In this textbook for upper-undergraduate and postgraduate students, Dr Ali and colleagues provide the reader with information on the effect of Industrial Revolution 4.0 on the construction industry, particularly regarding PMBOK knowledge areas. The authors furnish readers with an understanding of IR 4.0 and reasons for adopting it and provide an in-depth insight into the impact of IR 4.0 on technology and society, particularly in the construction industry. Further to this, they also compare traditional and IR 4.0 project manager’s competencies so that readers can develop their understanding of Project Management Knowledge areas and how IR 4.0 can be used to enhance these knowledge areas. The book is structured logically and sequentially to benefit even novice readers as they progress from basic to more advanced topics related to IR 4.0 and PMBOK. The final main chapter of this book provides an in-depth discussion of the enhancement of PMBOK knowledge areas using IR 4.0, including topics such as project integration management, IR 4.0 enhancements such as digitalization, and a conceptual framework for industry betterment. By the end of the book, readers will have the knowledge and skills to apply IR 4.0 techniques in their future careers in the construction industry. This book is an invaluable resource for students of construction engineering and management at upper-undergraduate and postgraduate levels and for existing industry professionals as part of their continuous professional development.

Digital transformation is reshaping the business arena as new, successful digital business models are increasing agility and presenting better ways to handle business than the traditional alternatives. Industry 4.0 affects everything in our daily lives and is blurring the line between the physical, the biological, and the digital. This created an environment where technology and humans are so closely integrated that it is impacting every activity within the organizations. Specifically, contracting processes and procedures are challenged to align with the new business dynamics as traditional contracts are no longer fitting today's agile and continuously changing environments. Businesses are required to facilitate faster, more secure, soft, and real-time transactions while protecting stakeholders’ rights and obligations. This includes agile contracts which are dynamically handling scope changes, smart contracts that can automate rule-based functions, friction-less contracts that can facilitate different activities, and opportunity contracts that looks toward the future. Innovative and Agile Contracting for Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 analyzes the consequences, benefits, and possible scenarios of contract transformation under the pressure of new technologies and business dynamics in modern times. The chapters cover the problems, issues, complications, strategies, governance, and risks related to the development and enforcement of digital transformation contracting practices. While highlighting topics in the area of digital transformation and contracting such as artificial intelligence, digital business, emerging technologies, and blockchain, this book is ideally intended for business, engineering, and technology practitioners and policy makers, along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in understanding the scope, complexity, and importance of innovative contracts and agile contracting.

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wear­able sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manu­facturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individu­als. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frame­works that advance progress.

Explore the current state of the production, processing, and manufacturing industries and discover what it will take to achieve re-industrialization of the former industrial powerhouses that can counterbalance the benefits of cheap labor providers dominating the industrial sector. This book explores the potential for the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), and Smart Factory technologies to replace the still largely mechanical, people-based systems of offshore locations. Industry 4.0: The Industrial Internet of Things covers Industry 4.0, a term that encapsulates trends and technologies that could rewrite the rules of manufacturing and production. What You'll Learn: Discover the Industrial Internet and Industrial Internet of Things See the technologies that must advance to enable Industry 4.0 and learn what is happening today to make that happen Observe examples of the implementation of Industry 4.0 Apply some of these case studies Discover the potential to take back the lead in manufacturing, and the potential fallout that could result Who This Book is For: Business futurists, business strategists, CEOs and CTOs, and anyone with an interest and an IT or business background; or anyone who may have a keen interest in how the future of IT, industry and production will develop over the next two decades.

A fresh look at a “robot-proof” education in the new age of generative AI. In 2017, Robot-Proof, the first edition, foresaw the advent of the AI economy and called for a new model of higher education designed to help human beings flourish alongside smart machines. That economy has arrived. Creative tasks that, seven years ago, seemed resistant to automation can now be performed with a simple prompt. As a result, we must now learn not only to be conversant with these technologies, but also to comprehend and deploy their outputs. In this revised and updated edition, Joseph Aoun rethinks the university’s mission for a world transformed by AI, advocating for the lifelong endeavor of a “robot-proof” education. Aoun puts forth a framework for a new curriculum, humanics, which integrates technological, data, and human literacies in an experiential setting, and he renews the call for universities to embrace lifelong learning through a social compact with government, employers, and learners themselves. Drawing on the latest developments and debates around generative AI, Robot-Proof is a blueprint for the university as a force for human reinvention in an era of technological change—an era in which we must constantly renegotiate the shifting boundaries between artificial intelligence and the capacities that remain uniquely human.

Enables readers to use real-world data from connected devices to improve product performance, detect design vulnerabilities, and design better solutions Quality in the Era of Industry 4.0 provides an insightful guide in harnessing user performance and behavior data through AI and other Industry 4.0 technologies. This transformative approach enables companies not only to optimize products and services in real-time, but also to anticipate and mitigate likely failures proactively. In a succinct and lucid style, the book presents a pioneering framework for a new paradigm of quality management in the Industry 4.0 landscape. It introduces groundbreaking techniques such as utilizing real-world data to tailor products for superior fit and performance, leveraging connectivity to adapt products to evolving needs and use-cases, and employing cutting-edge manufacturing methods to create bespoke, cost-effective solutions with greater efficiency. Case examples featuring applications from the automotive, mobile device, home appliance, and healthcare industries are used to illustrate how these new quality approaches can be used to benchmark the product’s performance and durability, maintain smart manufacturing, and detect design vulnerabilities. Written by a seasoned expert with experience teaching quality management in both corporate and academic settings, Quality in the Era of Industry 4.0 covers sample topics such as: Evolution of quality through industrial revolutions, from ancient times to the first and second industrial revolutions Quality by customer value creation, explaining differences in producers, stakeholders, and customers in the new digital age, along with new realities brought by Industry 4.0 Data quality dimensions and strategy, data governance, and new talents and skill sets for quality professionals in Industry 4.0 Automated product lifecycle management, predictive quality control, and defect prevention using technologies like smart factories, IoT, and sensors Quality in the Era of Industry 4.0 is a highly valuable resource for product engineers, quality managers, quality engineers and quality consultants, industrial engineers, and systems engineers who wish to make a participatory approach towards data-driven design, economical mass-customization, and late differentiation.

Industrial revolutions have impacted both, manufacturing and service. From the steam engine to digital automated production, the industrial revolutions have conduced significant changes in operations and supply chain management (SCM) processes. Swift changes in manufacturing and service systems have led to phenomenal improvements in productivity. The fast-paced environment brings new challenges and opportunities for the companies that are associated with the adaptation to the new concepts such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber Physical Systems, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, cyber security, data analytics, block chain and cloud technology. These emerging technologies facilitated and expedited the birth of Logistics 4.0. Industrial Revolution 4.0 initiatives in SCM has attracted stakeholders’ attentions due to it is ability to empower using a set of technologies together that helps to execute more efficient production and distribution systems. This initiative has been called Logistics 4.0 of the fourth Industrial Revolution in SCM due to its high potential. Connecting entities, machines, physical items and enterprise resources to each other by using sensors, devices and the internet along the supply chains are the main attributes of Logistics 4.0. IoT enables customers to make more suitable and valuable decisions due to the data-driven structure of the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Besides that, the system’s ability of gathering and analyzing information about the environment at any given time and adapting itself to the rapid changes add significant value to the SCM processes. In this peer-reviewed book, experts from all over the world, in the field present a conceptual framework for Logistics 4.0 and provide examples for usage of Industry 4.0 tools in SCM. This book is a work that will be beneficial for both practitioners and students and academicians, as it covers the theoretical framework, on the one hand, and includes examples of practice and real world.

This book constitutes the proceedings from the 20th Tyrrhenian Workshop on Digital Communications, held September 2009 in Pula, Sardinia, Italy and focused on the "Internet of Things."

Imagine a world in which most projects - personal, social, corporate, organizational and governmental - are successfully accomplished. That is the purpose and the reason for writing this book. There is work to be done. Only a select few projects deliver their purpose, meet their expected goals, achieve sustainable benefits, satisfy most stakeholders, meet their deadlines and stay within their original financial budget. So what is the secret? What can we learn from the thousands of failed projects? And how can we develop a framework or tool that guarantees, or at least significantly increases the chance of, project success? In fact, every aspect of our lives is becoming a set of projects. The speed of change witnessed in the past decade has radically affected the way we organize and manage our companies and work. Many of the traditional activities in organizations will soon be carried out by automation and robots. In this new landscape, projects are becoming an essential model to create value. In short, we are witnessing the rise of the project economy. Leading projects thinker Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez explains the tremendous consequences that this unnoticed disruption is having on our lives and the reasons behind it. He also looks at how leading companies, governments, schools, and universities have already embraced projects as the way to deliver on their strategy and ambitions. Ultimately, this book explains how individuals and companies can develop the competencies required to transform and thrive in the new digital and project-driven economy.

International Academic Conference in Prague 2017