Toward a Framework for Human-Technology Cooperation in Manufacturing

Industry 4.0 technologies hold great potential to enhance business opera-tions, namely, to increase productivity and efficiency. Despite far-reaching technological offerings for the workforce, such as the elimination of dull, dirty, or dangerous tasks, the role and interactions of Industry 4.0 technolo-gies with humans are still being debated. The lack of a human-centric per-spective could impact workers’ acceptance and consequently lead to low adoption rates or even adoption failures. This study conceptualizes the role and interaction of these technologies with the human in manufacturing en-vironments. The authors developed a theory-informed conceptual framework that characterizes the human-technology interaction by distinguishing be-tween the human’s and technology’s involvement in (1) task execution and (2) decision making. The authors discuss the proposed conceptual framework with three documented case studies. The case examples represent three In-dustry 4.0 technologies’ use cases, namely inventory drones at IKEA, addi-tive manufacturing at General Electrics, and augmented reality-assisted maintenance operations at Geberit. This framework could be used to elabo-rate on the implications and consequences of using such technologies in shaping human-technology cooperation of the future. It could also provide a starting point and guidance to better navigate the adoption process of such technologies toward a human-centric workplace.