Wed, 02.03.2016

Management of Industry 4.0 - Challenges and areas of activities for the successful management of companies

Prof. Dr. Michael Henke

Technical University of Dortmund, Germany

 
Everybody is talking about Industry 4.0. - but what does it really mean?
 
In short: Everything is linked, everything is autonomous. It is about the Internet of Things and Internet of Services.
 
The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0.), at the beginning of which we are today, has been pushed further by the turbulent technological development. Facing the prevailing inflationary use of the term, we should consider: What job enthusiasts vaguely call "Revolution" is for companies rather a fast evolution. Because at the moment the technology is developing faster than the management. Within this circumstance lies the main challenge of this revolution is to make management as fast as technology.
 
The following issues relate to ­­­­­­challenges and areas of activities for the successful management of companies and will be discussed in the course:

• Fitness program for the company

A challenging task to implement Industry 4.0. is not only to make the production fit, for example with the implementation of cyber-physical systems, but the most important thing is the organization and management of implementation of Industry 4.0.

• A private analogy

Through Social Networks and Social Media, we share a huge amount of information in real-time, which was uncommon before. This is the perfect analogy to the Smart Factory of Industry 4.0, in which everything is linked. The main challenges of the management 4.0 is to properly organize exchange of unlimited information and technical data, e.g. from different machines, systems, etc. as well as communication of different functions in the company.

• Wasted advantages

If the management does not do their job, many opportunities of Industry 4.0 will be wasted. In order to achieve the transformation of the organizations, some tools like the Change Management should be implemented.

• Reserved Small-Medium Enterprises

Until now the Small-medium enterprises (SMEs) react rather carefully or reserved concerning Industry 4.0. Germany as a country where its economy highly depends on the SMEs and their engagements within the Industry 4.0. will be necessary for strengthen of the economy. Research and Identification on which area of Industry 4.0 fits best to each type of SMEs should be performed both by scientists and practitioners.

• New business models

Industry 4.0 is strongly based on Big Data. New business opportunities quickly develop from the previously unknown big amount of data. With the implementation of these new business opportunities, different functions are emerged and changed accordingly. New management system is therefore needed.  

•  Measurement and Control

Another important discussion topic of Industry 4.0 is the measuring and control models: „You can’t manage what you can’t measure“. What will be the costs of implementation of Industry 4.0 for my company? What would be the benefits for my company? Only by answering these questions, we can make reasonable decision.
 
 

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Short Profile

 
Prof. Dr. Michael Henke is director of the Enterprise Logistics at Fraunhofer IML and he also holds the chair of Enterprise Logistics at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at TU Dortmund University.
 
His research focuses lie among others on the area of e.g. management of the Industry 4.0, purchasing and supply management, supply chain risk management and financial supply chain management.
 
Michael Henke began his career studying Brewing and Beverage Technology at the Technical University of Munich (Dipl.-Ing.). He gained his doctorate and habilitation in Business and Economics at the Technical University of Munich. During the last year of his habilitation Michael Henke was also working as senior consultant for the Supply Management Group SMG in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
 
Since 2007 he was teaching and researching as professor at the EBS European Business School in Wiesbaden, he started his new career at Fraunhofer IML at the beginning of September 2013.