Supporting Operators with their Daily Tasks in Complex Production Environments - a Perspective on ICT Tools

Licentiate thesis, 2018

To achieve a sustainable competitive business all resources needs to be utilized. Within a manufacturing company the shop-floor operators are one of those resources. The shop-floor operators has been called “A key to future competitiveness and effectiveness”. To facilitate high operator performance the equipment required to support their tasks ought to be provided. Information and communication technology (ICT) could provide cognitive support and through technological advancements the possibilities of communication and information sharing seems endless. Authors suggests that ICT tools supporting the operators are needed.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of what challenges faced by operators can be aided by ICT tools and how to evaluate this support.

Operators frequently faces various challenges during a work day. This thesis identifies and discusses ten challenges relating to information and communication. These challenges can be approached and supported in several ways. In the thesis it is discussed how mobile and digital ICT tools can support operators with identified challenges. Evaluating the outcome of any change is important and so is evaluating changes and impact from ICT tools. In this thesis examples of performance measures are presented and a few aspects to consider when selecting them are discussed.

A framework “Operator-support tool” was suggested to aid in the endeavours of identifying challenges faced by operators and selecting performance measures (in addition to use in the design phase). This framework was beneficial in maintaining a wide perspective and ensuring consideration of the three aspects of operators, their tasks and support tools.