The primary objective of this collection of articles is to demonstrate how European industries and academic partners developed methods and technologies for automation and smart production systems. Another important objective is to provide examples of success industial applications for use in workshops and in academic courses. Engineers, technicians and science students can use the wide variety of implementations as examples to learn how many different applications and challenges are included in a project like SemI40 and how it is possible to deal with topics such as automation, process optimisation, energy efficiency, swarm intelligence, machine learning for decision making support, advanced transportation and logistics, compliance in CPS,. . . The broad selection of articles offers engineers, scientists, technicians, and managers numerous examples of best-in-class practices by their peers. They provide results and information for a better understanding of the potential impact of some Industry4.0 aspects. Engineers, managers and scientists with a modest background in Industry4.0 topics and methodologies can understand most of the illustrated topics.