Sustainable Move towards Flexible, Robotic, Human-Involving Workplace

• Main Authors: Brigita Gajšek, Saša Stradovnik, Aleš Hace
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: flexibility; workplace; collaborative robot; HoloLens; sustainability
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6590

The realisation of the ideas of smart factories and sustainable manufacturing can be quickly realised in companies where industrial production is high-volume, low-mix. However, it is more difficult to follow trends toward industry 4.0 in craft industries such as tooling. This kind of work environment is a challenge for the deployment of sustainability and smart technologies because many stages involve the so-called “manual processing according to the worker’s feeling and experience.” With the help of literature review and testing in the production environment, we approach the design of a procedure for planning a sustainable technological upgrade of craft production. The best method proved to be a combination of a maturity model, process mapping with flowcharts, critical analysis, and customised evaluation model. Workplace flexibility, as a move towards sustainability, is presented in a laboratory environment on screwing performed by human wearing HoloLens and collaborative robot.