The world is increasingly interconnected, and this can also be seen in industry, where an ecosystem of digitalized assets, and humans with appropriate digital interfaces, constantly interact with each other. Digital transformation efforts in the industry rely on Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems that are driven by service-based cooperation among humans and digitalized industrial assets. This implies a radical paradigm change in their engineering and operation, which is focused on the symbiosis of digitalized assets and humans that cohabit a collaboration-driven industrial ecosystem. This work discusses how a digital transformation can effectively be achieved in an industrial ecosystem via a digitalization process performed along the three dimensions of the Reference Architecture Model for Industry 4.0, facilitated by the specification, development and implementation of an Asset Administration Shell. The discussion focus is put on humans and how the digitally transformed industrial environments empower her/his capabilities and interactions. It is also critically pointed out how one should go beyond technology and consider additional aspects. Therefore, it is argued that human-centred efforts in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) should be seen in the larger context of sustainability and circular economy in order to properly consider the interplay of the involved socio-technical dimensions.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Towards symbiotic autonomous systems’.

世界日益互联，这也可以在工业中看到，数字化资产的生态系统和具有适当数字接口的人类不断地相互交互。该行业的数字化转型工作依赖于由人类与数字化工业资产之间基于服务的合作驱动的工业网络物理系统。这意味着他们的工程和运营发生了根本性的范式变化，其重点是数字化资产和人类共生，共同生活在一个协作驱动的工业生态系统中。这项工作讨论了如何通过沿着工业 4.0 参考架构模型的三个维度执行的数字化过程在工业生态系统中有效地实现数字化转型，并在规范的推动下进行，资产管理壳的开发和实施。讨论的重点是人类以及数字化转型的工业环境如何增强她/他的能力和互动。还批判性地指出人们应该如何超越技术并考虑其他方面。因此，有人认为，工业 4.0 (I4.0) 中以人为本的努力应该放在可持续性和循环经济的更大背景下，以便正确考虑所涉及的社会技术层面的相互作用。

这篇文章是主题问题“走向共生自治系统”的一部分。