An investigation of the readiness of Council for Scientific & Industrial Research software developers for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Abstract

Significant changes have been brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also referred to as Industry 4.0, as a result of the development of new technology that replaces the human factor with artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation. Many organisations currently have no existing strategy in place to address the needs of Industry 4.0. The purpose of this study is to determine how Industry 4.0 has developed at the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and the underlying skill sets required for the organisation’s software developers to address the challenges posed by this phenomenon. Existing skills are no longer able to prepare software developers to face these challenges, and therefore skills development has become a priority. A sample of 15 experts in software engineering and technologists from the Next Generation Enterprise and Institutions (NGEI) Cluster at CSIR were interviewed by means of semi-structured interviews. Participants identified the need for training and reskilling, continuous learning, improvement of processes to allow for efficiency and sustainability, and for CSIR to train traditional managers as digital leaders. The study recommends that CSIR introduce knowledge-sharing sessions to encourage learning from other developers’ experiences, encouragement and support of ongoing educational programmes, training and skills development through various platforms, and that processes need to be re-engineered to address the demands and challenges of Industry 4.0.