A Knowledge-based approach to enhance the workforce skills and competences within the industry 4.0

One of the significant challenges of Industry 4.0 is the realization of a more sustainable manufacturing along the whole factory life-cycle, which has an impact on three different dimensions: economical, social and environmental. Whereas the economic and environmental dimensions have been widely discussed in many works and progressively integrated in production processes, there is still a shortage of studies aiming at incorporating the social dimension. Consequently, economic planning and policies lack the full acknowledgment of human rights, education, health and gender diversity. With this study, we aim at aligning the technological panorama of Industry 4.0 with the social dimension of sustainable manufacturing, by proposing a semantic model based framework as a reference architecture to enhance social sustainability in manufacturing. Finally, a case study is presented, in which factory environments try to meet workers capabilities and desiderata, by augmenting the quality of life and ensuring people health, at work or in their community during their entire life, while ensuring productivity.