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This paper reviews the synergy of Industry 4.0 and additive manufacturing (AM) and discusses the integration of data-driven manufacturing systems and product service systems as a key component of the Industry 4.0 revolution. This paper aims to highlight the potential effects of Industry 4.0 on AM via tools such as digitalisation, data transfer, tagging technology, information in Industry 4.0 and intelligent features.

In successive phases of industrialisation, there has been a rise in the use of, and dependence on, data in manufacturing. In this review of Industry 4.0 and AM, the five pillars of success that could see the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, robotics and materials science enabling new levels of interactivity and interdependence between suppliers, producers and users are discussed. The unique effects of AM capabilities, in particular mass customisation and light-weighting, combined with the integration of data and IoT in Industry 4.0, are studied for their potential to support higher efficiencies, greater utility and more ecologically friendly production. This research also illustrates how the digitalisation of manufacturing for Industry 4.0, through the use of IoT and AM, enables new business models and production practices.

The discussion illustrates the potential of combining IoT and AM to provide an escape from the constraints and limitations of conventional mass production whilst achieving economic and ecological savings. It should also be noted that this extends to the agile design and fabrication of increasingly complex parts enabled by simulations of complex production processes and operating systems. This paper also discusses the relationship between Industry 4.0 and AM with respect to improving the quality and robustness of product outcomes, based on real-time data/feedback.

This research shows how a combined approach to research into IoT and AM can create a step change in practice that alters the production and supply paradigm, potentially reducing the ecological impact of industrial systems and product life cycle. This paper demonstrates how the integration of Industry 4.0 and AM could reshape the future of manufacturing and discusses the challenges involved.

The writer of a review article in the IT area depends on a variety of information sources containing authoritative material, hyped‐up reports, or even partial or pure fiction. Sometimes articles are biased or the author has a particular axe to grind — for instance the person is associated with a company and the article is no more than a dressed up sales piece. Academics are usually reliable — although unlikely to damn themselves with faint praise if the next grant is round the corner. I will try to exercise good judgement when assessing my information sources, supressing my various prejudices if possible. But what is meant by the word new? For the purposes of this article ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) protocol (rules) and ATM switches in broadband networks, and aspects of Cable‐TV and cable modems have received a lot of exposure. They will not be discussed here. However, there is much interest in the contest between fibreoptic systems to the home and the conversion of telephone lines to wideband lines. These topics will be discussed.

Our ability to generate information and transport it about the planet on superhighways of optical fibre is about to change the way in which we communicate, work and live. There is not a single aspect of our future that will go untouched by the communication and computing revolution that is now upon us. The change we are about to witness will overshadow the impact of the printed word, industrial revolution, and physical transport. The next major wave of IT development will focus on the delivery of information and experience on demand, in the right form, at the right time, at the right price to fixed or mobile terminals anywhere, over networks of optical fibre, radio, satellite, and optical wireless. Bandwidth, distance and time will no longer be significant cost elements as service and access become dominant.

In many respects the office has changed little over the past 200 years. The introduction of the telephone, copier, fax and computer have only served to speed up and proliferate the basic processes. We are now faced with an increasingly complex and difficult environment that requires fundamental changes to humanize the processes. In this paper we address some of the interface issues that now appear to have near term solutions.

This paper aims to present a practitioner overview of the challenges and growing strategic importance of knowledge and knowledge sharing in organizations, considering roles of learning, and in particular networks, together with collaboration in the development of sustainable competitive edge through knowledge, knowledge management and the activities of knowledge workers.

First, the paper sets the scene for the development of the twenty‐first century knowledge economies, by providing a brief literature overview incorporating some of the key work of Peter Drucker, Charles Handy, Tom Stewart and others. It also provides insights into the London Knowledge Network and its role in supporting organizations in the pursuit of effective knowledge‐focused strategies. Then, via insights into three organizations: one medium‐sized private company (US) and two public (one small, one very large) UK organizations, some of the challenges are considered that organizations experience as they seek to use learning and knowledge as sources of sustainable competitive edge at organizational and often regional, national, international and global levels.

Overall, it was found that knowledge management has not become the latest management fad but, if properly supported, can be used to benefit customers and workforces alike.

Some conclusions are drawn about how organizations are managing the significant change, especially the cultural change, involved in using knowledge as a key driver for future competitiveness. This paper will be of use to any organization wishing to implement knowledge management.

In the late 1960s the Victorian vocational education sector was in crisis. The federal Martin Report into tertiary education excised many of the sector’s university‐level courses and relocated them into new Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs), leaving many ‘middle‐level’ and technician vocational courses in limbo. Junior technical schools also offered apprenticeship and middle‐level courses, further confusing where courses were, or should be situated, suggesting an overall ‘gap’ in program provision. This challenge came when the Technical Schools Division (TSD), the smallest of Victoria’s three division structure (primary, secondary and technical) continued its struggle to maintain sectoral identity through courting acceptance from private industry and the public sector for its credentialed programmes. With significant others, TSD Director Jack Kepert, followed by Director Ted Jackson, responded by designing policy to reshape the TSD’s structure and functions and its reporting relationships within a new technical college and junior technical school system. Jackson’s policy statement, The future role of technical schools and colleges (1970) facilitated these changes. The paper narrates the events constituting this period of policy innovation and evaluates their contribution to the creation of a more seamless

‘The Internet, among other services, has given us a fascinating tool for browsing and exploring new worlds of information, has provided invaluable links among geographically remote research groups, and offered a messaging system we all know and love. But as an efficient source for general reference information, I'm afraid it's not yet ready for prime time.’ So reported Elisabeth Logan of Florida State University, to the National Online Meeting in New York in May.

It is widely recognised that stimulating research and development is the best route to stimulating an economy; and that nurturing R&D is a vital element of economic policy. Yet the “intensity” of R&D in UK organisations in most but not all industries falls well below those of US and Japanese companies and of many other countries.