Autor: Holger Kohl

The SARS-CoV-2-crisis has brought many companies into existential distress. The sudden loss of suppliers and customers as well as short-term changes in regulations and relevant information sources pose challenges for companies. The linking and visualization of information from the corporate environment with internal capabilities remain an unsolved problem. This article shows how a situation picture can help companies to act in a goal-oriented manner.

Trends towards more customized products and shorter product life cycles are creating challenges, which companies are trying to meet with the use of Industrie 4.0 technologies. The digitalization and automation associated with this is causing employees in the manufacturing industry in particular to fear changes in work processes and requirements. This paper proposes four key socio-technical design measures to enable enterprises to cope with the new demands of human work in Industrie 4.0 - and thus to counteract fears. The focus is on increasing entrepreneurial agility and expanding employee skills.