Purpose 

Both technological and human-centric perspectives need to be acknowledged when combining lean production practices and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. This study aims to explore and explain how lean production practices and I4.0 technologies may coexist to enhance the human-centric perspective of manufacturing operations in the era of Industry 5.0 (I5.0).

Design/methodology/approach

The research approach is an explorative and longitudinal case study. The qualitative data collection encompasses respondents from different job functions and organizational levels to cover the entire organization. In total, 18 interviews with 19 interviewees and five focus groups with a total of 25 participants are included.

Findings

Identified challenges bring forth that manufacturing organizations must have the ability to see beyond lean production philosophy and I4.0 to meet the demand for a human-centric perspective in socially sustainable manufacturing in the era of Industry 5.0.

Practical implications

The study suggests that while lean production practices and I4.0 practices may be considered separately, they need to be integrated as complementary approaches. This underscores the complexity of managing simultaneous organizational changes and new digital initiatives.

Social implications

The research presented illuminates the elusive phenomena comprising the combined aspects of a human-centric perspective, specifically bringing forth implications for the co-existence of lean production practices and I4.0 technologies, in the transformation towards I5.0.

Originality/value

The study contributes to new avenues of research within the field of socially sustainable manufacturing. The study provides an in-depth analysis of the human-centric perspective when transforming organizations towards Industry 5.0.

This paper builds on the need to reinterpret industrial digital transformation and co-workership with the starting point that introducing and implementing digital initiatives is a multifaceted challenge for the manufacturing industry. Hence, this paper addresses how co-workership in manufacturing can be reinterpreted when navigating organizational and technological aspects of industrial digital transformation. To answer this, co-workers at different organizational levels have participated in five focus groups with a total of 25 participants to reinterpret industrial digital transformation over time, collaboratively structuring what the endeavors might entail. The results show that participants are positive towards digital technologies but critical towards organizational changes. It is argued that this affects the four conceptual pairs of the co-workership wheel. Thus, this paper contributes a revised model for co-workership for industrial digital transformation that contributes to the needed technological and organizational innovation

PhD programmes previously focused primarily on developing researchers and preparing PhD graduates for academia. Today, approximately half of PhDs do not end up in academia. PhD programmes are critiqued for not delivering PhDs with the necessary employability skills for the modern workplace (O'Connor et al., 2023). 

To address the critique, higher education has collaborated more closely with different stakeholders to get a better understanding of the needs of these stakeholders. This collaboration focused on relevance and creating value that could benefit various stakeholders. Despite the efforts, PhD programmes still struggle to deliver PhDs that are prepared for the workplace (Valencia-Forrester, 2019).

Work-integrated learning (WIL) can provide PhD students with a more realistic perspective of what is expected in the workplace through an intentional educational approach that uses relevant and authentic work-based experience where theory is integrated with practice-related tasks as part of the curriculum (Bernhard and Olsson, 2023, O'Connor et al., 2023). 

WIL can potentially address the relevance of transferable skills during the PhD. What could still be problematic is that even with the introduction of WIL, a one-size-fits-all approach is adopted. By introducing career crafting, the emphasis is to provide more agency to the student to identify the skills they need actively and custom-make the PhD journey through WIL. This signals a movement from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more individualised approach to better equip each graduate.

WIL has been implemented in undergraduate qualifications, but very little research is available on WIL in PhD education. University West has extensive experience in WIL, while the University of the Free State is just embarking on this journey. The collaboration can enhance both universities' understanding of WIL in PhD programmes and provide a new perspective in thinking about WIL.

The workshop serves as an opportunity to better understand how the workshop organisers' initial ideas could be enhanced and developed further to inform their collaboration in WIL in PhD education from the perspectives of the Swedish and the South African context. 

Contemporary manufacturing organizations formulate strategies towards smart manufacturing. However, strategies often merely regard technological improvements of working processes and activities and pay limited attention to human-centric perspectives. This study addresses the complex phenomenon of reaching socially sustainable smart manufacturing by exploring the human-centric perspectives in the eras of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0. Data were collected through an explorative qualitative case study with focus groups applying the history wall approach to document informants’ choices of activities that impact digitalization. To investigate informants’ interpretations and experiences of digital initiatives and prospects, the history wall approach was coupled with the analytical lens of the co-workership wheel, with its four conceptual pairs: trust and openness, community spirit and cooperation, engagement and meaningfulness, responsibility, and initiative. A total of 17 informants from different organizational levels at a case company participated. Activities, impacting digitalization, brought forward were grouped into technology, organization, and external impact. Results showed that human-centric and intangible perspectives surfaced as prerequisites when navigating industrial digitalization. Further, digital initiatives and prospects risk drowning in re-occurring organizational changes making successful implementation difficult. Thus, organizations cannot rely solely on technology, but must consider activities related to organizational aspects and impacts from the external environment, when introducing digital initiatives. Intrinsically, recognition of the co-workership concept, emphasizing human-centricity, can support the foundation necessary for bridging the gap towards socially sustainable smart manufacturing and strengthening the emerging I5.0 research.

Purpose –

The purpose is to apply the co-workership approach to contribute guidelines for manufacturing managers to exploit the potential of digital technologies through a human-centric perspective.

Design/methodology/approach –

A longitudinal single case study within manufacturing including a mix of qualitative methods with 18 in-depth interviews and focus groups with 25 participants covering all organizational levels and functions.

Findings –

Findings demonstrate that to re-interpret manufacturing management through the lens of Industry 5.0 (I5.0), managers need to respond to the call for a more human-centric perspective by focusing on organizational prerequisites, such as holistic understanding, inclusive organizational change, leadership practices, learning and innovation processes.

Research limitations/implications –

Limitations due to a single case study are compensated with rich data collected over time with the strengths of mixed methods through in-depth interviews and focus groups with participants reflecting and developing ideas jointly.

Practical implications –

Managers’ awareness of organizational prerequisites to promote human perspectives in all functions and at all levels in digital transformation is pivotal. Thus, proposed organizational prerequisites are presented as managers’ guidelines for future innovative manufacturing.

Social implications –

Findings emphasize the need for digital transformation managers to apply a human-centric perspective acknowledging how organizational changes affect the inclusion of employees, and thus challenge culture, structure, communication and trust toward I5.0.

Originality/value –

The study contributes to the emerging field of I5.0 by applying an interdisciplinary approach to understand the elusive phenomena of enfolding technology and humans.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the benefits and barriers for learning in industrial PhD education through the perspectives of industrial PhD students. A work-integrated learning (WIL) approach is applied to highlight key issues that university and industry need to consider promoting mutual learning.

Design/methodology/approach – The empirical context is a Swedish university profiling WIL offering PhD programs in three disciplines for industrial PhD students from both the private and public sectors. Data was gathered using qualitative methods; 19 semistructured interviews with industrial PhD students.

Findings – Findings show that industrial PhD students are developing practical and transferable skills, hence, contributing to research of interest for academia and work–life. Identified benefits for learning include proximity and access to data, project and networks and contextual understanding and tacit knowledge. Barriers for learning are the perceived limited understanding of employers, the dilemma of balancing and switching between different roles, lack of belonging and identity, deficient collaboration agreements and ethical dilemmas.

Research limitations/implications – Contributes insights into an industrial PhD education transforming along with societal needs promoting a future workforce of researchers with skills, new work practices and learning capabilities applicable in the work–life of contemporary society.

Originality/value – This study contributes to the emerging field of studies of alternative doctoral educations by identifying benefits and barriers for learning and providing recommendations for how university and industry may promote learning in a resilient industrial PhD education collaboration.

Doctoral education is transforming, along with societal changes, as it is no longer solely aimed at academic careers. A new landscape with various models for doctoral education is emerging with an increased alignment with industry. This study aims to deepen research by critically exploring industrial PhD education collaboration in Sweden. The perspectives of industrial PhD students, academia, and industry are integrated with work-integrated learning as a theoretical lens to identify benefits, challenges, and prerequisites for how to structure and manage such a collaboration. Qualitative methods are applied including a total of 38 respondents. Industrial PhD students embody PhD education, research, and university-industry collaboration, generating learning and understanding across sectors and industries. The current knowledge of PhD education is advanced by integrating multiple perspectives, to reveal prerequisites that are vital for how to structure and manage industrial PhD education collaboration, to promote work-integrated learning towards a way to build knowledge.

Digital transformation refers to the process of organizational change, evolving over time for value creation and appropriation aiding for smart manufacturing (Skog, 2019). Regarding the role of organizational means, there is an embedded dynamic generator of challenges, opportunities, and resources that affect the digital transformation at various organizational levels related to social factors such as values, culture, and trust (Ibid). Earlier studies of the Swedish manufacturing industry imply that as the number of digital technologies increase within organizations, while striving towards becoming a smart factory, cooperation and social factors become more imperative (Björkdahl, 2020). By following this reasoning, understanding organizational prerequisites that facilitate the human-centric perspective in relation to digital transformation is crucial when approaching smart manufacturing by moving from Industry 4.0 (I4.0) towards Industry 5.0 (I5.0) (Navarandi, 2019). It is argued that a prerequisite for digital transformation is the employees’ ability to cross organizational boundaries both horizontally and vertically (Carlsson et al., 2022) challenging management. The aim of this study is to explore organizational prerequisites for co-workership in digital transformation towards smart manufacturing. The concept of the co-workership wheel reflects the employee as an autonomous actor within the organization. As such, co-workership is vital for managing organizational change, e.g., digital transformation, capturing employees’ initiatives and prospects (Andersson, et al. 2021). As illustrated in Figure 1 the co-workership wheel consists of four conceptual pairs: Trust and Openness; Community Spirit and Cooperation; Engagement and Meaningfulness; Responsibility and Initiative. Together these four pairs describe the foundation for co-workership within the organization, feedbacking a development process towards smart manufacturing.

Inspired by the application of the co-workership wheel in the health care sector (ibid), this study builds on previous work by Carlsson et al. (2022) to further contribute to the exploration of co-workership in the manufacturing sector strengthening the I5.0 emerging research. By applying a qualitative case-study, organizational prerequisites for co-workership in digital transformation are explored (Yin, 2018). The term co-worker is herein applied in a general sense to explore employees’ experiences covering both managerial levels and service functions. The case company is a large manufacturing organization in the Swedish energy sector. In-depth interviews (n=29) were conducted over nine months (Oct. 20 – Jun. 21), exploring co-workers' current and retrospective experiences of the early phases of digital transformation. Referral sampling was applied for selecting informants from functions such as design, quality, production, logistics, digitalization development leaders, and corporate service functions including HR, IT, and financial controllers. Access was granted to six internal documents guiding all employees covering the organization’s strategic work with industrial digitalization, vision, and core values: responsibility, excellence, and innovation. Several rounds of data analysis followed, identifying organizational prerequisites related to each of the four conceptual pairs (Andersson et al., 2020) through a coding scheme based on the co-workership wheel, Findings show that employees interpreted digital transformation as difficult to navigate due to limited communication and cooperation across the organization. Furthermore, the need for trust in digital technologies and employee engagement for transformation are emphasized by informants. Thus, it is argued that an adaptive organizational culture and a focus on learning and competence are necessary organizational prerequisites for translating the means of digital transformation. Managers in the manufacturing sector hence need awareness and understanding of when and how to apply co-workership for transformational change. Manufacturing cultures need to absorb a more human-centric perspective when navigating I4.0, moving in incremental steps encompassing the whole organization, rather than treating digital transformation as scattered and disruptive activities. We argue that the findings give useful implications for manufacturing organizations navigating the challenges of digital transformation to reach the benefits of smart manufacturing. As digital transformation cuts across organizational structures and working processes, there is a need to highlight a human-centric perspective on smart manufacturing by applying the conceptual pairs of the co-workership wheel. Lessons learned show that by applying a co-workership approach with its aspects of trust and openness, community spirit and cooperation, engagement and meaningfulness, responsibility and initiatives, management needs to encourage organizational prerequisites such as an adaptive culture and learning and competence for reaching and sustaining a human-centric perspective on digital transformation.

Aim/Purpose:

The aim is to explore the benefits and challenges of industrial PhD education through the perspectives of industrial PhD students who are acting in the intersection of academia and work-life by applying a work-integrated learning (WIL) approach to highlight issues that academy and industry need to consider.

Background:

Industrial PhD education is a vital part of collaboration between academia and society although still an under-researched field. This paper reveals the perspectives of the industrial PhD students who are at the same time involved in both academia and industry, with the same academic demands as traditionally enrolled academic PhD students combined with demands and expectations from their industrial employers.

Methodology:

Qualitative methods were applied and 19 semi-structured interviews with industrial PhD students were conducted. The empirical context is a Swedish university profiling work-integrated learning offering PhD programs for industrial PhD students from both the private and public sectors.

Contribution:

This explorative study contributes to advance the current knowledge of third cycle education to deepen the insights into benefits and challenges in industrial PhD education through the perspectives of industrial PhD students acting in the intersection of academia and work-life. By applying a WIL approach on third-cycle education, issues that academy and industry need to consider for successful collaboration within doctoral education are identified.

Findings:

Findings indicate that industrial PhD students acting in the intersection of academia and work-life are developing practical and transferable skills requested by employers outside academia, hence increasing societal impact. Findings show that industrial PhD education generates several WIL benefits. Novel challenges identified include unclear financial agreements, conflicts of interest, administrative bureaucracy, work promotion opportunities, and lack of be-longing and identity, hence not exploiting the full potential of WIL. This has been further intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic with restricted travel and dependence solely on virtual connections.

Recommendations for Practitioners:

It is vital to recognize that challenges do exist and need to be considered to strengthen industrial PhD education as well as collaboration between academia and society. Increased communication and continuous interactions between academia and industry during the entire industrial PhD education are needed.

Recommendations for Researchers: Future studies of WIL in industrial PhD education are encouraged.

Impact of society

This study contributes insights into PhD education transforming along with societal needs based on successful university-society collaboration.

Future Research:

Further research is encouraged to deepen and broaden the industry perspective of industrial PhD education.

The aim of this study is to further expand research on cross-boundary organisational collaboration for learning by focusing on industrial PhD education and the overlapping role of industrial PhD students. This paper reveals the perspectives of industrial PhD students, academia, and industry involved in collaboration for organisational learning. Work-integrated learning is applied as a theoretical lens to identify vital issues for collaboration. Qualitative methods are applied. The sample includes three categories of respondents (in total 38): 19 industrial PhD students from the three disciplines, 9 representatives from academia and 10 respondents from industry. This explorative study contributes to advance the current knowledge on PhD education by integrating multiple perspectives insights to reveal issues that are vital for a successful industrial PhD education collaboration to generate organisational learning. Findings state that industrial PhD education collaboration is generating organizational learning and understanding across sectors and industries.