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ogy are already quite diverse. It can help with medical
diagnosis and treatment, with maintenance work, with
the design and construction of products, and with steer-
ing aircraft by displaying relevant flight data.
Self-organising production systems
Despite all the technology now being used, the control
of technical production processes is still based main-
lyon intelligent planning and programming by human
experts and operators in production and logistics. In
the future, this explicit control of production process-
es can be replaced by self-organised control. Implicit-
ly controlled systems are already being piloted, tested
and applied. Thanks to fast, wireless data transfer, in-
tegrated intelligent sensors and access to the Internet,
these systems are capable of acting “independently”.
“Intelligent” machines, warehouse systems, equipment
and products can exchange information on their own,
they trigger actions themselves and they control each
other. In the vision of “Industry 4.0” or “cyber-physical
systems”, workers are still partly integrated into indus-
trial production processes but only in a supportive role
or when a critical situation arises. This is not the case
when “collaborative robots”, which work hand in hand
with people, are part of the system.
Characteristic of the tendency to digitalise (almost) all
work processes are some developments in working ac-
Industry 4.0
“Industry 4.0” is a somewhat con-
troversial term which describes a
new level of automation and inter-
connectivity. It is characterised by:
• the autonomous networking
and decision-making capacity of
systems
• widespread use of the Internet
in production and services
(“Internet of Things”)
The first industrial revolution was
characterised by mechanical pro-
duction systems powered by water
and steam, the second revolution
by mass production based on the
division of labour and the help of
electrical energy, the third by the
use of microelectronics to control
machines, and the fourth is charac-
terised by comprehensive intercon-
nectivity.
New Forms of Work
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