Concept and Evaluation of a Method for the Integration of Human Factors into Human-Oriented Work Design in Cyber-Physical Production Systems

Hendrik Stern and Till Becker
Additional contact information
Hendrik Stern: BIBA—Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH at the University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
Till Becker: Faculty of Business Studies, University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer, 26723 Emden, Germany

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 16, 1-33

Abstract: Due to the shift from mainly manual labor to an increased portion of cognitive tasks in manufacturing caused by the introduction of cyber-physical systems, there is a need for an updated collection of adequate design principles for user interfaces between humans and machines. Thus, we developed a method for the determination and evaluation of such design principles. It is based on human factors methods and facilitates the assessment of specific work design elements which are supposed to have a significant effect on work performance and the perception of work in cyber-physical production systems (CPPS). Within the application of the developed method, we derived an overview of key design elements in CPPS, developed an experimental platform, and conducted two empirical studies with a total of n = 68 participants. This way, three design elements were investigated, and the findings transferred into preliminary design principles. We can state that the method can be used both for a better understanding of the mechanisms between human factors and work in CPPS. Besides, it helps to provide a catalogue of design principles applicable to SMEs to promote more efficient and successful integration of workers into CPPS.

Keywords: human factors; Industry 4.0; cyber-physical systems; cyber-physical production systems; anthropocentric design; Operator 4.0; human–machine interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4508/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4508/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:16:p:4508-:d:259296

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().