Smart Working in Industry 4.0: How digital technologies enhance manufacturing workers' activities

Abstract

Prior studies have investigated the relationship between Industry 4.0 technologies and work. This paper acknowledges the contributions of such studies and builds on their perspective to broaden the understanding of the contribution of Industry 4.0 technologies to specific worker capabilities and manufacturing activities. The aim is to build a conceptual framework to consolidate a common view on this growing yet fragmented issue by integrating a wide range of findings from the literature. The study adopts a systematic literature review approach to systematize such knowledge in a singular and consolidated perspective on Industry 4.0 technologies and work. The study analyzes 80 papers in this field and investigates how different Industry 4.0 technologies are related to workers’ manufacturing activities. Eight main manufacturing activities were considered to frame the analysis: assembly, maintenance, training, quality control, movement, machine operation, product and process design, and production planning and control. Eight worker capabilities that Industry 4.0 technologies can enhance were also considered: super-strength capability, augmented capability, virtual capability, healthy capability, smart capability, collaborative, social capability, analytical capability. Based on these 80 papers, this paper conceptualizes Smart Working-related technologies for Operators 4.0 and shows their benefits and limitations as described in the literature. The study shows how these manufacturing activities and worker capabilities can be supported by Industry 4.0 technologies, which is useful for future research and the design of operational processes in the Industry 4.0 context.