Implications for Product Design and Industry 4.0

Volume 13 Issue 1 July - September 2018

Research Paper

Implications for Product Design and Industry 4.0

Tom Page*

Associate Professor, Department of Product Design, Nottingham Trent University, England.

Thorsteinsson, G. and Page, T. (2018). The Evolution Of 3d Printing And Industry 4.0.i-manager’s Journal on Future Engineering and Technology, 14(1), 9-21. https://doi.org/10.26634/jse.13.1.15199

Abstract

Increases in workplace productivity and their benefits have been documented since pre-civilisation with similar observable effects to date. Whilst such productivity increases lead to far better product output they have also historically displaced surplus labour into other new innovative forms of labour. Industry 4.0 seeks to once again causes weeping increases to productivity with large disagreement as to whether the effects of “the fourth industrial revolution” will be comparable to that witnessed over the previous century. This research investigates whether or not industry 4.0 will create secondary factors that affect the working environment that designers operate within. The arguments surrounding future labour opportunity and how current labour may be affected by industry 4.0 will be examined and compared to primary research findings in order to make any conclusions about the state of manufacture, white collar work, industry geography, labour opportunity and the designer’s individual roles.