Governance, Standards and Regulation: What Construction and Mining Need to Commit to Industry 4.0

Digital transformation has become a pressing concern for the Australian government in the wake of COVID-19. While a thriving construction industry is key to Australia’s economic recovery, the promised land of Industry 4.0 continues to elude the sector. Unlike the mining industry, which has obtained government funding to future-proof its workforce, the building industry remains at risk of being left behind because it has failed to prosecute the case for its own planned Fourth Industrial Revolution. A consistent approach to both sectors is needed to mitigate against asymmetries in the workforce and assist those transitioning from sectors devastated by COVID-19 by providing them with the high-tech skills which fortify the link between wages and employment. SMEs given their limited resources are also vulnerable, and the sector has been rocked by waves of insolvencies in recent times. Achieving Industry 4.0 success has long been a goal among industry academics yet hardly any attention is paid to the institution or its failures. This study subjected 59 authoritative articles to bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review and identified a dearth of research on how best to regulate Industry 4.0 and deliver the standards on which construction and mining businesses will depend when making the choice to commit to Industry 4.0. Nevertheless, there are valuable lessons to be learnt when it comes to supporting SMEs and workers embarking the risky business of Digital Transformation.

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