The social demands for manufacturing systems are constantly changing with the times. In recent years, environmental and social issues have been complicating these demands. For example, all industrial sectors need to consider environmentally responsible ways to achieve sustainable development goals in a time of paradigm shifts. The demands in the manufacturing field include high productivity, high quality, low energy consumption, and help for aging operators. To meet these various demands for manufacturing systems, we must create innovative manufacturing technologies to realize advanced production systems.

This special issue focuses on state-of-the-art machine tools and manufacturing technologies to accelerate production engineering innovation. This issue consists of eleven research papers covering the following fields.

- Advanced structure and drive systems in machine tools

- Industrial robot applications

- Advanced cutting technologies

- Evaluation and calibration technologies of motion error

- Surface finishing technologies

- Grinding of hard and brittle materials

All of these research contributions were presented at IMEC2022, a joint event with JIMTOF2022, held in Tokyo, Japan in 2022.

I would like to sincerely thank all the authors for their contributions, and I sincerely hope that the papers in this special issue further contribute to the development of our future society.