The digitization of manufacturing and its societal challenges: a framework for the future of industrial labor

Abstract

This paper presents prospects for a human-centered design of future industrial labor in a framework depicting the dilemma between what is technologically feasible and labor-politically desirable, under the constraint of an economically reasonable design of work and technology. The analytical approach is the "socio-technical system" which assumes that new technologies will also result in personnel and organizational changes. These considerations are transformed into a framework which brings together the perspectives of human, technology and organization and ultimately leads to a complementary and ethical design of industrial labor under the conditions of a progressive digitization of manufacturing.