<p>“Knowledge is power, and the right knowledge lets man perform miraculous, almost godlike tasks” - Prof Robert Langdon (The main character in Dan Brown’s novel “The Lost Symbol”)</p><p>It is an honour to write the guest editorial for this special edition of our Journal. This edition commemorates 25 years of academic publishing. It contains articles that are an expansion of a selection from two conferences in 2011. And, our conferences have the same proud heritage. The first one took place in 1986 at the Burgerspark Hotel in Pretoria. As a post-graduate student at the University of Pretoria, I was there, and I participated, under the expert guidance of Proff Kris Adendorff and Paul Kruger, who both instilled the love for Industrial Engineering in me, and who made sure that I realise just how important activities such as the Journal and our annual conferences are for the continued growth of our discipline.</p>