Leadership and Organization for the Companies in the Process of Industry 4.0 Transformation

Abstract

The global effect of disruptive technology has brought about huge productivity improvements in manufacturing. The changing and differentiated demand of the customers pushed the industry to improve their production systems in the Industry 4.0 concept for being more responsive to the changing conditions. The increased knowledge level on the data science made the data analytics possible and more meaningful. Industry 4.0 is the common name used to describe the current trend towards a fully connected and automated manufacturing system, or Smart Factory. All production decisions are optimized based on real time information from a fully integrated and linked set of equipment and people. There is an urgency in the manufacturing companies to change their technology, knowledge, and he workforce skills for the Industry 4.0 understanding in order to stay competitive. The transformation process to the Industry 4.0 concept is a strategic decision and it requires leadership to deploy the strategy all through the organization by training from the top to the bottom of the organization. New achievements in information and communication technologies (ICT) are drastically influencing several industrial sectors. The provision of connectivity, networked entities, real-time data, and pervasive information is shifting paradigms in industries. However, this rapid evolution requires a proper comprehension and definition by scholars and practitioners in order to achieve a broad dissemination of the technological progress. Today, the trend towards a digital revolution in manufacturing is known as "Industry 4.0". However, the footprint of these