Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) Impact on Management

Industry 4.0 refers to the development processes that took place in industries primarily in the manufacturing and chain production departments. The managerial decisions made by executives in industry 4.0 setting has significant impacts on various areas such as technology, data management and analytics, data security, risk management, regulatory compliance, validation, and human resource practices. The fourth industrial revolution will see a massive application of Artificial Intelligence, sensors, enterprise-level solution platforms, and Machine Learning. It is also projected that the volume of external and internal Internet of Things (IoT) data will increase in industry 4.0 and will see a dramatic transformation to information. The IR4.0 will lead to an excess flow of data to quality professionals in real-time and this data will emerge from multiple sources simultaneously calling for intelligent use to enable quick and efficient decision making. The managers and quality management personnel need to make appropriate decisions that will see a smooth transition to digital technology to improve the efficiency and quality of produced goods and services.The fourth industrial revolution will make it compulsory for companies to implement effective risk management strategies with the aim of improving product quality and operational efficiency by allowing machine learning and AI to provide the best services. For that reason, the risk management team needs to draw plans that will see the proper implementation of these strategies. Moreover, the quality managers need to ensure effective implementation of Quality 4.0 or EQMS 4.O that will go hand in hand with the fourth industrial revolution. Previous studies on how industry 4.0 influences managerial decisions have been insufficient and unsatisfactory. Therefore, the paper aims at providing a comprehensive discussion of the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution on management.