Why Industry 4.0 needs Workplace Innovation: a critical look at the German debate on advanced manufacturing
Abstract
Behind labels in the international debate such as “autonomics” and “advanced manufacturing” hides the attempt to accelerate the digitalisation of production. In Germany, the future of manufacturing is intimately bound up with the vision of Industry 4.0. Despite considerable uncertainties and risks, and despite negative experiences with such technology-centred approaches in the past (e.g. with concepts such as the “fully automated factory” or “Enterprise 2.0”), there is a broad, almost unbroken consensus between social partners and policy-makers. Widespread implementation of this technology-centred vision appears to be necessary and crucial for competitiveness, and without alternatives, so that only the question of its socially acceptable design remains to be answered. Our article aims to show, however, that there are alternatives to a concept based on a one-sided, technology-oriented understanding of innovation. It therefore makes an important difference whether Industry 4.0 or Workplace Innovation stands at the centre of such far-reaching plans for the future.
Section
Articles
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
