ABSTRACT
The term Industry 4.0 was first mentioned in 2011 in Germany as a proposal for the development of an economic policy based on high-tech strategies to boost the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. It refers to the industrial application of technologies such as cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and smart robots (e.g. embedded computers and networks, communication protocols and operating systems, learning machines, mobile phones, laptops, etc.), big data, and additive manufacturing. These technologies make it possible to use a virtual representation of physical processes for their control and surveillance. Moreover, they allow the real-time exchange of data between machines, humans, and humans and machines, and end-to-end ICT-based integration of the various activities of the value chain (inbound logistics, production, maintenance, outbound logistics, marketing, service, and transport) within and across organisational boundaries (Hermann et al., 2015; Kagermann et al., 2013; Pfeiffer, 2017; Roblek et al., 2016; Valenduc and Vendramin, 2016).
