Industry 4.0 Process Design—Enhancing Organizational and Social Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has been a major buzzword over the last few years, driven by industry associations, academic institutions and political players, conjointly touting it as the new mainstream. However, many companies are hesitant to transform their traditionally grown production operations into the smart, decentralized networks recommended by I4.0 proponents. This is due to the high organizational and investment risks involved and a lack of know-how in I4.0 process design and implementation. In addition, the workforce often opposes I4.0 transformations because they fear losing their jobs or being forced into new processes that they perceive as too rigid and not adapted to their needs. These challenges relate to the organizational and social sustainability of I4.0 processes at a micro level, within the scope of the internal operations of production enterprises. There is insufficient understanding of such micro-level aspects, as most sustainability research has focused on the economic and environmental impact of I4.0 on a macro level. Given the different design layers, interfaces of micro-level structures and behaviours with their macro-level correspondences also need to be put under scrutiny, based on the high connectivity, if not co-location, of actors in I4.0 eco-systems.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to collect conceptual approaches, empirical studies, case studies and literature reviews investigating Industry 4.0 process design pertaining to organizational and social sustainability within production enterprises.

Topics to be explored include, but are not limited to:

• Human factors in Industry 4.0
• Stakeholder involvement in I4.0 process design
• Explainable I4.0 process designs
• Incremental design methods for Industry 4.0 processes
• Model-driven engineering of I4.0 processes
• Process modelling for I4.0 systems
• Risk management processes for Industry 4.0
• Change management for digital transformation
• Technical and organizational interoperability in and across smart factories
• Lean Industry 4.0
• Continuous improvement approaches for Industry 4.0 processes
• Decentralized elicitation of I4.0 processes
• Seamless integration of business and production processes
• I4.0 servitization and business process integration
• Ambidextrous I4.0 process management
• Sensemaking support for I4.0 stakeholders
• Composable I4.0

Dr. Udo Kannengiesser
Prof. Dr. Alois Zoitl
Guest Editors

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