Artisans vs Industry 4.0- the adoption of Industry 4.0 will have a profound impact on the manufacturing workforce.
The Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 have stolen the stage lately where industrial revolutions are concerned. These technological advancements in the industry are an inevitability and will touch everything from manufacturing and logistics to product design and marketing.
Automation is central to this trend, including robotic applications and, as the Internet of Things promises, lights out manufacturing where humans are left to handle only the highly skilled jobs of programming the system at large, while machines are left to do the hard labour. While these technologies sweep across continents and redefine business models, there is another growing trend in the marketplace that is contrary to Industry 4.0, but not altogether separate.
There is an opportunity that exists where artisanal craftsmanship meets automation. In this pairing of seemingly separate spheres, you’ll find that the finest handmade products can be produced on a massive scale and meet the demand of the one-button ordering markets of today. They call this creative collaboration Industry 5.0.
There is no substitute, at least not yet, for human senses, and the feeling, thinking brain behind them, and yet there is similarly no way for humans to work with the precision and the unceasing drive of a robot. As a result, we are starting to find coworking robots in new environments beyond their usual factory floors, but in bakeries, coffee shops and even vegetable farms, working alongside craftsmen whose trade is authentic only through their unique human creativity.
And so, it is with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Like the skilled workers of the first industrial revolution, today’s factory and back office workers are seeing tasks once managed by humans handed over to robots and artificial intelligence bots. We are now dealing with smart factories. Nobody is breaking machines yet. But the concern on the factory floor is palpable.
The concern within the HR department and at the executive table with leading manufacturers is no less palpable. Executives recognize that the adoption of Industry 4.0 will require a massive transition in employee skills, recruitment and training.
Companies understand that traditional manufacturing capabilities will need to be augmented (and, eventually, replaced) with new skills and requirements such as automation, programming, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, system integration and software development. And they recognize that Industry 4.0 will allow them to create new operating models which, in turn, will require additional changes for their organization and their employees.
The challenge is significant. HR leaders will need to identify the new skills and capabilities that will really be required in the future. Those current employees willing and able to be upskilled and retrained will need to be identified. New talent will need to be attracted, retained and integrated into the business. New ways of working will need to be developed and formalized. And, all the while, the factory floor will need to keep operating and the business will need to keep growing.
So how does the artisan of Industry 4.0 look? That is why Industry 4.0 needs artisan 4.0.
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