Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Hermann Lodding studied Industrial Engineering & Management at the University of Kaiserslautern. He completed his PhD thesis at the renowned Institute of Production Systems and Logistics in Hannover. Holding a research grant from the German Research Foundation, he then went to ETH Zurich (Switzerland), the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (China) to gain international expertise in manufacturing control and to write his habilitation thesis. Following that, Lodding immersed himself in the industrial practice when he joined Robert Bosch GmbH for five years, heading production planning & control in the supplier's lead plant in Bamberg. Since 2009, he has been appointed both as a professor for production management at the Hamburg University of Technology as well as director of the university's Institute of Production Management & Technology.