The thirteen essays of this book deal with aspects of production management, which have shown a growing importance in research, teaching and practice within the last few years. The contents range from theoretical issues to case studies. Significant relations among different essays (chapters) give rise to group them into four major parts dealing with separate themes of production management: - fundamental organizational aspects of the production process - general problems and modern concepts of materials management - joint production with surplus, waste and hazardous byproducts - production aspects of cutting stock and trim loss problems. The contributions are connected by their common conceptual framework emphasizing the production theoretic foundation.