Abstract
Economic and technological developments that took place the last 30 years have resulted in a new form of industrial revolution, widely known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Researchers and professionals worldwide try to foresee and contribute to its development, while the COVID-19 pandemic acted as an accelerator and revealed that changes arising under Industry 4.0 will affect a wide variety of working-life aspects. Among these aspects, skills and competencies needed under I4.0 are expected to change. The current chapter uses the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations (ESCO) database to identify which are the most valuable skills and competencies in the time being, when European businesses are taking part in the so-called digital transformation, part of Industry's 4.0 evolution. The most significant skills and competencies will be presented alongside with an analysis on existing research on the relationship between I4.0 and new skills/competencies needed.
TopIntroduction
Modern business environment seems to be transformed rapidly under COVID-19 era. Digital forms of working and cooperation are used heavily, while more and more industries face the necessity of transforming their traditional operations and product / service development in a more digital and “online – connected – to – customers” manner. Even though the concept of Industry 4.0 gained lot of attention during the last 10 years, only after recent pandemic crisis its implementation seem to touch sectors other than manufacturing as a “current” need – rather than a trend of change in the future.
Existing studies seem to be more oriented to technological factors, while emphasis is put on businesses’ readiness and on maturity models for a successful implementation. Aspects of Industry 4.0 most commonly mentioned (Baur & Wee, 2015) during research are (indicatively): machine flexibility, predictive maintenance, human – robot collaboration, remote monitoring and control, real time supply chain optimization. Statistical process control, digital quality management, data driven design to value and demand prediction, concurrent engineering, virtually guided self-service etc. All these aspects take for granted how human factor will react to changes needed, even though less significant changes (e.g. teleworking, massive use of P.C. and mobile devices in everyday life) took years to be globally implemented and failures occurred in several cases.
Undoubtedly, the forthcoming changes will fully affect the workforce of all sectors, while several studies already report the transformation of the labor – market, moving employers’ interest from low-skills jobs to new ICT-based ones. Moreover, there is a growing interest on new skills development and the necessary training procedure required for existing employees, in order to better fit in teleworking conditions and Industry’s 4.0 technological changes.
Current chapter aim to highlight the challenges emerged under these conditions. Moreover, changes in labor market will be revealed via existing literature and an initiatory analysis of the relationship between “Industry 4.0 and digital skills recognized as significant for its implementation” will be conducted. The analysis will be based on existing literature, while a well – known database will be used to evaluate most significant digital skills required for Industry 4.0, namely:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Industry 4.0: A “marriage” between the physical world/sciences with digital technologies. Digital technologies offer new ways of interconnection with “physical”, effective data collection and wise systems capable to interpret the gathered data for a more holistic, informed decision making (action back to physical world).
Digital Transformation: The integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in fundamental changes to how businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers. Digital transformation is not only about adopting and implementing technological solutions but more significantly about changing the “way” business is done, employees work, and customers gain value. Digital transformation is a new way of thinking and operating, which enriches the logic of both managers and employees.
European Skill/Competency Qualification and Occupation (ESCO): ESCO is the multilingual classification of European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations, launched by European Commission and currently run under DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, alongside with the consultation of various social stakeholders and by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training Cedefop. Its aim is to identify and categorize skills, competences, qualifications and occupations relevant for the EU labour market and education and training. ESCO is an important deliverable to support the Europe 2020 strategy and the New Skills Agenda for Europe.
Human Resource Transformation: Human resource transformation is the procedure of rethinking about which should be the values, skills, competencies, and principles required from employees. The whole procedure should be aligned with the overall business strategy and the willingness of top management for overall digital transformation. Under these circumstances it is required rechartering the HR function/department in the organization.
ICT-Based Jobs: The term often appears as ICT-based mobile work and refers to the advance use of information and communication technologies of various forms in order to achieve customized home office (teleworking is the most known form). Such an arrangement can be done in occasional or regular basis, partly or solely (refers to the hours of work provided from home). Jobs that can achieve such customizations, permitting and facilitating work arrangements carried out outside a person's 'main office', are called ICT-based jobs.