These two volumes contain the Proceedings of the 9th IFAC symposium on Information Control in Manufacturing which took place in Nancy and Metz, France, between 24-26 June, 1998.

This INCOM'98 program had six main themes which focused on the role of information for automating manufacturing operations; the role of information for integrating and distributing automated manufacturing activities in the whole Enterprise and; the role of information for enhancing synergies between humans and machines.

This year's symposium drew attention from more than 35 countries, and the number of the papers presented was over 200. The scientific relevance of this symposium was sponsored by three International Scientific Societies: IFAC with 6 Technical Committees, IFIP and CIRP, and two National Scientific Institutions: CNRS and INRIA. The industrial relevance of this symposium produced sponsorship by more than 10 companies who actively participated in this event.