Exploring the Socio-Technical Interplay of Industry 4.0: A Single Case Study of an Italian Manufacturing Organisation

In this position paper, we explore the socio-technical interplay of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is an industrial plan that aims at automating the production process by the adoption of advanced leading-edge technologies down the assembly line. Most of the studies employ a technical perspective that is focused on studying how to integrate various technologies and the resulting benefits for organisations. In contrast, few studies use a socio-technical perspective of Industry 4.0. We close this gap employs the socio-technical lens on an in-depth single case study of a manufacturing organisation that effectively adopted Industry 4.0 technologies. The findings of our studies shed light both on the socio-technical interplay between workers and technologies and the novel role of workers. We conclude proposing a socio-technical framework for an Industry 4.0 context.

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