Digitalization as Facilitator of Effective Information Sharing in Production Systems

Doctoral thesis, 2021

The manufacturing industry is undergoing a paradigm shift, called the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. This is driving manufacturing companies to exploit recent technological developments and new organisational opportunities to meet the many new demands from customers and society at large.

These new demands on manufacturing companies and their production systems mean more production-related information to be managed. Effective sharing of this information ensures it gets to the right people at the right time and can be facilitated by recent strides in digitalization technologies. Important stakeholders in sharing such information include shop-floor operators from this new production environment, or Operator 4.0.

Still, many manufacturing companies find it hard to undergo a digital transformation and develop Industry 4.0 capabilities. There are technological and organizational challenges, plus the matter of how humans will operate and interact.

Thus, this thesis formulates two strategic approaches to guide manufacturing companies on their digital transformation journey.

First, by assessing their digital maturity, manufacturing companies can understand their current capabilities. This helps in working out goals and development plans for a digital transformation to Industry 4.0.

Second, applying digital technologies can enable new ways of presenting information to operators. Understanding situational requirements and selecting suitable cognitive support systems aids the digital transformation to Operator 4.0.

These two approaches show how digitalization can facilitate effective information-sharing in production systems and for shop-floor operators.