Industry 4.0—Flexibility of Technical Infonomics by Knowledge Management

Abstract

Within industrial environments, digital transformation is combined with the term “smart factory” and in Germany, in particular, with the term Industry 4.0. A human-free and robot-based production, machine control via digital terminals or data glasses as well as continuous and high actual data transparency in the horizontal and vertical value chains, are fictional images of the future based on pilot environments. However, the current reality looks different; especially in technical operation and machine maintenance. Dirty hands, outdated and unclear operating- and maintenance-instructions and just little digitalization. How do we reach the future? For the industrial service, “technical communication” is currently paid insufficient attention to, which results in a research gap in this scientific area. The contemporary findings are based primarily on research results in ongoing projects. They are, however, only interim results. One result relates, for example, to the completely changed view of technical editors. Editors no longer think into possible action state of affairs and write rigid instructions, but manage metadata so that content can be context-sensitively linked to the time of use. So far, technical editors have been pure information managers and are now becoming knowledge managers or knowledge architects. Consistent digitization, semantic content structures and reformations in the occupational profile of technical writers are some of the basic conditions for flexible infonomics of the future, which are briefly discussed here.