**Acknowledgements**

aeronautical industries. This company very closely cooperates with top technical universities and research laboratories throughout the EU. Focused areas of interest are: SmartCity (analysis of images from security cameras, detection of parking spaces, marketing of shopping centers); automotive (software for vehicle diagnostics—e.g., D-PDU API, RP 1210, ODX, OTX, and automotive SPICE); healthcare (monitoring of patient safety, analysis of biosignals, EPIQA smart scheduler for healthcare, and physiotherapy tools); telecommunication; and

The biggest Czech steelmaking company with domestic capital and produce the largest amount of steel in the Czech Republic are *Třinecké železárny* together with *Moravia Steel,* ranks among the most significant industrial groups in Middle Europe. The company implements production lines and units at a high degree of automation therefore mainly data are automatically available on systems, SCADA (InTouch), Manufacturing Information System (MIS), ERP (SAP); advanced planning system (APS); maintenance planning and management— ERP and MES; data interconnection between production facilities and nonproduction facilities—central data management system, system wireless coverage, machine-readable product marking, automatic nondestructive tests, modern security technology for IT perimeter.

A company with high progress is *Brisk Tábor* using, for example, automatic welding machine for side electrodes, burning of the insulator, 3D measurement, and modular assembly line for final assembly of the spark plugs. The company is preparing for the gradual transition of all company processes to fully electronic digital platform by bidirectionally linking the flow of information from production technologies to the information system to create fully new

Best practices are identified and there are hundreds of successful examples in the Czech Republic, but they share the fact that these companies use modern technology, know-hows, and large capital investment and dispose of the "will" of the CEOs to closely cooperate and implement issues to Industry 4.0. Also we include companies such as: *AVG*; *Avast* (software security); and *Minerva*—leader in ERP in EMEA region; and automotive and electronic leaders (*Continental Automotive Czech Republic s.r.o*., *Siemens*, *Bosh*, and *Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile* [TPCA]). According to EY [18], 76% of Czech manufacturing companies continue to see Industry 4.0 as an opportunity to grow business. Czech companies associate the benefit of the new industrial revolution most often with productivity gains (51%), efficiency gains (47%), or the provision of data for production control (40%). One-third wants to allocate more than a tenth of its total investment spending over the next 3 years in Industry 4.0 technologies and tools and 57% of companies considered lack of qualified staff the biggest obstacle to implementing Industry 4.0. (*A total of 102 major Czech manufacturing companies took part in the survey.*)

For an industrial country like the Czech Republic, Digital Technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution represent an opportunity and should be taken as an advantage for the next development. The Czech Republic ranks 18th in DESI 2017. Compared to last year, the country progressed in Digital Public Services and remained stable in human capital but

industry (predictive maintenance, capacity planning, and crisis plan).

control systems and robotic workplaces.

36 Digital Transformation in Smart Manufacturing

**6. Conclusions**

This chapter was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and the Sports Czech Republic within the Institutional Support for Long-term Development of a Research Organization in 2017.
