The integration of IT and production should result in new, innovative products and services. This requires the development of technical standards and norms that support communication between man and machine or machine and machine. One major challenge of Industry 4.0 is the issue of data security. The dangers of cyber attacks must be mastered and legal issues that are currently still unresolved must be clarified.

The term “Industry 4.0” is intended to express the goal of ushering in a fourth industrial revolution.

First industrial revolution: mechanization with water and steam power
Second industrial revolution: mass production using assembly lines and electrical energy
Third industrial revolution: use of electronics and IT to automate production

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an approach to process automation in which repetitive, manual, time-consuming or error-prone activities are learned and automated by so-called software robots