Case Study: IntelliAuto

Industry 4.0 has poised to modernise manufacturing sector ad boost the industrial competitiveness.

Specifically, it couples with emerging technology such as Internet of Things (IoT), automation and robotics, to increase productivity and reduce costs and thus digitally transformed the manufacturing sector into the “smart factory”. Although Industry 4.0 has great benefits, it also has significant impact on the manufacturing workforce. Potentially it disrupts the manufacturing processes and also the future of manufacturing workforce and leads to controversial debate such as fear of jobs being taken by robots, ethical choices between job losses and profit, etc.

IntelliAuto is an automobile parts manufacturer with 5000 employees. The organisation has plan in place to move towards a digital manufacturing factory in next 5 years. Although the digital plan is at its infant stage, IntelliAuto wishes to study its full-time workforce by developing profile of employees that measures factors such as income, job satisfaction, career progress, etc. The current aim is to better understand the employees of the organisation. In addition, the study also helps to better prepare for negotiation with unions in future when the organisation is in transition to digital manufacturing factory. Katrina de Jong, the Chief Human Resource Officer, hires Datos Lab Corporation (DLC), a consulting firm, to survey IntelliAuto employees and communicate the results.

A survey of a random sample of 1000 employees was conducted. In this assessment, you play the role of Misha Toutou, a data analyst at DLC. Katrina has written to you regarding her requests and/or queries relating to the employee survey. Her email to you is reproduced below. 

To:                   Misha Toutou, Data Analyst, Datos Lab Corporation

From:              Katrina de Jong, Chief Human Resource Officer Subject:                   

ntelliAuto Employee Survey – Data Analytics

 Dear Misha,

As part of the last enterprise bargaining agreement, we agreed with the unions on two key aspects, namely containing the work hours and increasing the number of female employees in the organisation, where possible. Please complete the following analysis for me and present your findings at our next online meeting via Zoom.

1. The normal working week is 40 hours, I would like to get an overall summary of the number of hours worked at the organisation. Also, I am interested to know the proportion of theemployees who are working more than 60 hours? 

2. Are there any differences in hours worked based on the following? I would like to get a brief summary for each of the following.
   • Gender
   • Job satisfaction
   • Job advancement

3. What is the proportion of female employees? Are the following influencing the hours worked of female employees?

• Age
• Years of education
• Years of employment 

4. In addition, I would like to get an overview of the awareness of Industry 4.0 among different age group and also across union and non-union members. Are they any apparent differences or similarities?

 Lastly, based on your analysis please draw a conclusion and provide your recommendation(s).

I look forward to your presentation. 

Thanks, Katrina