New Publication: Computers and Industrial Engineering

Factory2Fit partners have released a new open-access publication on our Worker-Centric approach to Operator 4.0 solutions!

On the 30th January 2019, Factory2Fit partners released an open-access publication in the Computers & Industrial Engineering journal discussing our approach to ‘Empowering and Engaging Industrial Workers with Operator 4.0 Solutions’. The paper explores the core themes and concepts which drive our project as well as details on the research and development processes of our solutions.

Factory2fit partners studied the needs and requirements of various companies and factory workers to establish the expectations and concerns related to the proposed Operator 4.0 solutions. Our partners collected feedback from three manufacturing companies in different industries, and interviewed 44 workers in four factories. This ensured that they had an expansive overview of the needs of manufacturing companies at various levels, and could develop solutions which will add significant value to work processes in the factories of the future. Some of the key themes which resulted from this feedback are listed below:

• Strong interest towards virtual factory-based learning with real-life problem-solving tasks
• Needs for easily accessible platform for knowledge sharing
• Willingness to participate in designing one’s own work
• Doubts towards worker monitoring, highlighting that solutions need to be designed in close collaboration with workers

The results showed that there are clear needs for knowledge sharing and adaptive learning solutions that would support personalized competence development and learning while working. These thus became some of the key themes of our project, and we have since captured them under the umbrella terms of empowerment and engagement. Our solutions focus on adaptive human-computer interactions that improve worker well-being, efficiency and competency. The underlying principle of our project is that the worker is an expert in their field and should therefore have an active role in the development and adaptation of their workplace and tasks.

To learn more, read the full open access paper here!