Today, industry is involved in the fourth revolution consisting of the massive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in manufacturing processes. The development of new technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cyber-physical systems, augmented reality, cloud computing, and others has favored the arrival of this new industrial paradigm where the interconnection and the information exchange among all actors is the key, allowing the modification of the products, processes, and business models. The industrial sector is engaged in this digital transformation that will affect all companies that will have to adapt to Industry 4.0 (a name given by an industrial German initiative in 2011), also called smart factories, intelligent manufacturing systems, and so on.

In this framework, Alasdair Gilchrist tries to show the state of the art of Industry 4.0. The book can be divided in three sections. The first three chapters are devoted to introducing the “industrial Internet” concept and show some successful use cases and the new business models that arise in this new industrial revolution. The middle chapters (4 to 12) present the different technologies needed to implement the interconnected smart factories: reference architecture, industrial communication networks and protocols, software design, and security. In the last three chapters, the Industry 4.0 concept is presented with a roadmap proposal for companies.

After reading this volume, it can be concluded that it is a disclosure book aimed at a general public with low or medium technical knowledge who wish to find out what this industry paradigm consists of and what currently existing technologies are necessary for its implementation. The technical section (chapters 4 to 12) is a compendium of technologies not described in depth, many of them well known and even some obsolete without indicating their predecessors (for example, RS232 serial communications versus RS485 488). Moreover, the figures included have been made by hand and are of poor quality; some are incomprehensible. Besides this, all the references included in some of the chapters are web pages of disclosure and/or commercial information. As the objective of this book is to introduce all technologies that can be used in Industry 4.0, technical/scientific manuals or internationally renowned textbooks on different issues such as industrial communications, big data analysis, or web software engineering would have been better recommendations.

We are involved in the initial wave of Industry 4.0 and there is some conceptual dispersion that can lead to confusion; therefore, publications dedicated to clarifying certain aspects of this paradigm are welcome, but they must have a certain technical rigor. From my point of view, this book was hastily published due to the fashion of this new industrial revolution that is taking place. A little more care should have been taken of the contents and the format. Even so, it is a good starting point for those readers wishing to be introduced to the world of smart factories.

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