Global labor market shifts have spurred the need for innovations and adaptations in workplace norms. This evolution demands a workforce with technical and soft skills to meet sustainability and industry advancements. The paper aims to elucidate the complex challenges related to the ambition to develop a socially sustainable, competitive, and green industry subjected to an accelerating pace of change. It outlines the findings of a Delphi study conducted in Sweden, which integrated workshops, interviews, and surveys with experts from various sectors to identify 14 key challenges. These challenges were synthesized into five themes: innovative competence supply management practices, resilient organizations and production systems, analytics for improvement and learning, socially sustainable work, and green transformation practices. The study provides a set of propositions within these themes, offering a strategic roadmap for future research to foster the growth of industries that are socially responsible, competitive, and committed to environmental sustainability. A practical implication of the study is the recognition of the larger competence ecosystem of which industrial companies are a part. This community must work together to create the knowledge needed to manage the shift to a green, sustainable, and digital working life. 

The aim of this article is to explore improvisational handling of critical work practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and interpret these practices from a learning perspective. Based on an interview study with representatives of private, public and intermediary organisations, the study identified three different types of improvisational handling as responses to the pandemic crisis involving ‘scaling up’ and ‘scaling down’ critical work practices. By ‘scaling up’ and ‘scaling down’, we refer to practices for which, due to the pandemic, it has been imperative to urgently scale up an existing operational process or develop a new process, and alternatively extensively scale down or cease an existing process. The types of improvisational handling differed depending on the discretion of involved actors in terms of the extent to which the tasks, methods and/or results were given beforehand. These types of improvisational handling resulted in temporary solutions that may become permanent after the pandemic. The framework and model proposed in the article can be used as a tool to analyse and learn from the changes in work practices that have been set in motion during the pandemic. Such learning may improve the ability to cope with future extensive crises and other rapid change situations. © The Author(s) 2022.

This report presents the findings of a Delphi study coordinated by Linköping University (LiU) in collaboration with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and the Chalmers University of Technology. The study was carried out in 2022 as part of a Vinnova-funded planning project aimed at establishing an interdisciplinary research environment to prepare an application for a new competence centre focused on building a long-term, sustainable Swedish industry. The Delphi study aimed to identify key challenges related to the ambition to develop a socially sustainable, competitive, and green industry subjected to an accelerating pace of change. The Delphi study was based on an interactive research approach to facilitate the cocreation of knowledge for the dual purpose of advancing long-term theory development and innovation processes. The consortium and its reference groups consist of industrial companies (such as AstraZeneca, Ericsson IndustryLab, Rimaster, Saab Aeronautics, Scania, Volvo GTO and Volvo Cars), intermediaries and educational actors (such as Skill, IUC Sverige and Linköping Science Park), labour market organisations (including IF Metall, Industriarbetsgivarna, Unionen, and Teknikföretagen), governmental agencies (the Office for Sustainable Working life), and researchers from LiU, Chalmers, and RISE. There are key industrial targets forming the starting point for the Delphi study that also guide policies and investments in strategic agendas for the industrial stakeholders. For the Swedish industry to be resilient and sustainable, new competence and organisational abilities are required to decrease the dependency on fossil energy in production. Transformation towards electrification, circular economy, and digitalisation are key enablers, and these transitions are ongoing and accelerating at a fast pace. Furthermore, new and constantly emerging targets require organisational resilience, like managing new requirements and targets within energy consumption and supply of competence. The findings of this report include a total of 14 identified challenges. To organise and create conditions for flexible work for all To successfully manage crises and drastic external events To successfully drive and contribute to the green industrial transformation To facilitate employee-driven innovation and organisational learning To attract, develop and retain employees with the right skills To take advantage of and exploit the opportunities of digitalisation To create inclusive workplaces and utilise diversity To organise competence development To collaborate with external parties to ensure the availability of competence To design for socially sustainable work considering efficiency and good health in a dynamic environment To organise the creation of added value for and together with customers and suppliers To systematically drive continuous improvement work in parallel with long-term development work To develop leadership that creates better opportunities both for a climate-neutral footprint and a competitive industry with good working conditions To transform research- and policy-based knowledge into practice The 14 challenges were further analysed according to perceived importance and ability and presented in a priority matrix. According to the priority matrix, the 14 challenges were then synthesised into six main research themes: A. Innovative competence supply practice, B. Resilient organisations & production systems, C. Analytics for improvement & learning, D. Socially sustainable work, E. Green transformation practices, and an open and undefined research theme labelled as Future challenges. The research themes are also presented together with six main analytical and theoretical perspectives in a matrix that can be used to intersect and interweave the research themes to guide the research agenda in a potential future research program.

It is widely recognised that manufacturing companies need to pay attention to sustainability aspects to be competitive. However, there is still no clarity on how to combine requirements for sustainability and profitability to achieve long-term competitive manufacturing. Furthermore, there is a need for knowledge on how to develop resilient and sustainable production systems. This paper aims to explore the state-of-the art and state-of-practice associated with the development of resilient and sustainable production systems, with a focus on challenges and enablers. To achieve this, a narrative literature review was carried out, combined with results from knowledge creation workshops with five manufacturing companies striving towards resilient and sustainable production systems. 

För att svara upp mot utmaningarna inom det organisatoriska och sociala arbetsmiljöområdet och främja ett hållbart arbetsliv har Scania utvecklat dialogverktyget Work Balance. Det är forskningsbaserat och avser ge stöd och struktur åt chefer att föra djupare och regelbunden dialog med medarbetare kring upplevelser av arbetssituationer. Dialogen är strukturerad inom de fyra ämnesområdena Hanterbarhet, Begriplighet, Meningsfullhet och Återhämtning, och avses användas på frivillig basis i grupp eller individuellt. HELIX har i samarbete med Scania genomfört en lärande utvärdering av Work Balance. Syftet med denna utvärdering var att identifiera möjliggörare och hinder för användningen av Work Balance samt att ta fram förbättringsförslag som underlag för Scanias vidareutveckling av dialogverktyget. HELIX-forskare intervjuade 44 medarbetare, första och andra linjens chefer ur produktions- och kontorsmiljö, från sex produktionsenheter i fyra länder. Dessa använde eller hade valt att inte använda dialogverktyget. Resultaten visar en över lag positiv syn på Work Balance, på frivilligheten i användningen, relevansen, anpassningsbarheten, flexibiliteten och det varierade användningssättet. Men vid en produktionsenhet där verktyget inte fungerat som önskat har användningen avbrutits. Implementeringen varierade avseende tydlighet i information och träning i verktyget. Användningsförutsättningarna varierade kraftigt beroende på tidigare erfarenheter, kultur och mognad hos team och chefer att vara öppna och sätta ord på känslor. Användningen varierade även mellan produktionsenheter. Vid regelbunden användning var man mycket nöjd, men andra som inte sett nyttan hade slutat använda Work Balance. I produktion var teamen större, tiden mer begränsad, språk och frågor kändes mer abstrakta och användningen upplevdes svårare än i kontor. Högre chefers efterfrågan av användning tenderade ge en mer uthållig användning. Upplevda effekter var; öppnare klimat, bättre kommunikation, ökat samförstånd och tidigare identifiering av problem. Många trodde på en indirekt positiv koppling mellan Work Balance och nyckeltal. En enklare version av Work Balance efterfrågades, men också bättre hantering av identifierade problem, där mer stöd och utbildning till chefer och team behövs. En väl utvecklad förbättringskultur torde vara en bra grund för en utvecklad dialog där Work Balance kopplas till andra verktyg eller metoder som används i teamets kärnprocesser.

In order to respond to the challenges in the organisational and social work environment area and to promote a sustainable working life, Scania has developed the dialogue tool called Work Balance (WB) It is research-based and intended to provide support and structure for managers to maintain an in-depth and regular dialogue with employees about their experiences of work situations. The dialogue is structured using four elements – Manageability, Comprehensibility, Meaningfulness and Recovery – and is intended to be used on a voluntary basis in groups or individually. In cooperation with Scania, HELIX has conducted a learning evaluation for Work Balance. The purpose of this learning evaluation was to identify enablers and obstacles to the use of Work Balance and to produce improvement proposals as a basis for Scania’s further development of the dialogue tool. HELIX researchers interviewed 44 employees, first- and second-line managers from production and office environments, from six production units in four countries. These employees used or had chosen not to use the dialogue tool. The results show an overall positive view of Work Balance, of the voluntary use, relevance, adaptability, flexibility and the varied mode of application. However, its use has been discontinued at one production unit where the tool did not work as desired. The implementation varied in terms of clarity of information and training in the tool. The conditions of use varied greatly depending on previous experience, culture and maturity of teams and managers in terms of being open and putting feelings into words. Use also varied between production units. Those who used it regularly were very satisfied, while others who did not see the benefit stopped using Work Balance. In production, the teams were larger, time was more limited, language and questions felt more abstract, and use was perceived as more difficult than in an office environment. Senior managers requesting that it be used tended to result in more sustained use. Perceived effects were: a more open atmosphere, better communication, increased consensus and earlier identification of problems. Many believed in an indirect positive link between Work Balance and key performance indicators. A simpler version of Work Balance was requested, but also better handling of identified problems, where more support and training for managers and teams are needed. A well-developed culture of improvement should be a good basis for a developed dialogue where Work Balance is linked to other tools or methods used in the team’s core processes.

To be competitive, it is widely recognized that manufacturing companies need attention on sustainability aspects. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about how to combine requirements on sustainability and profitability to achieve long-term competitive manufacturing. Furthermore, there is a need for knowledge on how to develop resilient and sustainable production systems. This paper aims to explore the state-of-the art and state-of-practice associated with development of resilient and sustainable production systems, with focus on challenges and enablers. To achieve the aim of the paper, a traditional literature review was carried out, combined with results from knowledge creation workshops with five manufacturing companies striving towards resilient and sustainable production systems. In the paper, initial results from a three-year research project are included. The research project aims at developing knowledge that can support development of resilient and sustainable production systems, including the value chain, for the future. The industrial relevance of the project lies in ensuring a future-proof adaptable factory in an efficient industrial value chain, based on circularity in terms of minimum waste and long-term overall sustainability with a triple bottom line perspective, including social, ecological, and long-term economic values. © 2022 The authors