COGNITIVE AUTOMATION STRATEGY -FOR RECONFIGURABLE AND SUSTAINABLE ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS

Journal article, 2013

Purpose - The paper aims to discuss the importance to consider both the physical and cognitive automation when aiming for a flexible or reconfigurable assembly system in order to handle the increased demand for mass customized production. Furthermore to maintain or improve the social sustainabilitin within the company. Design/methodology/approach - The methodologies used in this paper is both a theoretical review about task allocation and levels of automation. For the industriacl case studies a methodology called DYNAMO++ is used. Findings - The paper provides both theoretical and empirical insights about the importance of considering both the cognitive and physical automation when aiming for a reconfigurable assembly system. Research limitations/implications - The paper will only discuss the cognitive strategy from a social sustainability perspetctive and not from an economical or environmantel angle. Practical implications - The paper presents data from three industrial case studies, mostly in automotive industry. The result points towards a need for a more structured and quantitative method when choosing automation solutions and towards an increased use of cognitive automation solution. Originality/value - The paper demonstrate an advance in the state of the art in task allocation. The concept model and the DYNAMO++ method can be seen as a step closer towards quantitative measures of task allocation (i.e. changes in both physical and cognitive LoA) and dynamic changes over time.