Digitalization is dramatically altering our economy and society. Everything is becoming more dynamic, volatile and different at an enormous pace.

Progress and new developments, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence and robotics, Big Data and machine learning, as well as adaptive manufacturing and virtual reality, are spawning whole new work processes and nascent digital business models. New forms of human-technology interaction have become ubiquitous, and Industry 4.0 has become the new catchword.

In addition to the existing contextual potentials for more process efficiency and higher productivity, companies in all sectors are also faced with the mounting challenges of both internally aroused and competition-induced pressure to act.

Clearly, the future working world will be a different one – and all actors involved in the process need to help shape it. The construction industry and the manual trades are major players within this intermeshed system of systems. This contribution shows how the digital transformation of the sectors can succeed, and it points out the setscrews that will need to be adjusted along the way.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Prof. e. h. Wilhelm Bauer,

Fraunhofer-Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation IAO