"Industrial Engineering Digital Skills as a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and strategies that with the use of technologies, we are going to identify, design, investigate, solve complex problems of industrial engineering, in engineering systems based on advanced cyber-physical technologies, using modern connected, automated tools, and leading diverse multidisciplinary teams and in virtual environments to solve complex engineering problems."
Profile of the industrial engineer to function successfully in industry 4.0.
Tan et al. (2020) define industrial engineering as science related to the planning, design, development, improvement, implementation, installation, and evaluation of the performance of complex processes or systems that are integrated between people, equipment, technology, and information.
The application of these pillar technologies of industry 4.0 implies a high level of complexity due to the convergence of several technologies and a multidisciplinary approach to face the challenges and interact in the smart environments proposed by the new organizations. The International Engineering Alliance (Washington Agreement) indicates that an engineer must have a minimum training base to ensure that they can design solutions to complex problems in the development of engineering activities, which is why it proposes twelve quality attributes, listed previously in the Table 1, ensuring a solid knowledge base, and professional performance as a Professional Competence Profile (Basir et al., 2019).
The curriculum of universities is the main factor that defines the competence and skill level of graduate industrial engineers.
González-Hernández & Granillo-Macías, (2020), proposed that the specific competencies that industrial engineers must develop based on the Technologies of Information and Communication, lists the pillars of industry 4.0 such as big data, internet of things and simulation.
Industrial Engineering 4.0
Industrial engineering seeks to produce solutions whose effects are foreseen in often uncertain contexts with the integration of men, materials, and the most advanced technology.
The training of the industrial engineer must allow him to be able to face the challenges of industry 4.0.
In this case, we consider making it clear that we define digital skills as a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and strategies that with the use of technologies, we are going to identify, design, investigate, solve complex problems of industrial engineering, in engineering systems using advanced technologies, using modern connected, automated tools, and leading diverse multidisciplinary teams and in virtual environments to solve complex engineering problems.
"Industrial Engineering Digital Skills as a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and strategies that with the use of technologies, we are going to identify, design, investigate, solve complex problems of industrial engineering, in engineering systems based on advanced cyber-physical technologies, using modern connected, automated tools, and leading diverse multidisciplinary teams and in virtual environments to solve complex engineering problems."
Considering these points, Table 6 shows our purpose as digital skills for industrial engineer. The proposed basic digital skills would be implemented during the curricular development of the first semesters of the industrial engineer's training through the continuous learning process, developing the ability to adapt and positively face new digital technologies such as handling large volumes of data, collaborative digital communication, security and digital protection. Digital transversal skills must be developed by future industrial engineers during their professional training according to the graduation profile of the engineering programs and be in accordance with the global context of technological progress, such as the resolution of complex engineering problems with the application of digital resources, critical technological thinking, among others.
Table 6 - Digital skills of the industrial engineer.
4.2. Gaps, challenges, and research opportunities
A key factor for the success of industry 4.0 are digital skills, and the lack of clarity regarding the concept of competition digital in the context of industry 4.0, further agrees that there is not enough knowledge about what skills engineers should have these days, and it is more likely that digitalization will bring new challenges and change the skills that are necessary for successful engineering
Unfortunately, no selected article provides a complete description of the digital competencies required for industrial engineers.
The closure of these gaps must be carried out through strategies to strengthen the teaching-learning process in the region's universities. Likewise, a new interpretation of the role of industrial engineering in today's organizations is required, in addition to joint work between business, academia and the State that is more committed to supporting experimental research. It remains to establish what is the training competency approach that predominates in the Industrial Engineering programs in the universities participating in this work, its theoretical references and how they seek to respond with their training models to the current social and labor situation.
In industry, the main challenge is to define the rules of a new productive space that has been born from the confluence between the physical world and the digital world (International Business Machines, 2019). According to Hernandez-de-Menendez et al. (2020) indicate that, in the next 10 years, the generation of more than 3.5 million new jobs available in the industry is expected 4.0.
In education, especially in engineering, it has brought the need to create a new profile of engineers who should have not only a deep knowledge of their specialization (Vodovozov et al., 2021), that is why it is essential to know the great variety of converging technologies, which blur the boundaries between the physical, the digital, and the biological (Basco et al., 2018).
The training of the industrial engineer must be holistic, integrated by (1) the training of professional interpersonal skills, including: leadership, teamwork, creativity, innovation, communication and collaboration within multidisciplinary and digital teams; (2) for a solid scientific-technological training to solve complex professional problems with the application of technological resources, creating and innovating digital content; and (3) with the ethical training of the industrial engineer. (Capote et al., 2016)
Conclusion
The systematic review of the scientific literature collected in the databases revealed the existence of a gap with reference to the digital skills or abilities of industrial engineers that are necessary for industry 4.0. Knowledge of new technology environments, new business models, in the culture of handling large amounts of data, autonomous learning, among others, has brought the need to create a new profile of the industrial engineer, who should not only have in-depth knowledge of their own specialization, but also of digital skills such as handling large volumes of data, collaborative communication in digital multidisciplinary teams, digital security and protection, solving complex engineering problems with the application of digital resources, technological thinking critic, creation of digital content, digital responsibility, among others.
The industrial engineer is the main actor within this complex system that leads us to rethink their multidisciplinary, technological and holistic training that allows them to develop or enhance digital skills to successfully integrate into an industry 4.0.
It is necessary to carry out new research on the digital skills that industrial engineers must be trained to face with speed, breadth and depth the great transformations that lie ahead. In this sense, the scientific debate is still open for future research on the digital skills or abilities that are necessary for an industrial engineer to successfully integrate into Industry 4.0 organizations.
Article: Rosas Quintero, W. (2022). Digital competences of the industrial engineer in industry 4.0 a systematic vision. Production, 32, e20220028. https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-6513.20220028
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