ABSTRACT
Digital transformation and Industry 4.0 have been the most important agenda item for businesses since 2011. It looks like they will remain there for some time. This will include not only the transformation of manufacturing systems but also other social interactions of lifelong systems. The speed of this transformation is important; the faster the transformation, the more capability to cope with the changes of the social life. Enterprises should spend a great deal of effort to understand the real dynamics of the “change” and generate a sustainable and implementable roadmap towards that. Failing to comprehend basic components, interactions and methodologies may create permanent problems which would not help improvements even if they are sorted out at a later date. This chapter highlights basic issues of digital transformation that have to be well understood and comprehended. It takes the attention of both scientists and practitioners to the basic challenges of the transformation process and provides some facts which can be considered as the “golden rules” for the sake of better transformation. Keeping those in mind while doing research or renewing respective infrastructure and operation systems with digital capabilities will definitely shorten the time to change and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of respective digital operations. The chapter also provides information on how to cope with the challenges and assure a roadmap to successfully manage the process.
