Today, Global Production Networks (i.e. the nexus of interconnected material and information flows through which products and services are manufactured, assembled and distributed) are confronted with and expected to adapt to:
- sudden and unpredictable large-scale changes of important parameters which are occurring more and more frequently,
- event propagation in networks with high degree of interconnectivity which leads to unforeseen fluctuations, and
- non-equilibrium states which increasingly characterize daily business.
These multi-scale changes deeply influence logistic target achievement and call for robust planning and control strategies. Therefore, understanding the cause and effects of multi-scale changes in production networks is of major interest. New methodological approaches from different science disciplines are promising to contribute to a new level comprehension of network processes. Unconventional methods from biology, perturbation ecology or auditory display are gaining increasing importance as they are confronted with similar challenges. Advancements from the classical disciplines such as mathematics, physics and engineering are also becoming of continuing importance.