Using the latest industrial robot technology, the collaborative robot (cobot), industrial manufacturers work towards high-mix low-volume production systems that could satisfy a diversifying customer demand. As the utilization of the cobot’s potential depends on the dynamic interaction with operators, one would expect HR professionals to play a central role in this implementation process. However, cobot-related literature is unanimous: HR is not involved. This is in line with the results of our study in 2019 on seventeen cobot experiments in Dutch industrial manufacturing companies. To explore what human cobot collaboration emerges when engineers and line managers take the lead in their design, we revisited the data from our previous interview study (N=53). HR was absent in all implementations. We found that line managers and engineers prepared operators for rigid human-cobot collaborations that were aimed at getting the cobot to work, enhancing production efficiency and handling a few batches of mass-produced goods (low-mix, high-volume). Furthermore, the collaborations all showed signs of being difficult to sustain over time and posed a direct threat to operators’ well-being. To protect operators’ future of work and build towards interdependent human-cobot collaboration suitable for high-mix low-volume production, we propose an approach in which operators themselves, and HR too, are much more involved in the cobot implementation process. Operators should be allowed and supported to design, program, operate, and repair as much of their human-cobot workstations themselves as possible. To support this, HR has to familiarize itself with the cobot technology, secure operators’ decision latitude, facilitate the required support, and become the work design expert that helps operators co-design sustainable cobot applications that optimally utilize the strengths of both man and machine.
MULTIFILE
Using the latest industrial robot technology, the collaborative robot (cobot), industrial manufacturers work towards high-mix low-volume production systems that could satisfy a diversifying customer demand. As the utilization of the cobot’s potential depends on the dynamic interaction with operators, one would expect HR professionals to play a central role in this implementation process. However, cobot-related literature is unanimous: HR is not involved. This is in line with the results of our study in 2019 on seventeen cobot experiments in Dutch industrial manufacturing companies. To explore what human cobot collaboration emerges when engineers and line managers take the lead in their design, we revisited the data from our previous interview study (N=53). HR was absent in all implementations. We found that line managers and engineers prepared operators for rigid human-cobot collaborations that were aimed at getting the cobot to work, enhancing production efficiency and handling a few batches of mass-produced goods (low-mix, high-volume). Furthermore, the collaborations all showed signs of being difficult to sustain over time and posed a direct threat to operators’ well-being. To protect operators’ future of work and build towards interdependent human-cobot collaboration suitable for high-mix low-volume production, we propose an approach in which operators themselves, and HR too, are much more involved in the cobot implementation process. Operators should be allowed and supported to design, program, operate, and repair as much of their human-cobot workstations themselves as possible. To support this, HR has to familiarize itself with the cobot technology, secure operators’ decision latitude, facilitate the required support, and become the work design expert that helps operators co-design sustainable cobot applications that optimally utilize the strengths of both man and machine.
MULTIFILE
Somewhere on Twitter there are two automated accounts that I created a few months ago. Their names are SorryBot and PhilosophyBot and one day they’ll become the leading activists in a fully automated social media project called #turingforthemasses. Their interaction will be automatic, without any human intervention; trying to raise awareness for the underlying problems of automated social media by tweeting what’s on their robot minds.
MULTIFILE
With the help of sensors that made data collection and processing possible, many products around us have become “smarter”. The situation that our car, refrigerator, or umbrella communicating with us and each other is no longer a future scenario; it is increasingly a shared reality. There are good examples of such connectedness such as lifestyle monitoring of elderly persons or waste management in a smart city. Yet, many other smart products are designed just for the sake of embedding a chip in something without thinking through what kind of value they add everyday life. In other words, the design of these systems have mainly been driven by technology until now and little studies have been carried out on how the design of such systems helps citizens to improve or maintain the quality of their individual and collective lives. The CREATE-IT research center creates new solutions and methodologies in “digital design” that contribute to the quality of life of citizens. Correspondingly, this proposal focuses on one type of digital design—smart products—and investigate the concept of empowerment in relation to the design of smart products. In particular, the proposal aims to develop a model with its supplementary tools and methods for designing such products better. By following a research-through-design methodology, the proposal intends to offer a critical understanding on designing smart products. Along with its theoretical contribution, the proposal will also aid the students of ICT and design, and professionals such as designers and engineers to create smart products that will empower people and the industry to develop products grounded in a clear user experience and business model.
