The role of humans in flexible smart factories

Abstract

In the smart factory of production automation, the setup between different products is the key to realizing flexibility. Compared with workers in traditional factories responsible for production and setup, workers in smart factories are only tasked with setup. Under this task variation, we model the optimal setup of a flexible smart factory, assuming that setup time is a convex function of the human scale. The model considers tradeoffs between machine production, setup, and mismatch costs. We find that the optimal scale of setup workforce increases as technological progress leads to a decrease in the production cost of a smart factory. Therefore, different from the general perception, there will be no dark factory for flexible smart factories. Heterogeneous orders in smaller lot size lead to a more significant role for human beings in flexible smart factories. If mismatch costs increase, more investment is required to reduce setup costs. There is a square-root relationship between the optimal scale of workforce and setup cost, product cost, and productivity under the strongest individual demand conditions. Our model enables a flexible smart factory to make more rational workforce planning and investment decisions.