“Industry 4.0″ is one of the leading trends in manufacturing technologies. For the Canadian automotive manufacturing sector to maintain its competitiveness and share in the North American market, production technology investments and upgrades such as Industry 4.0 systems can be one of the strategies Canadian automotive manufacturing firms can follow to increase their competitive edge in a highly dynamic market.

Through its technologies, Industry 4.0 offers several advantages and incentives which can translate to increasing productivity in manufacturing, improving product quality, enabling mass customization in production and optimizing demand prediction and just-in-time delivery.

However, challenges in technology, integration and skills are also expected to arise with the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, which require increased industry collaboration to overcome. The cooperation of companies in the sector to drive towards Industry 4.0 adoption can contribute to better positioning Canada’s automotive manufacturing sector within the North American and the global markets.

This paper outlines our study of the potential impact of the Industry 4.0 system on the automotive manufacturing workplace and on the tasks that are part of its key occupations. The aim of the study was to analyze potential changes and upgrades in tasks, roles and skills of key automotive occupations that could result from the accelerated adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and systems such as Industry 4.0. In this task analysis, we consider the ten technologies most commonly associated with the Industry 4.0 system: artificial intelligence; smart sensors; internet of things (IoT); big data and analytics; cyber security; autonomous robotics; cloud computing; simulation; augmented reality and additive manufacturing.