EDITORIAL

Note from the editor

"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

- TS Eliot

The journal had a very successful year. We introduced the Special Edition this year, that selected the best contributions from related conferences and published it in the Special Edition that was issued earlier in November. This had an immediate positive impact on the quality of the submissions to the three participating conferences, because conference authors were competing on quality for the honour of being selected for the Special Edition. Consequently, the journal published a record number of articles this year, highlighting not only the research in Southern African universities in Industrial Engineering and related fields, but also incorporating a significant number of international authors.

We plan to continue with the Special Edition in 2017. It makes the end of the year very challenging, because it means that we in effect publish two editions in November. The Special Edition in the beginning of November, after all the participating conferences are complete, and this final edition at the end of November or early December. We may have to reconsider the timing of the editions in future to make it more sustainable in the longer run.

Back to this edition:

• our feature article in this edition discusses the "flaw of averages" and our reviewers had found this a delightful article to review. The main author is our founding editor, prof Paul Kruger, and it is an honour to have him as part of this edition,

• This edition has a total of 19 articles, and of the 19 articles, 15 are from authors with South African connections and the balance from international authors.

If you have suggestions on how we can take this journal forward, please let me know.

C.S.L. Schutte: Editor