Supporting decision-making of collaborative robot (cobot) adoption: The development of a framework

Abstract

Collaborative robots (cobots) are emerging in manufacturing as a response to the current mass customization production paradigm and the fifth industrial revolution. Before adopting this technology in production processes and benefiting from its advantages, manufacturers need to analyze the investment. Therefore, this study aims to develop a decision-making framework for cobot adoption, incorporating a comprehensive set of quantitative and qualitative criteria, to be used by decision-makers in manufacturing companies. To achieve that objective, a qualitative study was conducted by collecting data through interviews with key actors in the cobot (or advanced manufacturing technologies) adoption decision process in manufacturing companies. The main findings of this study include, firstly, an extensive list of decision criteria, as well as some indicators to be used by decision-makers, some of which are new to the literature. Secondly, a decision-making framework for cobot adoption is proposed, as well as a set of guidelines to use it. The framework is based on a weighted scoring method and can be customizable by the manufacturing company depending on its specific context, needs, and resources. The main contribution of this study consists in assisting decision-makers of manufacturing companies in performing more complete and sustained decision analyses regarding cobots adoption.