A framework to promote social sustainability in industry 4.0

Abstract

Industrial process digitalisation is pervading numerous areas of production system, including sustainability. The study presents a method to affirm how the social sustainability of a company also passes through the protection of the welfare of the worker and describes a case study focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The method considers different aspects including the characteristics of the worker/s, the working context, and the content of the work activity. According to the objectives of social sustainability in the factory environment multifactorial variables related to the workers wellbeing have been defined. IoT system and ad-hoc questionnaires can be used to collect such variables. Following the proposed method, the results of the case study offer many in-depth insights, from the objective analysis of personal characteristics to the organisation of work, and from the application of international standards to the evaluation of psychological parameters.