**7. Discussion and conclusions**

**Figure 5.** Steps to develop Industry 4.0 related services.

**6. Applying Industry 4.0 as a framework for increasing** 

Attractiveness from various perspectives is important so that region would be seen as an interesting and innovative environment. On the other hand, cities and public organizations (for example, hospitals, military bases, elderly houses, schools, parks, etc.) are using tax money for maintaining the welfare and provide services for people and organizations in the region. Based on that background, it would be justified that public organizations would be acting as "platforms" for different actors. This would allow testing their activities and products in "field labs" where education, research, and testing would take place in the same multidisci-

We recommend that Industry 4.0 would be used as a transdisciplinary framework supporting a development of local service ecosystem. Since Industry 4.0 is a European concept and part of European platform, it is proposed that best practices will be benchmarked into European

• "Smart development areas": to recognize the potential "smart" clusters on the region/area

• "Field labs": make public sector organizations, cities, companies and universities to work

• Vision: create the goal and vision for regional development based on "Smart" clusters

The key elements to designing the Local Service Ecosystem for Industry 4.0, are:

together and create "real life learning" environment (field labs) in clusters.

**competitiveness in the region**

142 Digital Transformation in Smart Manufacturing

plinary environment.

approach and experiences.

The principal idea behind this article has been to combine the principles of Industry 4.0 to value network thinking and digitization. Industry 4.0 is about creating significant impact and opportunities where business, technology, services, and innovation intersect. The aim has been to find a transdisciplinary concept supporting higher education, regional development, and business renewal in testing laboratories, while supporting and enabling new growth opportunities in the region.

That requires combining of various approaches. The main challenge is in the utilization of transdisciplinary knowledge and implementation work. The use of new technologies; including digitization and big data can capitalize on new opportunities. According to the experiences of conceptual development work, successful activity in Industry 4.0 is dependent on systematic long-term development on the public sector. The essential topic is preparing of up to date platforms, which enables, controls, and support the operations and creates a business environment to apply approaches. There are several contributing technologies related to Industry 4.0 framework. This implies that there is a major emphasis on competence development, and shared learning to apply these technologies to support transdisciplinary regional development.

The practical implications for renewing a university so that it could better support the adaptation of Industry 4.0 are as follows:

**1.** Higher education institutions should provide education and support for the adaptation of Industry 4.0

It is important to give a relevant role for the higher education institutions to provide and support a transdisciplinary approach to study services in a proper operating environment.

**2.** Research and learning environments in universities should be used to pilot new Industry 4.0 related technologies

One of the core roles for universities is to support enterprises by applied research and by creating of research and learning environments for continuous piloting of new technologies and preparation of new business models on Industry 4.0. At the same time, a local higher education institution's future areas of focus, challenges related to digitization, as well as profiling among other higher education institutions are taken into account.

[8] European Parliament. Briefing 4.0 Industry Digitalization for Productivity and Growth. 2015. Available from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2015/568337/

Renewing a University to Support Smart Manufacturing Within a Region

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72115

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[9] Schuster K, Groß K, Vossen R, Richert A, Jeschke S. Preparing for Industry 4.0—Collaborative virtual learning environments in engineering education. In: Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2015/2016. Cham: Springer

EPRS\_BRI(2015)568337\_EN.pdf

International; 2016. pp. 417-427

**3.** Enterprise-university partnerships should be established

To be successful on new challenges of Industry 4.0 development, enterprise-university partnerships have to be intense and main objective should be a shared learning. Long-term cooperation creates a background for new co-innovation and co-evolution.

Adapting Industry 4.0 framework as a basis for development activities is expected to provide not only an opportunity for remarkable competitive advantage for businesses, but also for regions.
