Technical, Economic and Societal Effects of Manufacturing 4.0: Automation, Adaption and Manufacturing in Finland and Beyond

This open access book is among the first cross-disciplinary works about Manufacturing 4.0. It includes chapters about the technical, the economic, and the social aspects of this important phenomenon.  Together the material presented allows the reader to develop a holistic picture of where the manufacturing industry and the parts of the society that depend on it may be going in the future. Manufacturing 4.0 is not only a technical change, nor is it a purely technically driven change, but it is a societal change that has the potential to disrupt the way societies are constructed both in the positive and in the negative.

This book will be of interest to scholars researching manufacturing, technological innovation, innovation management and industry 4.0.

Mikael Collan is a tenured Professor of strategic finance at LUT University in Lappeenranta, Finland. He is an ordinary member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, the oldest of the four Finnish academies of Science and the past president of the Finnish operations research society.

Karl-Erik Michelsen is a Professor at LUT University, Finland, specializing in innovation and technology studies and business history. In 2018, Michelsen was selected the “professor of the year” in Finland.