Authors
Selim Erol
Publication date
2016
Journal
First workshop on green (Responsible, Ethical, Social/Sustainable) IT and IS–the corporate perspective, Vienna, WU
Description
Industrial organizations are facing substantial challenges due to a new industrial (r) evolution taking place. The so called Fourth Industrial Revolution (aka Industry 4.0) propagates an increasing digitalization and intelligentization [1] of production processes which inevitably will lead to a higher degree of automation and autonomy of future production systems. Industry 4.0 can be understood as both a “political-economical” program to re-industrialize Europe1 [2],[3] but is also a “techno-logical” consequence of current developments in industry and science [4]. Accordingly, production technology will interweave with information and communication technology to form intelligent networks of factories, machines, devices, materials, and workers which fulfills highly individualized customer demand in a highly responsive manner. However, at the dawn of Industry 4.0 and the common excitement about the potential rise of European industry it seems that sustainability as an important and highly interrelated goal of European policy makers has been lost out of sight. In this article, I argue that a new industrial revolution has to take into account the pressing problem areas (eg growth of human population, environmental pollution, decrease of natural resources, climate change), modern society faces. I will argue for a fourth industrial revolution that is not only targeted at leveraging competitiveness but is also built upon the concept of sustainability as a basis for a long-term economic prosperity and welfare. I argue for information systems as a major enabler for this vision. Finally, I will present an exemplary implementation of an information system that facilitates the …
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