Defining industry 4.0 professional archetypes: a data-driven approach

Worldwide industrial systems are evolving by leveraging internet connected technologies to generate new added values for organisations and society. Researchers, policy makers and entrepreneurs refer to such phenomenon as Industry 4.0. An increasing number of experts from different fields are focusing on this topic and bringing their contributions in terms of new technologies and methods. As a consequence of this process, companies that are embracing the new paradigm need to manage new technologies and the relations between them with a multidisciplinary approach. The result is an emerging need for personnel with the capabilities to bridge different fields. Accordingly, Industry 4.0 presents a wide range of skill issues that need to be addressed. While the scientific interest in the technological aspects of Industry 4.0 is constantly growing, an understanding of the implications for the future of work and new professional roles it is likely to give rise to prove to more difficult to get to grips with. In many respects this stems from the heterogeneity, complexity and static nature of job description systems. As a result, the issue is addressed in a qualitative manner which results in findings being uncertain and partial. To rectify this data gap, a method for identifying the skills associated with Industry 4.0 has been developed which is explained in greater detail below. The first step in developing data driven mapping of Industry 4.0 competencies is to develop a method which benefits – rather than suffers – from the heterogeneity of the entities to map. As will be demonstrated below, this allows for the classification of the groups of competencies that can be used to identify and define archetypes of Industry 4.0 workers. Before proceeding to the analysis and results, consideration is given to the literature to allow the reader to contextualise the work and its contribution to scientific discourse.