Future trends in production engineering : proceedings of the first conference of the German Academic Society for Production Engineering (WGP) Berlin Germany 8th 9th june 2011 To meet and adapt to the current and future trends and issues in technology and society the science committee of The German Academic Society for Production Engineering (WGP) continues to define future topics for production technology.These themes represent not only the key focus for the scientific work of the WGP but also the central themes of the first annual conference in June 2011 whose paper is publically available in this volume. Such themes including electric mobility medical technology lightweight construction and resource efficiency as well as mass production ability have all been identified as future large scale and long term drivers of change.Future trends influence changes sustainably and fundamentally; they permeate society technology economics and value systems and have an effect in virtually all areas of life.The WGP has as part of its research established for itself the goal of not only observing these emerging changes but also of supervising and influencing their development in order to ensure steady progress secure sustainability and shape the future.