Technologies are steamrolling. Integration is needed.

The industry is in the midst of a digital transformation that blurs the lines between the physical and the virtual. This is a development so important that it is often identified as the fourth industrial revolution, with labels such as Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical Systems. These developments are carried by diverse technological developments such as the Internet-of-Things, intelligent business process management, distributed analytics, 5G networks and deep learning. These technologies are important by themselves, but reach their true potential only when they are applied in an integrated fashion in advanced industrial settings. But truly integrating them is easier said then done, as they are often developed in different arenas, at a very fast pace, and possibly with different objectives. This calls for integration frameworks that help to position these technologies with respect to each other, but also with respect to business goals to be achieved by their application. It is not only about technically connecting complex systems, but also (and perhaps even more) about identifying how this connection supports the value proposition in an industrial context. This means that these frameworks should not only address the 'how' question, but also the 'why' question. To complicate matters even more, this 'why' question should not only cover existing requirements from business, but also take into account a projection into the future. In other words, the application of advanced digital technologies should streamline current business operation and management, but even more safeguard the ability to move forward into new directions. Here we have new directions like the true real-time company, mass-customization of products to their roots, the refocusing from products to customer-centric value propositions, dynamic open eco-systems - and more - the world will not get less dynamic. Effective frameworks should on the one hand be 'abstractable' such that they can be used in communication to management layers, but on the other hand be concrete enough to provide a basis for both business engineering and system engineering - they should describe different perspectives in a consistent way. Developing such frameworks is not a small challenge, but we are working on interesting steps.