Industrial challenges

Abstract

Recently, the German “Industry 4.0” initiative gained momentum, and sketches a vision for future production industries. This chapter reviews industrial challenges in the area of “Industry 4.0”. The findings are structured along the fundamental understanding of production companies as socio-technical systems. Socio-technical systems consist of three important aspects—(i) human, (ii) organizational structures and technology—and, most importantly their mutual relations, and thus, the interdependencies of these aspects. The review reveals that humans need to remain a vital element of future production and need to drive organizational development efforts and continuous workplace improvement. Organizational structures are challenged by changing business models of production companies. Enabling organizational change requires an open organizational culture (e.g., in terms of digital readiness), learning support and digital literacy of all involved stakeholders. In order to create value from Industry 4.0 developments, still technical challenges, in particular vertical and horizontal process integration need be resolved.