CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Rentzsch, Melanie FranziskaMelanie FranziskaRentzschHäberer, SebastianSebastianHäberer2024-11-282024-11-282024https://doi.org/10.24406/publica-3841https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/47938010.1016/j.procir.2024.10.30110.24406/publica-3841Realizing self-organizing production in a distributed systems perspective remains a challenge to date. A promising phenomenon found in nature unfolds its potential in contexts similar to this. The mechanism of empathy is considered a foundational enabler for humans to appropriately adapt to varying demands of social situations. Aiming at approaching self-organizing production, we follow a bio-inspired design paradigm to enable a sound translation of the social model into reasonable designs. Whilst empathy contributes to specific parts, not the overall body of the problem, it provides a promising problem-potential-fit introducing a broader field of mechanisms with rich approaches for systems design.enjournal article