The Fourth Industrial Revolution: a breakthrough that must be ‘humanised’

17 Nov 2016, by Tim Page in Labour market

The fourth industrial revolution, otherwise known as digital manufacturing, is upon us.

The concept of digital manufacturing has been around for about five years. Perhaps the easiest way to describe it is this: in the 1980s, when I first came into contact with manufacturing, robots were being introduced to the factory floor, to undertake routine assembly tasks speedily and accurately. Now, 30 years later, those robots can talk to each other. They can self-diagnose problems. They can identify how to work with maximum efficiency, industrially and environmentally.

Earlier this week, a conference, ‘Digitalising Manufacturing’, considered the implications of this step change in industry. I was asked to give a trade union perspective.

I noted that technological change has existed since the industrial revolution itself. Industrialisation displaced agriculture. The motor car revolutionised previous forms of travel. There are hundreds of examples of the same phenomenon.

The history of technological change been one of massive potential and great fear. Potential for a better world, fear for those displaced or left behind.

Much evidence shows that technological change, far from being a job destroyer, is actually a net job creator. One downside, however, is that the people losing the old jobs are not necessarily best placed to take the new jobs. Another downside is that new industries do not necessarily create the steady, well-paid jobs of old industries. Technology, in short, creates societal challenges.

Digital manufacturing

To emphasise the positive, digital manufacturing is a fantastic opportunity to modernise the manufacturing sector. It will create business networks that can predict failures and trigger maintenance processes autonomously. It will manage energy use to be less resource intensive and so help to protect the environment. It can help to provide good jobs and better work-life balance. But…

‘The Future of Jobs’, a report published by the World Economic Forum in January 2016, predicted that digital manufacturing would cost some 5m jobs worldwide. If robotics did for blue collar work, so the argument goes, then artificial intelligence will do for white collar work.

A more balanced view is this: digital manufacturing doesn’t need to destroy the jobs and livelihoods of working people if new technology and new processes are introduced in an intelligent way. This would require strong leadership and focus, and a clear voice for trade unions and wider civil society.

Putting humans at the centre

Writing in the Harvard Business Review in 2014, Dov Seidman, the CEO of LRN Corporation, a World Economic Forum global growth company, said:

“Over the course of the twentieth century, the mature economies of the world evolved from being industrial economies to being knowledge economies. Now we are at another watershed moment, transitioning to human economies.”

That’s an interesting word, ‘human’. It is ironic that on the subject of whether technology will finally overwhelm the world of work, possibly creating a cohort of people that are permanently jobless, the policy response to robots could be to stress what it is to be human.

To illustrate his point, Seidman describes the value of the pause: when you hit the pause button on a machine, the action stops. But when humans pause, reflective work begins. Seidman adds that by taking a step back from what is going on in our day-to-day lives, we free ourselves to reconnect with our deepest values and concerns, and face problems with integrity, courage and humility.

That is a wonderful description of how human-based work could be. Of course, not all jobs have such meaning and not all workers have the power to pause. That means we must strive for meaningful jobs as part of our industrial strategy. Trade unions and managers must make the case for workers to be as empowered as possible in their day to day jobs. This includes having the power to pause at times.

This links to the skills debate. The World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation have all identified a radical change in the division of labour along global value chains that also changes the skills demands of employees. Increasingly, cognitive, social and problem solving skills are demanded. This should come as no surprise: those are ‘human’ skills that a robot would struggle to emulate.

Human economies would, of course, be more attractive to employees. In 2011, Hardin Tibbs argued that half the populations of Europe and the United States subscribe to post-modern values of autonomy and diversity. Increasingly, those workers who have a degree of choice choose employers who recognise them as a whole person, not just a unit of labour.

Digital manufacturing is the next stage of industrial transformation. It offers fascinating, exciting opportunities. It can and must be seen positively. And in the tough, globalised economy of the twenty-first century, European industries cannot stand still, even if they want to.

But to say “there is no alternative” sounds hauntingly familiar. This was the message, devoid of hope, that was given to so many communities after the collapse of their industries. Politicians and captains of industry told workers they had to accept their fate in the new world of globalisation. Some attribute the rise of populism, on both sides of the Atlantic, to messages such as this.

Lessons from Germany

So we must put people at the heart of digital manufacturing. The German engineering union IG Metall has developed some clear priorities for the introduction of this production revolution. Alongside Industrie 4.0, the German name for digital manufacturing, IG Metall have called for Arbeit/Work 4.0. This should include:

Job security and fair remuneration

A reduction of workload

A revaluation of activities

Better professional development and learning opportunities;

More time sovereignty

Informational self-determination

Involvement and participation on an equal footing

The introduction of digital manufacturing must be accompanied by the relentless quest for new jobs, better jobs, empowering jobs. The German approach, introducing this with the full involvement of the future labour force, is the right approach. It means working constructively with trade unions and other civil society organisations.

The TUC is ready for the task ahead.