ABSTRACT
Industry 4.0 is a term that is receiving the attention of governments and industries. Its core concept involves Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, lean management, smart machinery, etc. Despite serious regard by academia and businesses, current industrial research is primarily focused on engineering concepts and the integration of automatic controls; studies which discuss the relationship between industry and labor are rare. Taiwan’s youth population is in decline, and its economy is evolving accordingly. While research continues to lean toward the development of electronics and semi-conductor based industries, young workers are under motivated to enter traditional industries resulting in a detrimental lack of workforce in production-based industries. Faced with an Industry 4.0 transition, businesses confronted with the need for labor face more than the acquisition of professional skills, as personal traits and job competency are becoming key personal features that prompt continued employment. The intention of this research was to investigate the suitability of the work model of employees of a certain industry to meet the developmental direction of Industry 4.0, and the industry of choice was the plastics manufacturing machinery. Twenty-five respondents were selected from the plastics manufacturing machinery industry to participate in this research. The research applies the Delphi methods, streamlining 134 competences down to a list of 39 for analysis and sorted three categories by Q-methodology. The result of the study proposes several new directions for the application of competence to improve business performance in industry.
