Towards industry 5.0: A multi-objective job rotation model for an inclusive workforce

Abstract

The new Industry 5.0 paradigm complements the well-known Industry 4.0 approach by specifically driving research and innovation to facilitate the transition to sustainable, human-centric and resilient industry. In the manufacturing context, workers' diversity in terms of experience, productivity and physical capacity represents a significant challenge for companies, especially those characterized by high staff turnover and manual processes with high workload and poor ergonomics. In seeking to address such challenges, this research adopts a human-centric perspective to define new flexible job arrangements by developing a new multi-objective job rotation scheduling model. The proposed model is unique in that it aims to achieve multiple job assignment objectives by simultaneously considering different socio-technical factors: workers' experience, physical capacity and limitations, postural ergonomic risks, noise and vibration exposure, and workers' boredom. The model's implementation in real environments can be supported by new sensor-based technologies that collect data on workers' efficiency, ergonomic scores and task performance and enable workers to participate in measuring perceived fatigue and boredom. The primary goal of our model is to find the most appropriate assignment of job and individual-flexible rest-break plan for each worker. The authors test the model application in an industrial setting. Useful managerial insights emerge and prescriptive recommendations are provided.