Designing new ways of working in Industry 4.0: Aligning humans, technology, and organization in the transition to Industry 4.0

The idea of a fourth industrial revolution and concept of Industry 4.0 presents a vision of highly digitalized and automated smart factories. This vision estimates that the future factories will mostly consist of interconnected Cyber-Physical Systems, which are systems that seamlessly connect and integrate virtual and physical components, thus, blurring the line between cyber and physical space. While such smart factories, for the most part, are still a vision, many industrial companies have begun their journey towards Industry 4.0. These companies are exploring, introducing, and working with new digital technologies such as Autonomous and collaborative robots, Automated Guided Vehicles, Augmented and Virtual Reality devices, and Big Data and Analytics. These novelties are creating new challenges and presenting new opportunities in the sociotechnical systems of industrial companies, and ultimately affecting human well-being and overall system performance.

This Ph.D. thesis applies a sociotechnical perspective to investigate the design of Industrial work systems in the transition to Industry 4.0 and how the introduction of new digital technologies affect human well-being and overall system performance. The thesis is a collection of four academic papers (three journal articles and one conference paper), which aim at answering the main research question of this thesis, which is “How to align humans, technology, and organization to ensure human well-being and system performance in industrial work systems in the transition to industry 4.0?”. This main research question is dissected into four supplementing research questions, which are answered in the four pertaining papers. The empirical data used in these papers are from ten explorative, retrospective case studies conducted at ten industrial companies located in Denmark.

The first paper consists of a systematic literature review aiming at investigating research publications at the intersection between Industry 4.0 and Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E). The findings from this paper suggest that research at this intersection is minimal and that the majority of the publications are from non-HF/E outlets. This paper highlights that around 50% of the publications base their research on estimations and theories, rather than empirical data. This
minimal empirical focus can limit the development of usable prescriptive actions and practices to ensure human well-being and system performance. Thus, this paper suggests that future research should focus on and include descriptive empirical data and increased collaboration between academia and industry. Accommodating the call for further empirically-driven research presented in the first paper, the second paper presents empirical data on how the introduction of new digital technologies might affect perceived human well-being and overall system performance before, during, and after implementation. Based on these results, this paper presents factors that might impact human well-being and overall system performance as well as several implications and recommendations for practitioners on how to ensure human well-being and system performance before, during, and after the implementation of new digital technologies. The third and fourth papers focus on work system design. Each paper presents a framework dealing with aspects of the design of industrial work systems in the transition to Industry 4.0. The third paper presents a conceptual framework for approaching work system (re)design projects, and the fourth paper presents a validated framework for Human-Centered Design of work system in connection to the introduction of new digital technologies and solutions. The framework from the third paper combines HF/E with Lean- and Design methods, while the framework from the fourth paper combines HF/E, work system modeling, and strategy design. The combined application of these frameworks can assist in ensuring human well-being and overall system performance in industrial work systems in the transition to Industry 4.0. Thus, the contribution of this thesis is two-fold. On the one hand, it contributes to theory and research by quantifying a research gap, making recommendations for future research, and presenting descriptive data and conceptual models at the intersection of Industry 4.0 and HF/E. On the other hand, it makes contributions to practice by highlighting implications, making
recommendations, and presenting prescriptive guidelines for designing work systems and assisting in ensuring human well-being and overall system performance in the transition to Industry 4.0.