The study contributes to how transdisciplinary research collaboration can be designed to address the complexity of the human-technology nexus in the context of Industry 5.0 and to identify incentives from the manufacturing industry to engage in transdisciplinary research efforts. Engaged scholarship and work-integrated learning approaches are applied to integrate diverse research disciplines and active stakeholder engagement to address complex societal challenges. The methodology of this research is a qualitative case study, including workshops and focus groups with a project consortium of eight companies, with industry experts and university researchers. Findings contribute to transdisciplinary research collaboration viewed as an iterative continuous process including three phases for the process of reaching full potential of transcending disciplines and organizations. Contribution shows that industry highlights the need to address human challenges in smart technology adoption, motivating engagement in transdisciplinary research. Advancing smart manufacturing requires embracing creativity and innovation in the human-technology nexus. Further, transdisciplinary research collaboration needs to be based on trust, relationships, sharing, courage, mutual understanding and respect for each other's disciplines and expertise. The collaborative design accentuates the significance of transdisciplinary research in university-industry collaboration when moving forward with human-centric and smart manufacturing in line with the evolving Industry 5.0 paradigm

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.

Although widely adopted around the globe, emerging evidence suggests that digitalization investments often underperform. One potential reason is that firms lack organizational readiness to adopt these new technologies. Thus, in this paper, we evaluate both digitalization implementation and digital readiness in the Brazilian auto industry to ascertain how readiness potentially impacts the implementation of new digital technologies and processes. In reviewing the literature on digital transformation in the global automotive sector, a lack of studies was identified on the level of readiness and maturity of the automotive sector in relation to digitalization and innovation brought out by the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies.

To address this gap, a digitalization protocol was drawn up with the aim of verifying the maturity of companies and understanding the degree of readiness for digital transformation. Subsequently, the research was applied to thirteen companies in the automotive sector, including vehicle and engine manufacturers, as well as automotive parts and systems subcontractors in the automotive supply chain. The contribution of this paper identified that the use of digital technologies increases the quality and results of work, facilitates the achievement of objectives, and offers a competitive advantage. Further’ advantages come from improving customer experience, increasing innovation through data analysis, improving manufacturing processes, and bringing greater employee engagement.

Finally, it is highlighted that this study is aligned with the ninth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) proposed by the United Nations: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, which seeks to promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

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

Purpose

This study addresses the critical imperative of quantifying building information modeling (bimalliance) benefits by augmenting existing methodologies, with a focus on monetization. Engaging industry practitioners, the research develops a comprehensive framework through an exhaustive literature review and a survey in the Swedish construction industry, incorporating insights from 128 respondents.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework, validated by industry experts, systematically assesses tangible BIM benefits against associated costs. It introduces a novel method in construction, addressing the lack of a unified approach. The resulting framework facilitates nuanced feasibility determinations by systematically evaluating BIM benefits against costs.

Findings

Despite its acknowledged limitations, the framework effectively captures a comprehensive range of costs and benefits, providing a more accurate and detailed estimation of BIM’s impact on project outcomes.

Practical implications

With practical implications, the framework enhances BIM understanding and application, contributing to effective project management throughout the construction supply chain lifecycle. Moreover, it aims to improve efficacy within the architecture, engineering, construction and operations industry.

Originality/value

The study empowers organizations and decision-makers with a bespoke tool for evaluating BIM feasibility, contributing to decision-making through a clarified numerical representation.

Global competition, new and increased customer demands, delivery, and product quality, and simultaneously, demands for cost efficiency, sustainability and quick response to changes, mean that companies must constantly monitor competitors and increase staff competence to be competitive. Individualized customer needs require adaptation and consequently increased flexibility inmanufacturing where digitization is a prerequisite. To meet increased demands in global competition,systematic competence development is required. As competence needs keep evolving and become increasingly complicated and complex, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) are a natural provider of knowledge and education at all levels withinmanufacturing companies. This inherently increases demands and raises new challenges for HEIs,which in turn requires close co-production with industry to ensure expected educational outcomes aremet. This interactive co-production is a vital element of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL).

Introduction

This paper presents a structured review of the use of crisis management, specifically examining the frameworks of surge capacity, resilience, and dynamic capabilities in healthcare organizations. Thereafter, a novel deductive method based on the framework of dynamic capabilities is developed and applied to investigate crisis management in two hospital cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic distinguishes itself from many other disasters due to its global spread, uncertainty, and prolonged duration. While crisis management in healthcare has often been explained using the surge capacity framework, the need for adaptability in an unfamiliar setting and different information flow makes the dynamic capabilities framework more useful.

Methods

The dynamic capabilities framework’s micro foundations as categories is utilized in this paper for a deductive analysis of crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic in a multiple case study involving two Swedish public hospitals. A novel method, incorporating both dynamic and static capabilities across multiple organizational levels, is developed and explored.

Results

The case study results reveal the utilization of all dynamic capabilities with an increased emphasis at lower organizational levels and a higher prevalence of static capabilities at the regional level. In Case A, lower level managers perceived the hospital manager as brave, supporting sensing, seizing, and transformation at the department level. However, due to information gaps, sensing did not reach regional crisis management, reducing their power. In Case B, with contingency plans not initiated, the hospital faced a lack of management and formed a department manager group for patient care. Seizing was robust at the department level, but regional levels struggled with decisions on crisis versus normal management. The novel method effectively visualizes differences between organizational levels and cases, shedding light on the extent of cooperation or lack there of within the organization.

Conclusion

The researchers conclude that crisis management in a pandemic, benefits from distributed management, attributed to higher dynamic capabilities at lower organizational levels. A pandemic contingency plan should differ from a plan for accidents, supporting the development of routines for the new situation and continuous improvement. The Dynamic Capabilities framework proved successful for exploration in this 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.