Fourth industrial revolution-impact of digitalization and Internet on the industrial location

Digitalization has a significant impact on the economic and industrial location of Austria. The technical developments are proceeding rapidly and resulting implications have to be taken into account. In this article we take a look into the past and discuss how industrial productivity has evolved over the past century through technological advances. Based on this analysis, forecasts and trends are presented and discussed for future developments. New innovative concepts of robotics are presented as an example for the digitalization of modern production plants. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of cooperative robotics on employment opportunities and new fields of activity that may arise.