Industry 4.0 in systems thinking: From a narrow to a broad spectrum

Abstract

Industry 4.0 has been changing technological reality in manufacturing. The smart industry arises as a new pattern of digital systems, information technology and internet solutions. Impacts of Industry 4.0 are multifaceted and complex for all organizations and economies. Beyond changes, Industry 4.0 brings new organizational dynamics: less operational processes implying in new labour competences and more efficient results. From system thinking, it is possible to look at a transformation as a whole, and system perspective can propose a real understanding of impacts, allowing the development of strategies and policies that contemplate new needs and demands of this paradigm. By analysing interconnected dimensions, this work aims to discuss the relevance of systems thinking to an extensive look at the consequences of this industrial paradigm. As a result, a framework of main impacts and relations of Industry 4.0 by systems thinking was developed.

Leveraging industrial-technological innovation to achieve sustainable development: A systems thinking perspective

“…Systems thinking pay more attention to the role of causality in nature and society [ 64 ]. Under certain conditions of uncertainty and long-term relevance, systems thinking can determine the relevance of system elements through analyzing the existing whole, so as to realize the “observation of elements and their mutual relations” and “find the law of change instead of static slices” [ 65 ]. Therefore, systems thinking is a method that can help people to “learn to take effective decisions” and develop new ways of thinking and action guidelines [ 66 ].…”

Exploring the relationships between Industry 4.0 implementation factors through systems thinking and network analysis

“…Recent studies have come to the conclusion that a systematic approach to Industry 4.0 is inevitable (Freixanet et al, 2020; Hou et al, 2020; Oliveira et al, 2020). For example, Neumann et al (2021) argued that because companies tend to enter unsafe states when they are engaged with process innovation, unanticipated system risks are even more likely to occur when approaching Industry 4.0 through isolated steps.…”

“…However, as advocated by Whysall et al (2019) and Freixanet et al (2020), this continuing technological evolution creates a gap between what technologies can achieve and the competencies required by employees to work effectively in such an evolving environment, adding another layer of complexity to the implementation of Industry 4.0. What is more, Oliveira et al (2020) argued that this internal perspective of complexity with respect to adapting Industry 4.0 must be extended, as the implementation process interacts with external factors such as economic growth and human capital. Hou et al (2020) argued that these different elements of complexity inherent to Industry 4.0 must interact seamlessly to achieve a successful implementation process.…”

Application of Human Factors in the Development Process of Immersive Visual Technologies: Challenges and Future Improvements

“…This requires a training on adopting system thinking where both humanistic and mechanistic views are considered to understand the complexity of a system. This is a shift in paradigm from mechanistic or reductionist view into a more human-technology approach that is more characteristic of our modern world complex systems (Wickens et al, 2004 ; Oliveira et al, 2020 ).…”