The "centrality of man" in the technological revolution that we call Industry 4.0 is the key to understanding this book. New digital technologies are changing industrial systems: advanced robotics, additive manufacturing, integrated automation of production processes, the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence. But at the heart of the factory there is, more and more, human intelligence. A centrality that is made necessary by the transformation of companies that are becoming increasingly flexible, reactive to the market and capable of production customizations that were once unimaginable.
Edoardo Segantini, a Corriere della Sera journalist who has been dealing with technological innovation since the XNUMXs, has spent over a year visiting many Italian companies and interviewing dozens of people engaged, involved and protagonists, at different levels, in the processes of innovation.
From this long journey-investigation was born the book "The new star key. Stories of people in the factory of the future”, with an afterword by the sociologist of organizations Federico Butera, published by Edizioni Guerini as part of the Guerini 4.0 series.
The stories told are very different from each other. That of Serena, a 28-year-old Calabrian engineer who works for AvioAero. Filippo, clandestine graduate, technician and Fim Cisl union delegate. Catia, thirty-one years old of Romanian origin, a difficult life and an iron will, divided between studio, factory and pastry shop. Luigi who knows and practices the art of the Sergio Rossi maneuver. Rita and Maria Teresa, team leader at the wheel of the robots at the Alfa Romeo plant in Cassino. Giorgio entrepreneur in Sedapta, the company-orchestra. Donatella, the people and the robots of Comau. Enrico and the organized chaos of the most famous warehouse in the world, that of Amazon.
Positive and tenacious people who look to the future and to changes with curiosity and without fear. Who love to study and work, are ambitious but know how to collaborate with others. Many come from culturally lively, supportive and open families, who have been able to instill in them self-confidence, a desire for knowledge and sympathy for the world. Real people, not saints, who report victories and defeats in their lives.
The stories highlight the new opportunities and the new shocks of innovation, caused by an earthquake in which man remains at the center of the scene: as in the novel The Star Key by Primo Levi, the great writer to whom the book is dedicated right from the title.
In the appendix to the book is republished an interview by Edoardo Segantini with the great writer, published on May 1984st XNUMX in a special supplement of L'Unità entitled Journey to the center of work. Reading it again today, that interview appears extraordinarily timely, because Primo Levi anticipates today's great themes, starting with man's desire to fulfill himself through work.
The new, disruptive cycle of innovation is polarizing public opinion on opposite positions, between gloomy scenarios of technological unemployment and equally unfounded digital optimisms.
Edoardo Segantini's book, which is supported by the visions of scholars-entrepreneurs such as Jerry Kaplan and Marcus Weldon, offers the opportunity to reflect on the role of man in the world of work 4.0, accompanying the reader on a fascinating journey: the journey into lives of the people who are protagonists of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
With The new star key, the production of audiobooks by the Guerini publishing house is inaugurated which, in collaboration with GoWare, was the first in Italy to decide to land on Audible and ITunes with non-fiction and in-depth books.
The first presentation of the book will be held on 17 November at 17.00 at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, within Bookcity Milano 2017. The author will be attended by Federico Butera, Francois De Brabant, Riccardo Donadon and Annalisa Magone.
