life cycle; development of advanced technologies for the design and control of supply chains in a probabilistic context; optimization of validation texts for the reliability of innovative systems; and reliability.