This open access book gathers original contributions focused on the transition of the European steel industry to Industry 4.0. It not only investigates how Industry 4.0 can enhance productivity, cost-saving, and sustainability in the steel industry but also helps to comprehend its broad consequences on employment, education and training, human resources, economic resilience and decarbonisation. The content engages with the international debate on Industry 4.0 through the lens of the steel industry from a multidisciplinary perspective. It encourages a scientifically grounded critical approach and includes contributions from humanities and technical disciplines, with a focus on the social dimensions of the phenomenon. This book draws strength from up-to-date international research projects and adopts a strong industry-based perspective, providing a thorough description and analysis of the state of the art of the European steel industry. It also analyzes the trends, outcomes, opportunities, and criticalities arising with the transition to the Industry 4.0 paradigm.
This is an open access book.
About the Author: Dean Stroud is a Reader at Cardiff University School of Social Sciences teaching and researching on skills and workforce development, particularly in relation to the European steel industry, on which he has numerous publications. He has led and participated in numerous projects funded from a range of sources, mostly European, which have focused on skills needs, technological innovation, greening, equality and diversity, and, more generally, the 'human factors' of steel production. Currently, he is co-coordinator of the Erasmus+ European Steel Skills Agenda (ESSA) project and was a sector expert, with Antonius Schröder and Enrico Gibellieri, to the EASME-COSME funded Steel Sector Careers project.
Antonius Johannes Schröder is senior researcher and member of management board of Sozialforschungsstelle (sfs) (Social Research Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences at the TU University Dortmund), responsible for international research. He has worked in and managed several European projects, recently co-ordinating two EU Erasmus+ funded sectoral European Skills Alliances (ESSA and SPIRE-SAIS). He is Chairman of the Focus Group People within the European Steel Technology Platform ESTEP, the chair of the Task Force Non-technological and Social Innovation within Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) and Chair of the senate of the German Professional Association of Social Scientists (BDS).
Luca Antonazzo is a sociologist researching work and organizations. He is currently an external scholar at the Centre for Workplace Research (CWER) - Prague University of Economics and Business. He is interested in studying how macro-trends such as digitalization and technological innovation, the green transition, and global market competition impact the labour markets, reshaping businesses and jobs, and bringing about new skills needs and new perspectives on human capital. He is also interested in social resilience, the factors that enhance it, and how social systems adapt and respond to change.
Clara Behrend is a researcher based at Sozialforschungsstelle, Technical University of Dortmund. Her research interests are focused on the area of work and employment, in the context of Social Innovation, Digitalisation of Work, Social Inequalities, Social Policy, Political Economy, Industrial Relations and Sociology of Labour, Gender Studies and Education Systems, areas in which she has held several research posts.
Valentina Colla holds a Master Degree in Engineering and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Information and Engineering. Presently, she is the Assistant Professor of Metallurgy and responsible for the research team on Information and Communication Technologies for Complex Industrial Systems and Processes (ICT-COISP) of the Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, and Photonics Institute (TeCIP) of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa (Italy). Her research activity concerns simulation, modelling, management and control of industrial processes via traditional and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based techniques, including AI-supported metal science and technology, and solutions to improve energy and resource efficiency in the steel sector. She participated in many EU-funded projects also as project coordinator and She is an active member of the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP).
Aitor Goti is Associate Professor at the University of Deusto. Prior to that, and among others, he was the Director of the Deusto Digital Industry Chair, Operations Deputy Director of an industrial multinational included at the Spanish trading market, and responsible of a research line at the University of Mondragon.
Martin Weinel is a researcher based at Cardiff University. His area of research includes the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, in particular scientific controversies; generation and validation of scientific knowledge, studies in expertise and experience: classification of expertise, technical decision making; relationship between technical and political decision-making. More recently his research has focused on steel and industrial contexts, and he has published extensively across all areas of his research interests.
