Respond to the human and managerial issues generated by the transition to the sustainable industry of the future, at the service of society.
Many industrial companies have already digitized their factories, albeit to varying degrees. The consequences are far-reaching in terms of work transformation, changes in skills requirements, team management and man-machine coupling. While there are many general initiatives to support Industry 4.0 in general, there are very few on the human challenges of this transformation, which are nonetheless major.
In this context, the Industry 4.h Chair, launched in April 2022, aims to respond to the human and managerial issues generated by the transition to the sustainable industry of the future, at the service of society.
The ultimate aim will be to equip the industrial ecosystem with methods and a system for updating skills, based on research and school-industry collaboration, enabling the design of sustainable Industry 4.0 organizations and training curricula.
The originality of the Industry 4.h Chair is to combine the perspective of industrial engineering with that of management science: to understand and support the performance of the industrial process, particularly through technology and its interfaces with people, by drawing on the involvement and skills of employees and managers to contribute to overall performance.
Our missions
“Companies have extensively digitized their factories, leading to significant changes in the nature of work, the skills required, team management, and human-machine interaction. While many initiatives support Industry 4.0 on a broad scale, the human challenges remain insufficiently addressed, even though they are critical. “Through the Industry 4.h Chair, we will contribute to the design of the factories of tomorrow.”
Andreas Riel
Chairholder and Professor of Industrial Engineering and Innovation at Grenoble INP Industrial Engineering
“Industry 4.0 is a comprehensive transformation that requires not ‘siloed’ expertise, but a multidisciplinary perspective on the evolution of work, skills, and organizations. The Industry 4.h Chair is precisely the forum that brings together these diverse perspectives and analyses—industrial engineering, human resources management, shop floor management, training, performance management, and more—to support an industry of the future that is high-performing, sustainable, and people-centered.”
Christian Defélix
Professor of Human Resources Management at Grenoble IAE-INP, and co-founder of the Chair
We are facing a time of transition, driven by environmental and societal upheavals. New technologies will only provide a partial response to the industrial renewal needed to rethink production and distribution systems for goods and services. The human dimension remains the key to industrial transformation. It is the aim of the Industry 4.h Chair to study how people can make the best use of technologies to organize and manage industrial resilience.
Pr Frédéric Noël
Director Grenoble INP - Génie industriel, UGA – School of Industrial Engineering and Management
“AI, particularly generative AI, is profoundly transforming the industry by optimizing processes and enhancing human work. But this rapid evolution poses major challenges: people must be able to adapt to it and find their place within it. AI ethics therefore becomes central to ensuring responsible use that serves people’s needs. It involves both mitigating risks and creating opportunities for upskilling. The key challenge remains building trust by placing human values at the heart of technological transformation.”
Martina Flatscher
AI Strategist at ZF Friedrichshafen AG (Germany)
‘Joining the Industry 4.h International Chair is an opportunity for me to act on a fundamental objective: the positive impact on human beings. As an engineer, I always place social and societal issues at the heart of my priorities. The advent of Industry 4.0, while energising the industrial sector, has raised significant human and managerial challenges. Our role as engineers and experts in industrial engineering and management sciences is crucial in identifying and implementing effective support strategies during this transition to the industry of the future. A major part of our mission is to train and integrate into this new industrial paradigm those who are furthest from employment, while adhering to a profoundly ethical approach’.
Ikram Ahidar
Doctor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Chair program manager
“We participated in one of the training sessions for our high school students, and they had the opportunity to dive into the heart of Industry 4.0 through an immersive and interactive experience. They learned about the principles of digital transformation in business, connected systems, smart automation, and the new challenges related to cybersecurity and data management. This hands-on approach gave them a better understanding of the changes taking place in the industrial world and the skills required for the jobs of tomorrow. A big thank you to Ikram for the quality of her presentation and for facilitating the serious game, which captivated the students while encouraging them to think critically and make decisions. This enriching session plays a vital role in preparing our future technicians and engineers for the technological challenges of tomorrow.”
Edwige Chourre
SII teacher and regional representative for the Elles bougent association
The primary mission of this Chair is to contribute to the sustainable evolution of jobs and organizations in the industry of the future, in light of the growing dominance of new technologies in modern factories. To foster collaboration between humans and machines, while reinforcing each party’s strengths: creativity, ethics, flexibility, intelligence, sensitivity, and a spirit of collaboration on the part of humans. Precision, power, repeatability, and tirelessness on the part of machines. The Chair’s contributions lie primarily in analyzing and understanding the evolution of industrial jobs and organizations. Building on this foundation, our mission is to develop approaches to train a broad range of potential future employees for these new jobs, including the essential cross-functional skills required for them. Through this contribution, we will make the professions of the future’s industrial sector more accessible to those who today do not feel ready to take them on. To achieve our goals and create a real impact, building partnerships with training organizations is an integral part of this mission.
With the introduction of 4.0 technologies in factories,
• How can SMEs prepare for the transition to Industry 5.0?
→ Industry 4.0 by SMEs in Belgium: perceptions and strategies
• How are jobs changing? What new jobs are being created?
→ Learning About Industry 5.0: New Careers, Industry 5.0 Technologies, and Their Use Cases Through a Serious Game
• How to train factory staff in the use of Industry 5.0 technologies and concepts? et à l’insertion dans les nouvelles organisations ?
→ Customized Digital Training in Quality 4.0 and Predictive Maintenance
→ Learning About Industry 5.0: New Careers, Industry 5.0 Technologies, and Their Use Cases Through a Serious Game
→ Circular Factory: a “serious game” designed to educate people about the circular economy
→ A Cybersecurity Training Concept for Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Systems in the Context of Educational Factories in France
→ EasyARGuide: Enhancing the digital readiness of medium-sized companies in Germany
• How can we make jobs in the industry of the future accessible to a wide range of job seekers?
→ Integrating vocational training into the challenges of the industry of the future
• How can we increase the proportion of women in the jobs of the future?
→ Promoting Industry 4.0 and 5.0 Careers Among Young Women
• Comment renforcer l’inclusion et l’accessibilité dans l’industrie du future ?
→ Inclusion of people with disabilities in the Industry of the Future
• What skills are operators and technicians already using, and, more importantly, what skills will be required in the next stages of Industry 4.0 automation?
→ Skills for Industry 4.0: A Structured Framework Based on a Generalized Enterprise Reference Architecture and a Methodological Framework
These are just some of the questions that researchers will be seeking to answer in collaboration with companies. The main lines of research are therefore strongly oriented towards training methods and strategies for the new technologies, professions and organizations of the industry of the future.
L'équipe
Andreas RIEL
Chairholder and Professor of Industrial Engineering and Innovation at Grenoble INP Industrial Engineering
Christian DEFÉLIX
Professor of Human Resources Management at Grenoble IAE-INP, and co-founder of the Chair
Daniel Brissaud
Former Director of Grenoble INP - Génie Industriel, UGA and Professor at Grenoble INP - UGA
Ikram Ahidar
Doctor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Chair program manager
François Pichault
Professor at the University of Liège, Belgium
Marta Pinzone
Assistant Professor at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Jannik Rosemeyer
PhD student at TU Darmstadt University
Anastassiya Zabudkina
PhD student at the University of Liège, Belgium
Esther Bleys
PhD student at the University of Liège, Belgium
Michael Geis
PhD student at TU Darmstadt University
Kanthanet Tharot
PhD student at Grenoble-Alpes University
Danusuya Pachimuthu
Research engineer at Milan Polytechnic
Quoc Bao Duong
Technical manager of the Industry 4.0 platform at Grenoble INP - UGA
Lara Pörtner
PhD student in Data Literacy
Romina Gelardi
PhD student at the University of Liège, Belgium
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