Industry 4.0 and its decentralized technologies: organisational economies (and diseconomies) in the new emerging landscape

Abstract Purpose – This paper focuses on the Industry 4.0 decentralized technologies with the aim of highlighting their economic-organisational dimensions. In particular, the contribution first presents a deeper understanding of the nature and the dynamic of the economies and diseconomies that arise from the adoption and diffusion of decentralized technologies. Second, it aims to shed light on the increasing tension between the hierarchy-based model of production and self-organising model, which involves the pervasive diffusion of decentralized technologies. Design/methodology/approach – Adopting an economic-organizational perspective, deeply rooted in the related extant literature, an analytically consistent model is developed to simultaneously take into account the following variables: adoption density independent variable) and economies of knowledge integration and organizational diseconomies (the costs of a loss of control and the costs of organizational decoupling and recoupling) as dependent variables. Findings- Decentralized technologies allow access to a large quantity and a wide variety of cognitive slacks that have not been possible until now. In doing so, they are leading the transition towards Industry 4.0 multiplying the (unpredictable) opportunities to innovate (i.e. by exaptation and bricolage). Industry 4.0 is an emerging production paradigm that is characterized – with respect to mass production - by a shift of the relative importance of cognitive slack in comparison with tangible slack. Nevertheless, the unrestrainable diffusion of decentralized technologies is not neutral for organizations. On the one hand, these technologies allow for the integration of economies of knowledge, and on the other hand, they involve organizational diseconomies that should not be ignored by managers and researchers. Originality/value- This paper fills a gap in the literature by developing a consistent analytical framework that simultaneously takes into account the economies of knowledge integration (opportunities bricolage and exaptation) and potential organizational diseconomies (the costs of coordination and the loss of control) that arise from the adoption and diffusion of decentralized technologies

Individual and organizational capabilities endowment for the Industry 4.0 landscape: the T-shaped model

Problem under focus: The main features and challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution the need for T-shaped capabilities in the rising 4th Industrial Revolution Theoretical and conceptual background: Information variety Viable System Approach (VSA) (Dynamic) capabilities/competences Findings: Individual level: content and nature of T-shaped profile Organizational level: a nesting architecture of T-Shaped capabilities Subsequent issues to address Organizational conditions for developing and managing T-shaped capabilities based structures Managerial and policy implications and future researc

WORKSHOP on Emerging landscapes. New jobs, new skills, new technologies and new organizational challenges in the Industry 4.0 revolution

The concept of digitizing everything is already a reality. Automation, artificial intelligence, IoT, machine learning and other advanced technologies are capturing and analyzing a wealth of data that gives us sizable amount and types of information to work from. One of the major challenges we face is to change the way we think, train and work with data in order to create value through advanced technologies. The term Industry 4.0 was first introduced in 2011 during the Hannover Fair, as a project in high-tech German Industry. The German Working Group on Industry 4.0 was created in the following year. The group delivered its final report in April 2013 again at the Hannover Fair. In this report the Industry 4.0 was defined as an environment characterized by the strong customization of products and by manufacturing ecosystems with autonomic self-properties, such as self-configuration, self-monitoring, and self-healing. Thus, the term was definitely adopted at the 2015 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting held in January 2015 in Davos (Switzerland) to indicate the rise of a new industrial revolution: the fourth. This revolution is occurring where countless elements comprising industrial systems and services are being interfaced with internet communication technologies to form the smart future factories and manufacturing organizations. Industry 4.0 and its associated key technologies (cloud-based design, Mobile Devices, Big Data, smart manufacturing systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), 3D printing) are currently being driven by disruptive innovation that promises to bring countless new value creation opportunities across all major market sectors. Its vision of ecosystems of smart factories with intelligent and autonomous shop-floor entities is inherently decentralized. This, in turn, entails new complexities within platforms, metaplatforms and socio-technological ecosystems, constantly creating new challenges and opportunities (i.e. responding to customer demands for tailored products and/or creating new products for new customers) for technology enablers, users and users/enablers. Industry 4.0 seems to dictate the end of consolidated models (mental, educational, managerial, organizational, cultural, social etc.) and, at the same time, it asks for new “lenses” and interpretative paradigms enabling old and new actors to succeed in such magmatic landscape. Despite the significant hype around the topic, there is extant research regarding the exact consequences for people, companies and institutions involved. For example, millions of workplaces are being vaporized in a rhythm never seen before, while others are emerging towards becoming of billion-dollar companies (i.e. unicorn companies), which are managed by a reduced number of highly skilled professionals. Industry 4.0 environments are made of diverse technologies spread across many disciplines with many different types of subject matter experts. However, there are few standards and processes designed to assist each entity to speak a common language and think systemically. Academics and practitioners are trying to deeply comprehend the consequences of Industry 4.0 revolution for employees, businesses, technology users/enablers and the society at large. This is particularly challenging in the newly emerging socio-technological context where organizational boundaries and the distinction between services and manufacturing are getting fuzzier than ever. The workshop aims to critically analyze the state-of-the-art about the Industry 4.0 context, its pros and cons and its challenges in terms of: • new competitive rules; • new skills, new jobs, new educational programs; • new labor organization and new organizational models; • new technologies; • new paradigms for the value co-creation; • new models of interactions among human beings, machines and virtual world. Under this perspective, atoms and bits interpenetrate more and more like a fluid and virtuosic dance. These key issues will be debated in the workshop as forerunner ideas for future research on this emerging landscape. Keywords: industry 4.0; value-co-creation; industrial revolution; IoT; industrial metaplatfor