EDITORIAL

Note from the editor

"I don't spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems."

- Elon Musk

Advancing manufacturing has always been an interest for Industrial Engineers. Advanced Manufacturing Technologies is therefore a topic that is often examined in this journal. Additive Manufacturing and specifically 3D printing has been an important development the last 10 years, and in the past few years, 3D printers have become easily accessible, and we are exposed to numerous applications, and even the "printing" of buildings with large scale 3D printers is becoming a reality. Our feature article examines the capability profile of a typical 3D printer, and the influence of different factors on its capability. Two articles in this edition were selected at the RAPDASA 2012 conference for further development, and appear in this edition. This again confirms this journal's recognition of the importance of advanced manufacturing on Industrial Engineering.

Eleven of the sixteen articles are from South African authors, the balance from international authors. This trend is not only due to a stricter acceptance process, where submissions that do not conform to the style and language requirements of the journal are not allowed into the review process, but also due to the increased importance of publishing in an internationally accredited journal for South African researchers.

The following changes have been implemented since our previous edition:

• A limited printed edition is available for current paid subscriptions and on order only if you prefer to buy one. We believe the on-line edition can reach a much wider audience, and limiting printing costs is a wise decision in the changed journal environment. If you want to order a printed edition, please contact our administrator.
• Three issues are currently issued per year, and we have a significant backlog in submissions, making a 4^th issue per year feasible. For now, because we will not be mailing a lot of hard copy journals every month, we can allow each edition to contain more journal articles, therefore increasing the throughput.
• Three section editors are now involved, and the first two articles managed through the review process by section editors appear in this issue. All new submissions are now, after the initial quality and plagiarism checks, assigned to one of 4 editors (myself included), and this will help us to work through the backlog and get to the stage where we can consider a 4^th issue per year.
• When we had only printed editions, we relied heavily on advertisers. Now that we are going to have a much smaller printed run, we recognise that these advertisers are effectively also sponsoring our journal. They are now also given recognition on the SAIIE website.

If you have suggestions on how we can take this journal forward, please let me know. C.S.L. Schutte: Editor