Editorial: Intelligent optimization for manufacturing operations

This special issue is related to the XIV Latin-Ibero-American Conference on Operations Research (CLAIO-2008) held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, September 9–12, 2008. The meeting was hosted by the Colombian Society for Operations Research (SOCIO) and the Latino-Ibero American Association for Operations Research (ALIO) and was jointly organized by four Colombian universities: Universidad del Norte (Barranquilla), Politécnico Grancolombiano Institución Universitaria (Bogotá, D.C), Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (Cartagena de Indias) and Universidad EAFIT (Medellín). Held biannually, the CLAIO conference series highlights recent developments of theory,models, algorithms, and applications of Operations Research in the broadest sense. Previous versionswere held inRio de Janeiro, Brazil (1982, 1988, 1996), Buenos Aires, Argentina (1984, 1990, 1998), Santiago, Chile (1986, 1994), Mexico City (1992, 2000), Concepción, Chile (2002), La Habana, Cuba (2004) and Montevideo, Uruguay (2006). In the CLAIO-2008 version, 11 plenary speakers were invited. A total of 732 papers were presented at the conference venue authored by 1919 researchers from 40 different countries. The number of attendees was about 750 academics, students and practitioners. A total of 8 workshops and 4 tutorials were organized by senior researchers from around the world. It is to highlight the presence of the Colombian Professor Guillermo Owen as Honorary Chair of CLAIO 2008. Professor Owens, currently working at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA, is a world famous researcher in Game Theory. His participation in the conference venue shows the high academic level of