Critical Infrastructure for Industry 4 Laboratories and Learning Factories in Academia Industry 4 laboratories, Learning Factories and Testlabs are vital facilities for the development and dissemination of the new industrial revolution. However, as they are implemented and reported in the literature at present, they are lacking the specific constituents and their combination and integration that would qualify them as revolutionary  i.e. being clearly distinctive from carefully implemented state of the art technology that has been the norm in the last decades. An essential attribute of Industry 4 systems, as presented in the literature, is the capacity for collection, processing and recording of critical data that describe and characterizes their state and the use of information extracted from the data to monitor, control and optimize the operations. Industry 4 laboratories need to provide real life context for teaching, research, business and industry purposes. This paper discusses the minimal required infrastructure for establishing relevant Industry 4 laboratories.

Challenges in Implementing Industry 4 Laboratories and Learning Factories in Academia Specialised laboratories and learning factories can play a significant role in developing and advancing the Industry 4 concept and production systems. However, there are many challenges that need to be addressed before creating qualified laboratories that have true Industry 4 characteristics. Some of those challenges originate from the varied definitions of Industry 4, from what different institutions and research groups consider criticaltrivial to implement in a laboratory, from Universitiesu0027 policies and regulations, and even taxation rules. Many challenges derive from the complexity of the Industry 4 ecosystem and its continuous evolution. The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic analysis of the challenges in implementing viable Industry 4 laboratories in academia. These challenges need to be defined explicitly before they can be addressed, and relevant laboratories developed to maximise the success of what can be significant investment.