Prof.Dr.-Ing. Kai Mertins was born 1947 in the Federal Republic of Germany. Afterstudies of Control Theory in Hamburg and of Economy together with ProductionTechnology at the Technical University of Berlin he was a member of thescientific staff of the University Institute for Machine Tool and ManufacturingTechnology (IWF). Since 1983 he was head of the department "ProductionControl and Manufacturing Systems" at the Fraunhofer-Institute forProduction Systems and Design Technology (IPK), where he is since 1988 Directorfor Planning Technology. Since 1998 he is Professor for Production Managementat the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. He has more than 20 yearsexperience in design, planning, simulation and control of flexible manufacturingsystems, manufacturing control systems, shop floor control systems, computerintegrated manufacturing, business reengineering and enterprise modelling aswell as Intellectual Capital Statement. He was General Project manager inseveral international industrial projects and gave lectures and seminars at theTechnical University Berlin and several other universities.