New technical and social infrastructures for The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The pilot companies of the project of the technology network Socio-technical systems deal in particular with the social aspects that go hand in hand with the digitization of work. The aim is to actively involve employees, adapt their working conditions and qualifications and implement the transformation of the world of work together. The challenge here: to reconcile the needs of the employees and the corporate goals. This combination of future technologies, organizational design, change communication and the involvement of employees is viewed as a socio-technical system. On the way to Industry 4.0, real-time capable, intelligently networked systems are shaping everyday work and this requires not only technological, but also new social infrastructures.

Systems engineering links specialist disciplines – such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control and software technology – and understands products and production systems as a unit over their entire life cycle. Instead of systems engineering, the term advanced systems engineering is now also being used – as a technology trend which, in addition to agile development methods and cloud-based collaborations, includes so-called model-based systems engineering in order to develop systems holistically with the help of models. The digital twin and the use of AI are also part of the advanced systems engineering toolbox for digitally mapping products or improving them using intelligent algorithms.