An Employee Competency Development Maturity Model for Industry 4.0 Adoption

Abstract

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is challenging for organizations, as workers lack digital competencies, and research on new roles is limited. Additionally, existing models for its adoption focus on technology incorporation, process improvement, and organizational transformation. Therefore, the opportunity exists for designing a new model that emphasizes developing employees’ competencies. A systematic literature review was conducted regarding existing models for I4.0 adoption and the desired worker competencies. After examining the gap in the current models and the categorization of their main elements, a new maturity model (MM) for I4.0 adoption, based on the development of employees’ competencies, is proposed. The MM helps practitioners and researchers assess an organization’s I4.0 adoption level in order to improve future actions. A validation process for the MM was implemented through the Delphi method. Additionally, a roadmap to guide workforce development is presented, which considers the digital challenges face by employees in advancing a strategic I4.0 adoption. The proposed roadmap allows for depicting new deployment strategies aligned with digital trends and employees’ commitments to sustaining the implementation efforts. This research recognizes talent, organizational culture, and communication plans as key elements for defining actions for developing the skills and competencies required for embracing the I4.0 enabling technologies.