Impact of Industry 4.0 on Organizational Structures

In today's economy, companies have to deal with increasing digital transformation, also known as Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is a broad term that encompasses various perspectives and corporate functions. Basically, the term Industry 4.0 describes the networking and the continuous real-time communication of man, machine, products, processes and environment. As a result, products can be managed along the entire value chain and the increasingly individualized customer requirements can be met. Thus, in relation to Industry 4.0, not only the technological side is considered, but also the process organization. The aim of the present paper is to compare German and French companies regarding their organizational structure due to the developments through Industry 4.0. For this purpose, a pilot study was carried out. Representatives of German and French companies were therefore asked about the implementation level of Industry 4.0 in their companies. This survey especially focuses on the dimension of Process Organization, including corporate strategy, work organization and human resource (HR) development. First of all, the literature concerning Industry 4.0 and the dimension of Process Organization will be analyzed. Further, the research approach and methodology will be introduced followed by the field research and data collection. The results will be analyzed in relation to the differences of the two countries. Finally, the results will be summarized together with an outlook on further possible research fields.