Disruptive innovations and forward-looking policies towards smart value chains

Through the three trends of service innovation, traceability, and the Internet of Things, smart industries get connected in smart value chains. Industrie 4.0 in Germanyis an example of a national policy programme to enhance this development towards smart value chains. The Internet of Things and Services enables traceability and value creation by Smart Factories in smart value chains, which in turn serve other domains such as smart mobility and Smart Health. Hyper connectivity leads to a major shift from the linear value chain, to a non-linear ‘value network.’ Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are at the heart of this transformation to a network-based economy. Also human-robot collaboration, digital education and traceability contribute to this change, which includes legal and cultural aspects. For all stakeholders in the systems and value networks concerned this implies a drastic transformation in how consumers (and others) are reached, connected with, and engaged.