Human & Machine Interaction

Scope of the Work Package

The aim of WP2 is to redesign human-machine interaction on the basis of the new requirements arising from Industry 4.0. The focus will be on preventing the operator from being overtaxed, making information available in a way that is appropriate for the task, increasing the mobility of the operator, and ensuring that the operator accepts the technology.

At the beginning of the work package, a workshop will be held with industry representatives from production and logistics in order to work out employee requirements. At the same time, the event will be used to examine the topics of "Social fears in Industry 4.0 implementations" and "Technology acceptance by employees" as cross-cutting issues.

First, existing operating concepts will be critically examined in this WP with the help of focus groups and potential for improvement identified in the four directions of impact: customer, product, employee and process. This investigation will be carried out with the help of a predefined procedure model. The possible changes to existing operating concepts are then classified, described and transferred to concrete application scenarios. Differences and conceptual gaps are identified and their effects evaluated. In addition, technology acceptance studies will be conducted. As one of the core results of the work package, proposals for closing these gaps will be developed. The implementation/recommendations will initially be tested at the Application Center Industrie 4.0 at the University of Potsdam.

Typical usability measurement methods (eye tracker, mouse paths, click counter) will be used to evaluate the effects of the newly developed operating concepts on different types of machine operators. Socio-demographic aspects are also taken into account. Based on the previously obtained findings, the new operating concepts will initially be tested as prototypes in the Industry 4.0 Application Center. The results will be documented and transferable recommendations for action derived.

Recent Activities

  • 06/2021: Stakeholder workshop on formats, factors and effects of employee participation in the sustainable digital transformation of organisations

Selected Publications

  • Ullrich, A., Gronau, N. (2020): Time to Change: Considering the 4th Industrial Revolution from Three Sustainability Perspectives. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Innovative Intelligent Industrial Production and Logistics - Volume 1: IN4PL, ISBN 978-989-758-476-3, pages 109-116. DOI: 10.5220/0010148601090116 (Link)
  • Teichmann M, Ullrich A, Wenz J, Gronau N (2020): Herausforderungen und Handlungsempfehlungen betrieblicher Weiterbildungspraxis in Zeiten der Digitalisierung. HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik. Faktor Mensch - Erwachsenenbildung. 57, S.512-527. DOI: 10.1365/s40702-020-00614-x (Link)
  • Ullrich A, Gronau N (2020): Bestimmung nachhaltiger Anwendungssystemarchitekturen. ERP Management, 2020 16(1), S. 54-57. DOI: 10.30844/ERP_20-1_54-57 (Link)