"(...) it is essential that the authors scrutinize the basic principles of automated supply chains and virtualized production systems, and, in line with one of the priorities of iASK&s mission, they also articulate how companies operating in the region of West Hungary may engage in this exponentially growing trend." Excerpt from the foreward of Péter Csermely Tartalomjegyzék: Acknowledgements Contents Preface Introduction 1. Industry 4.0: The Fourth Industrial Revolution 1.1 The concept of Industry 4.0. 1.2 The technological criteria of Industry 4.0 1.3 Four development trends of creating Industry 4.0 systems 1.3.1 Vertical integration of smart production systems 1.3.2 Horizontal integration via a new generation of global value chain networks 1.3.3 Through-engineering across the entire value chain 1.3.4 Exponential technologies - smart manufacturing components 1.4 Integration for the entire product life-cycle 1.5 The benefits of integration and cooperation 1.6 Innovation in the Industry 4.0 era: a new approach to R&D 1.6.1 Knowledge management: supportive PLM and big data systems 1.6.2 Customer-oriented innovation 2. The (Societal) Conditions to Creating Industry 4.0 Solutions 2.1 Necessary conditions and major tasks 2.2 Creating Industry 4.0 strategies 2.3 Realizing Industry 4.0 strategies 2.4 Relationship with the economy 3. The Social Scientific Aspects of Industry 4.0 3.1 Differences between society, economy, and technology in their capability to change 3.2 Labour market impacts 3.3 The basic principles of human-systems engineering 3.4 A portrait of employees at multinational corporations based on a questionnaire survey 3.4.1 Characteristics for human resources 3.4.2 Work and relation to work 3.4.4. The company and relationship with the company 3.4.5 Perceptions of self and society 3.4.6 Comparisons between two groups of employees 4 Global tendencies for the future, trends of sustainability 5. Regional Development Strategies 5.1 "Creative City, Sustainable Region": the KRAFT Index 5.2 City and state indices 5.3 The role of research projects cooperating with their social surroundings 5.4 New approaches in policies 5.5 Why the KRAFT model is relevant, timely, and necessary 5.6 Establishing a creative environment 5.7 The Future University 5.8 "Soft" factors to the fore 5.9 A new way of mobilizing regional capital 5.10 KRAFT potentials 5.11 Possible applications of KRAFT 5.12 The innovative features of the KRAFT Index Afterword References and recommended literature