Aiming for Industry 4.0: The Case of the Czech Republic

Industry 4.0Industry 4.0 (also Work 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution) is the name for the current trend of digitization, the related automationAutomation of production and the changes in the labour market that it will bring. Industry 4.0 will be accompanied by a change in the labour market, which could cause a threat to the employment of people for whom computers with new management/decision-making systems or robotic systems controlled by these systems will replace human power (for example, production lines that will replace workers with lower qualifications). New jobs will be created, but they will require higher qualification of employees. This chapter is focused on Industry 4.0Industry 4.0 in the Czech steel sector, it focuses on the steel industry in Ostrava, where the steel industry is mainly concentrated. It goes back to the beginnings of steelmaking in the middle of the eighteenth century and maps the gradual development and resulting changes not only for the steel sector itself, but for the entire Ostrava region. In the end, it deals with the possible future of the steel industry in the Czech Republic.