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ABSTRACT
This paper analyses the impact of the adoption of 4.0 technologies and of the Italian Government Plan on the Italian industrial structure and on work organisation and workers' conditions. The Italian industrial structure is strongly unbalanced at a territorial level, because it is concentrated in the Northern country, while the South of the country is at a great disadvantage: the industrial and employment divide is therefore very evident. The adoption of 4.0 technologies and the Italian government's plan risk further aggravating this imbalance. Northern Italian industry, however, is also a cause for concern, as it is increasingly dependent on the supply chains of German, and to some extent French, industry. The consequences of the implementation of Industry 4.0 at the factory level on working conditions are negative for workers as it leads to an increase in work rhythms, an increase in workloads, a greater control over work performance and less autonomy for workers. In general, in fact, our research has shown a strong intertwining between 4.0 technologies and the organisational model of Lean Production, an intertwining aimed at increasing the exploitation of workers.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Our research sample is made up of engineering industry companies (industrial sector NACE Rev. 2 codes 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33), and in these cases the distribution of the companies is more unbalanced because more than 65% are in the north of Italy with roughly 73% of the employees.
2 It is also evident the existence of a different specialization between the North-West and the North-East, as well as between North, Center and South (see ). In the first three positions the only Region of the South is Lazio and none of the Centre. The best positioning of the Centre is in the fifth position in four sectors out of seven. Campania, besides, is in the sixth position for sector 33 and the eighth position for sectors 25 and 30.
3 World Input-Output Database.
4 The selection of these Regions is based on an indicator ISES – index of economic and social development – worked out from the North-East Foundation whose members are the employers’ associations of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trento. The index compares the Italian provinces with each other, on this ground it is possible to compare the different Regions. They perform much better than other Italian Regions and better than the North-West.
6 Besides, the Minister didn’t make available the analytical data on the utilisation of the funds, so we can say for sure that there was not a convergence process, but we cannot produce any analytical data set beyond the ones here listed.
7 This confirmed the concern of our research team about the fact that the only interest of Italian companies was to benefit from generous tax incentives and economic contributions.
8 We started a field research on the introduction of industry 4.0 in the metalworker’s sector.
Our sample, available in a report available in English, is made of 30 companies – 3 in Piemonte, 6 in Lombardia, 15 in Veneto, 6 in Emilia – Romagna – ranging from metal casting companies to an automaker, and a sample of different producers of machine tools. This is a work in progress, and we have more case studies in some reports, available only in Italian.
These companies represent different sectors according to the NACE codes. As it is easy to check this sample is very coherent with the actual distribution of companies involved in the Industry 4.0 project funded by the Italian state. We carried out the research interviewing both the managers of the companies and a sample of workers and their delegates.
9 The result was obtained as the ratio between the sum of the value added produced by all the enterprises in each sector at regional (numerator) and national (denominator) level.