A Methodology to Assess the Skills for an Industry 4.0 Factory

Abstract

The rapid change that is affecting the society together with the rising of new technologies are impacting the manufacturing sector as well. Moreover, this change has also an impact on the skills that operators and managers should master. Companies, on their own, must be always updated in order to keep high their competitive advantage. For these reasons, we carried out this study which aims at searching for a new methodology to assess the current level of companies’ workforce in terms of skills needed for taking advantage from the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Starting from an analysis of skills assessment methods, we created DREAMY4Skills, a skills 4.0 assessment model focused on the specific job profile within a company operating in the manufacturing sector. This model is based on a maturity model which enables to make companies be aware of their current status in terms of skills and thus it helps companies in implementing a transformation path to pursue a continuous improvement strategy. This work has two purposes, on one side we would like to have a model useful in practical terms to enable the skills 4.0 assessment held by the workforce, on the other side there is the scientific purpose which is to create another small brick in the literature.