Final Report Summary - SO-PC-PRO (Subject-Orientation for People-Centred Production)
Executive Summary:
The EU FP7 Project SOPCPro (Subject-Orientation for People-Centred Production) was launched in October 2013 with the goal to develop methods and tools for holistic design and management of workplaces in production companies, thereby aligning business goals and human needs. Facilitating this goal requires (i) methods supporting the people-centred design and creation of workplaces without neglecting the business needs and (ii) technologies and tools to enable the implementation of such workspaces. This vision is based on a view of production companies as complex, socio-technical systems of people, processes and machines that flexibly interact.
In addressing these demands for methodological and tool support SOPCPro achieved to following key outputs:
• Methods and tools for analyzing and improving processes supporting the people-centred (re-)design of workplaces
• A bottom-up and fully people-centred workplace improvement methodology considering work context
• A method and tool supporting seamless process management bringing production, and business processes closer together enabling the flexible interaction of people, processes, sensors, and machines
Project Context and Objectives:
European production companies face a variety of challenges arising from the increasingly complex and dynamic environment in which they operate. These challenges have been understood mostly in economic terms based on the time-cost-quality triangle. The main approach to tackling these challenges has been to rationalise production processes through standardised work procedures and automated systems, aiming to reduce cost and increase productivity. However, the predominant focus on functionality and efficiency neglects a critical factor for sustainable organisational success: the human being. While worker satisfaction, motivation and empowerment have been recognised as critical for healthy production organisations, these human factors are often viewed at odds with the economic goals of a company.
The global goal of SO-PC-Pro (Subject-Orientation for People-Centred Production) is to develop methods and tools for holistic design and management of workplaces in production companies, thereby aligning business goals and human needs. It is based on a view of production companies as complex, socio-technical systems of people, processes and machines that flexibly interact. This view is well captured in the “subject-oriented” methodology for Business Process Management. SO-PC-Pro applies this methodology for the first time to modelling processes and interactions in the production domain, resulting in a new set of ICT-based technologies which can be mapped to the following project objectives:
- Objective 1: Subject-oriented modelling of production workplaces
- Objective 2: Subject-oriented Workplace Re-Design
- Objective 3: Seamless Integration of Production and Business Processes
Objective 1 (Subject-oriented modelling of production workplaces)
Subject-oriented modelling, through its focus on interactions, enables the adaptation of machines, processes and context to the human worker. Objective 1 comprises augmenting the coverage of subject-oriented modelling to explicitly represent interactions with machines and contextual information.
Objective 2 (Subject-oriented re-design of production workplaces to empower workers and stimulate teamwork) includes developing subject-oriented methods for workplace re-design according to business and human values, borrowing from and extending methods for value stream design (VSD), contextual design, analysis of change propagation, and wiki-based re-design collaboration. The methods are tailored to those with the deepest insight into human needs at work: the workers themselves. This Objective relates to the workers’ empowerment by involving them in the responsible development of their workplaces, and the stimulation of teamwork.
Objective 3 (Seamless integration of production and business processes as enabling technology for holistic workplace designs) targets the development of enabling technologies through seamlessly integrating production and business processes across all levels of control. It is based on the subject-oriented modelling approach establishing a uniform representation for control systems in any area of application. Existing industry standards, including OPC UA (IEC 62541), are used for implementing the interfaces between subject-oriented models and the specific control systems including human and environmental sensor data. In addition, the subject-oriented workflow engine from Metasonic GmbH will be extended to provide real-time support for production control. Objective 3 also supports Objective 1 and 2, as the implementation of enhanced workplaces can be directly mapped onto changes in real-time production processes.
Project Results:
Please refer to the attached PDF document
Potential Impact:
Please refer to the attached PDF document
List of Websites:
www.so-pc-pro.eu
Contact:
Florian Krenn
florian.krenn@jku.at
+43 732 2468 4596
The EU FP7 Project SOPCPro (Subject-Orientation for People-Centred Production) was launched in October 2013 with the goal to develop methods and tools for holistic design and management of workplaces in production companies, thereby aligning business goals and human needs. Facilitating this goal requires (i) methods supporting the people-centred design and creation of workplaces without neglecting the business needs and (ii) technologies and tools to enable the implementation of such workspaces. This vision is based on a view of production companies as complex, socio-technical systems of people, processes and machines that flexibly interact.
In addressing these demands for methodological and tool support SOPCPro achieved to following key outputs:
• Methods and tools for analyzing and improving processes supporting the people-centred (re-)design of workplaces
• A bottom-up and fully people-centred workplace improvement methodology considering work context
• A method and tool supporting seamless process management bringing production, and business processes closer together enabling the flexible interaction of people, processes, sensors, and machines
Project Context and Objectives:
European production companies face a variety of challenges arising from the increasingly complex and dynamic environment in which they operate. These challenges have been understood mostly in economic terms based on the time-cost-quality triangle. The main approach to tackling these challenges has been to rationalise production processes through standardised work procedures and automated systems, aiming to reduce cost and increase productivity. However, the predominant focus on functionality and efficiency neglects a critical factor for sustainable organisational success: the human being. While worker satisfaction, motivation and empowerment have been recognised as critical for healthy production organisations, these human factors are often viewed at odds with the economic goals of a company.
The global goal of SO-PC-Pro (Subject-Orientation for People-Centred Production) is to develop methods and tools for holistic design and management of workplaces in production companies, thereby aligning business goals and human needs. It is based on a view of production companies as complex, socio-technical systems of people, processes and machines that flexibly interact. This view is well captured in the “subject-oriented” methodology for Business Process Management. SO-PC-Pro applies this methodology for the first time to modelling processes and interactions in the production domain, resulting in a new set of ICT-based technologies which can be mapped to the following project objectives:
- Objective 1: Subject-oriented modelling of production workplaces
- Objective 2: Subject-oriented Workplace Re-Design
- Objective 3: Seamless Integration of Production and Business Processes
Objective 1 (Subject-oriented modelling of production workplaces)
Subject-oriented modelling, through its focus on interactions, enables the adaptation of machines, processes and context to the human worker. Objective 1 comprises augmenting the coverage of subject-oriented modelling to explicitly represent interactions with machines and contextual information.
Objective 2 (Subject-oriented re-design of production workplaces to empower workers and stimulate teamwork) includes developing subject-oriented methods for workplace re-design according to business and human values, borrowing from and extending methods for value stream design (VSD), contextual design, analysis of change propagation, and wiki-based re-design collaboration. The methods are tailored to those with the deepest insight into human needs at work: the workers themselves. This Objective relates to the workers’ empowerment by involving them in the responsible development of their workplaces, and the stimulation of teamwork.
Objective 3 (Seamless integration of production and business processes as enabling technology for holistic workplace designs) targets the development of enabling technologies through seamlessly integrating production and business processes across all levels of control. It is based on the subject-oriented modelling approach establishing a uniform representation for control systems in any area of application. Existing industry standards, including OPC UA (IEC 62541), are used for implementing the interfaces between subject-oriented models and the specific control systems including human and environmental sensor data. In addition, the subject-oriented workflow engine from Metasonic GmbH will be extended to provide real-time support for production control. Objective 3 also supports Objective 1 and 2, as the implementation of enhanced workplaces can be directly mapped onto changes in real-time production processes.
Project Results:
Please refer to the attached PDF document
Potential Impact:
Please refer to the attached PDF document
List of Websites:
www.so-pc-pro.eu
Contact:
Florian Krenn
florian.krenn@jku.at
+43 732 2468 4596
