Future Work Lab: Successful production work of tomorrow - experience, feel and shape

Our working environment is changing. In recent years Internet and mobile technologies have begun to change our lives and working conditions fundamentally. The progressive development of information and communication technology (ICT) has ensured powerful embedded systems as well as affordable sensors and actuators in many parts of the industry. "Industrie 4.0" is the slogan in Germany/Europe under which current developments are discussed towards a manufacturing environment made up of intelligent, self-controlling objects that interconnect temporarily to perform certain tasks. The benefits of digitized work and life are already recognized by employees, companies and social partners, what speeds up the development. But how exactly will the future of industrial work be organized? Major areas of the design of industrial work for the future are the human-centered design of technology as well as the interpretation of the interaction between humans and technology. Furthermore, the conditions in terms of working flexibility, work-life balance and employees' participation must be considered. The consideration of the demands on qualifications and new digital work skills is critical for a successful design of future work situations. In the Project FUTURE WORK LAB, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, a new innovation lab for work, people and technology, the FUTURE WORK LAB, is designed and established in Stuttgart, Germany. This innovative Lab makes the design of future work visible, tangible and perceptible. For tangible demonstrators of the technical possibilities of digitalization and automation in the core areas of manufacturing work different courses are implemented in a demonstration center. Course 1 "Today +" shows operational applications for the demonstration of today's industrial work. This course represents the state of the art in the field of industrialized and modern small and medium sized companies (lean production, lean systems, integrated production systems). Two other courses show operational applications for digitization and intelligent automation of industrial work envisioned for the year 2025. They contain different demonstrators between the poles of ""technology -centered automation"" and ""human -centered specialization"", which may become standard in the manufacturing industry around 2025. In addition to this demonstration center sensitization, training, benefits and representation of the social dialogue of sustainable work systems occurs in a skills development center. The third column of the FUTURE WORK LAB provides an idea center which is designed as platform for technology-related research and academic discussion of the changes of future industrial work. Realized, the FUTURE WORK LAB represents an innovative laboratory, which makes the design of future-oriented working concepts transparent for companies, employees, trade unions and all other stakeholders. The lab integrates the demonstration of certain industry 4.0 applications with competence development to the integration of the current state of labor research. For this, the FUTURE WORK LAB holds both an attractive demonstrator field and an innovative training and seminar program which can be used by companies, associations, trade unions and employees. Furthermore, the academically oriented part of the lab is developing new research content. This enables the linkage of future research perspectives on new projects and research programs.