ABOUT
The fourth industrial revolution is in full swing. Its vision – well known as “Industry 4.0” or “Smart Industry” – to decentralize production processes into autonomous but interconnected units along global value chains is becoming reality. The overall promise to raise customer satisfaction through individualized products, while at the same time increasing productivity and sustainability, will change production and consumption radically.
Yet the social and economic implications of Smart Industry go far beyond ‘simple’ technical links. This transformation offers enormous opportunities, but also raises pressing concerns:
- Will we be facing production without humans, and how will society handle the risk of increasing job losses?
- How will these new technologies reshape organizations, and what new business models are needed to remain competitive and responsible?
- How can we increase productivity without exploiting natural resources, and how can Smart Industry support long-term sustainability?
Addressing these questions requires a human-centric perspective on Smart Industry. Technology alone is not the answer. What matters is how technological change is designed, governed, and embedded into business, work, and society. A truly human-centric Smart Industry ensures that advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and data-driven processes serve people first—empowering workers, strengthening organizations, and benefiting society at large.
As part of a university that carries the motto “High Tech, Human Touch”, the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS) of the University of Twente is uniquely positioned to engage in research on the origins, developments, and consequences of this transformation. Our departments bring expertise in business processes, human resources, information systems, communication sciences, policy studies, sociology, economics and the philosophy of science. Combined with the University’s engineering strengths, we can proactively explore scenarios around critical societal challenges, explain and predict the consequences of Smart Industry for production, management, and governance, and contribute to solutions that are both technologically advanced and socially responsible.
The BMS Smart Industry Working Group has developed a research roadmap focused on the implications of Smart Industry for business, society and people. The roadmap highlights the importance of a human-centric approach, addressing the future of work, sustainable and responsible business models, societal trust, and the circular economy. The full roadmap containing our systematic bibliographic research is available here.
We welcome collaboration with companies, policymakers, and researchers who share our vision of advancing human-centric Smart Industry. We are also open to new colleagues who want to contribute to our working group.
For inquiries or to join our activities, please contact the current research theme chairs:
- Dr. Rainer Harms
- Dr. Vincent Delke
Smart Industry Board Members
Theme chair: Dr. Rainer Harms & Dr. Vincent Delke
Smart Industry theme events
UPDATED SOON
Smart Industry example projects
- ELSA4TI: ELSA Lab for Technical Industry
- EXPERTISE: Experienced Purchasers Education Research Transfer for Industry 4.0 Skills Expertise