Abstract
The industrial design profession is engaging with a new manufacturing revolution — Industry4.0 (I4.0). This new paradigm presents new opportunities and challenges for industrial designers. However, it is still unclear what knowledge industrial designers can contribute to manufacturers in an emerging I4.0 context. This pilot study serves to determine the current state of practice of industrial design, and to discover areas of improvement as well as strengths to build on. Most importantly, this study functions as the first step to better qualify questions for a subsequent online questionnaire survey, in conjunction with findings from literature. A focus group was conducted with an even ratio of males to females (n=6) of industrial designers and identified current and future problems and opportunities for industrial design practice and its preparedness for I4.0. The findings suggest poor communication between industrial design and industry, as well as confusion around what I4.0 entails and how to contribute.
Keywords
Industrial design, Industry 4.0, design practice, qualitative
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2020.272
Citation
Koch, C., Kuys, B., and Renda, G. (2020) A pilot study used to better construct a research direction to understand where industrial design fits within the 4th industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), in Boess, S., Cheung, M. and Cain, R. (eds.), Synergy - DRS International Conference 2020, 11-14 August, Held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2020.272
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
A pilot study used to better construct a research direction to understand where industrial design fits within the 4th industrial revolution (Industry 4.0)
The industrial design profession is engaging with a new manufacturing revolution — Industry4.0 (I4.0). This new paradigm presents new opportunities and challenges for industrial designers. However, it is still unclear what knowledge industrial designers can contribute to manufacturers in an emerging I4.0 context. This pilot study serves to determine the current state of practice of industrial design, and to discover areas of improvement as well as strengths to build on. Most importantly, this study functions as the first step to better qualify questions for a subsequent online questionnaire survey, in conjunction with findings from literature. A focus group was conducted with an even ratio of males to females (n=6) of industrial designers and identified current and future problems and opportunities for industrial design practice and its preparedness for I4.0. The findings suggest poor communication between industrial design and industry, as well as confusion around what I4.0 entails and how to contribute.