The Relevance of Humans and Structure: Managerial and Organizational Challenges in Smart Factories
: Grenda Dennis., Tuikka Anne-Marie
: David Kreps, Taro Komukai, T. V. Gopal, Kaori Ishii
: International Conference on Human Choice and Computers
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
: 2020
: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology
: Human-Centric Computing in a Data-Driven Society
: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology
: 590
: 171
: 180
: 978-3-030-62802-4
: 978-3-030-62803-1
: 1868-4238
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62803-1_14(external)
Rapid technological change that permeates all areas of life characterizes the Industry 4.0. This forces companies to develop digital strategies and transform their businesses into the so-called “smart factory”. However, many managers still understand digitalization as simply automation of production processes and therefore disregard the complexity and challenges it brings for their companies. This paper identifies managerial and organizational challenges from two dimensions: human and structural. From the human dimension, organizations must offer intelligent training concepts, as future employees will increasingly collaborate with machines and therefore need a holistic view of production facilities and comprehensive knowledge. From the structural perspective, organizations need to decentralize the classic management task and create the environment for self-organizations, so that the company is more agile and can quickly respond to changes within the digital era.