Assessment of the impact of Industry 4.0 on the skills of Lean professionals
Vagner Agostinho, Crhistian Raffaelo Baldo
Abstract
Manufacturing has evolved over the past few centuries, both in technological and managerial terms; for the latter, Lean Manufacturing (LM) has been widely used to maximize value for customers and minimize waste. The broad use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in manufacturing forms the concept of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), connecting physical and digital systems and integrating value chains. Although with different approaches, LM and I4.0 share the same goals of increasing flexibility and productivity. In fact, two views on their interaction can be extracted from literature: LM serves as a basis for I4.0 and I4.0 improves LM effectiveness. The novelties presented by I4.0 comprise not only the technical scope, but also the behavioral one. It has been unclear, however, how I4.0 affects LM soft practices, especially when it comes to the skills required for Lean professionals to face this new environment. In this regard, this paper addresses the impact of I4.0 on the skills of Lean professionals. One could observe that in addition to technical skills linked to programming and data science, analytical and interpersonal skills make up the sociocultural skills necessary for the professional of the future in the context of I4.0.