What is Industry 4.0 and what are its implications on HRM Practices?

Abstract

This research paper seeks to find a holistic European definition of Industry 4.0 and wants to investigate the impact Industry 4.0 has on HR practices. To come up with an answer for the first research question a document analysis was conducted with which a matrix consisting of 38 policy documents of 10 different European Industry 4.0 initiatives was established. With this matrix a European Framework of Industry 4.0 was created. In this framework three main components of Industry 4.0 are described namely technical components, social components and production components with each their own components in them like Smart factories, Cyber Physical systems and Big Data. To investigate the impact Industry 4.0 has on HR practices interviews were conducted with experts to gain their insights into what their view is of what impact Industry 4.0 will have on HR practices. The outcome of these interviews was that mainly direct impacts in the form of using new technologies like Big Data are foreseen for the HR Practices. The findings of this paper are that there is a high level of uncertainty around the topic of Industry 4.0 and that therefore managers need to take a pro-active stance and try to anticipate the changes that are necessary for HR Practices.