Final Report Summary - MAN-MADE (MANufacturing through ergonoMic and safe Anthropocentric aDaptive workplacEs for context aware factories in EUROPE)
Executive Summary:
The MAN-MADE project aims at defining new socially sustainable workplaces where the human dimension is a key cornerstone. Workers are foreseen at the centre of the factory, on the one hand, in terms of workplace adaptation (and production planning, at large) to skills, expertise and characteristic of each single worker and, on the other hand, in terms of capability to make the most out of worker’s knowledge and potentials across all age groups and different roles, simultaneously fostering enhanced worker’s safety. Moreover MAN-MADE promotes the vision of an effective integration of this anthropocentric factory within the social environment toward the implementation of context-aware factories that promotes and take advantage of extended services to the workers in terms of accessibility, inclusiveness, efficiency and work satisfaction. The context aware anthropocentric manufacturing model promoted by the project has been demonstrated by pilot implementations in the transportation industry (Alstom) and in the white-goods sector (Whirlpool), two European industrial sectors of excellence.
Expected benefits from the MAN-MADE project will have a huge impact on the productivity rate due to an enhanced use of human resources and reduction of accidents, and will leverage on the high number of workers involved in the white-good and transportation sector. The MAN-MADE project will contribute to the achievement of best in class performance, making available advanced anthropocentric workplace technologies, that also support a considerable improvement of worker integration in the social environment. The MAN-MADE impact is also guaranteed by the influence and relevance of the project actors such as Whirlpool (with more than 14.000 workers) and Alstom (with more than 92.000 workers worldwide).
Project Context and Objectives:
MAN-MADE concept
The MAN-MADE project aimed at defining new socially sustainable workplaces where the human dimension is a key cornerstone. Workers are foreseen at the centre of the factory, on the one hand, in terms of workplace adaptation (and production planning, at large) to skills, expertise and characteristics of each single worker and, on the other hand, in terms of capability to make the most out of worker’s knowledge and potentials across all age groups and different roles, simultaneously fostering enhanced worker’s safety. Moreover MAN-MADE promoted the vision of an effective integration of this anthropocentric factory within the social environment toward the implementation of context-aware factories that encourage and take advantage of extended services to the workers in terms of accessibility, inclusiveness, work-life balance and work satisfaction. The context aware anthropocentric manufacturing model promoted by the project will be demonstrated by pilot implementations in the transportation industry (Alstom) and in the white-goods sector (Whirlpool), two European industrial sectors of excellence.
The anthropocentric workplace takes into consideration the main human-centric factors governing production, namely efficiency, occupational health and safety and risk management, effective use of knowledge.
Evolving characteristics of each single worker in terms of age, expertise, attitudes and health conditions, imply an ever changing profile of skills and tasks, that needs to be taken into consideration in terms of work organisation and workplace adaptation and in terms of capability to make the most out of worker’s knowledge and potentials.
The effective integration of the worker-aware factory in its social environment needs to be dynamically analysed evaluating constraints and opportunities, linked with specific stakeholders and local conditions. The implementation of strategies for these factories need to be defined in terms of organisation of work (i.e. remote work, flexibility, interoperability), production planning and relocation, management of incentives and facilitations for the workforce (transport, shopping), vocational training and lifelong learning.
In order to address these challenges, MAN-MADE will develop new concepts and solutions both for existing and new production plants in order to enhance flexible, safe and smart production where adequate levels of automation are applied, while maintaining a level of employment with highly satisfied and skilled workers and, at the same time, ensuring competitiveness. These objectives have been pursued by developing 4 RTD pillars:
1. Know the worker / factory / context;
2. Design and Deploy the anthropocentric, ergonomic and safe workplace, and the related
enabling technologies needed to empower the workplace actual instantiation in the selected demo sectors;
3. Plan the production and Organize the work;
4. Produce with context-aware factories integrated in their social environment.
The project proposed an innovative point of view through which a factory and its workers are seen: instead of adopting a classic third-person perspective, where workers are just static elements of a complex, hierarchical representation of the production environment, MAN-MADE put the person at the centre of the stage, looking through his/her eyes, from a first person point of view, at the activities, interactions and relationships in which he/she is involved. The adoption of this approach is fundamental to effectively enable a shift of paradigm from the labour-centric to the anthropocentric manufacturing environment.
Moreover, MAN-MADE also addressed a problem that companies are facing, namely the lack of skilled human resources who are willing to work in manufacturing. In fact a manufacturing company is perceived as a hard, dirty and in general difficult environment for working conditions. MAN-MADE will ensure that tomorrow’s factories will be a much better working environment.
Expected benefits from the MAN-MADE results are expected to have a huge impact on the productivity rate due to an enhanced use of human resources and reduction of accidents, and leveraged on the high number of workers involved in the white-good and transportation sector. The MAN-MADE project contributes to the achievement of best in class performances, making available advanced anthropocentric workplace technologies that also support a considerable improvement of worker integration in the social environment.
MAN-MADE objectives
The implementation of MAN-MADE pillars promotes the transition to an industry where the human dimension is a key cornerstone. The S&T objectives are strictly linked with the MAN-MADE pillars, thus the overall framework was based on four research objectives:
PILLAR I – KNOW the worker / factory / context – 1st S&T objective
Worker - methodologies and tools conceived to represent in real time the evolving profile of the worker through his characterisation have been developed considering 4 dimensions:
• Anthropometry. The anthropometric characterization of the worker resulted into a detailed
picture with the most significant dimensions of the human body for each worker captured with completely non-invasive data capture systems (such as sensors, video/image motion capture or advanced body scanning technologies).
• Functional capacities. Functional capacities (physical, sensorial and cognitive) are identified, collected and formalised in detail in a specific worker assessment model.
• Knowledge. Knowledge resident in each worker involved in production-related processes have been assessed, thanks to the adoption of a properly developed knowledge profiler enabling the careful representation of both general skills and specific expertise, gained in workers life.
• Personal needs. Specific workers needs have been profiled, paying particular attention to aspects more related to the personal and private life of the worker such as, for example, territorial origin, nationality, family composition, physical activity, mobility, religion, leisure etc.
Factory - factory characteristics have been analysed in detail using a worker’s perspective in order to clearly identify and represent potential interactions between the worker and the elements of the working environment with which he/she interacts while performing his/her job. The main considered factory elements are: economic KPIs characterising production; jobs/tasks and related needed skills; processes; organisational structure; workplaces shapes and placing; interactions with other workers and corporate services.
These elements formed the basis to create a formalized representation of the factory also complemented with all the key risk factors, essential to assess the adequacy of workers evolving conditions to the jobs assigned. These include: physical workload responsible for musculoskeletal disorders (manual materials handling, repetitive movements, forceful postures), task duration, man-machine conflict (ergonomic design of machinery, tools and equipment, ergonomic design of HMI), environmental comfort (related to thermal conditions, noise, lighting conditions, etc.) and organizational items.
Context - The environmental and social context in which factories are placed has been analysed through the development of stakeholder-specific relationship management approaches, deployed on the three dimensions of sustainability, namely economic (i.e. customers, distributors,..), social (i.e. workers conditions, schools,..) and environmental (i.e. transports, pollution, quality of air,..). This has allowed to create a comprehensive awareness and understanding of the territory and trends in which the factory is located, providing valuable inputs to a dynamic decision making support system promoting context-aware strategies and objectives definition for the MAN-MADE-enabled factory.
Pillar I output has been the MAN-MADE “KNOW” platform constituted by Technologies (sensors, data acquisition systems, knowledge management systems), Software (centralized database and data analysis systems), Methodologies (procedures and formalized approaches) for creating worker- pertinent workers, factory and context profiles.
PILLAR II – Design and Deploy the MAN-MADE workplace – 2nd S&T objective
Data and information gathered thanks to the tools developed within the KNOW RTD pillar represent a comprehensive, consistent and evolving knowledge base enabling the design of worker-centric, factory-conscious and context-aware MAN-MADE workplaces. The concrete output of this research pillar has been the design of anthropocentric model workplaces addressing the needs of the specific target group “plant and machine operators” working in manufacturing production environments.
The designed workplace has been enabled by methodological approaches and cutting-edge CAD applications complemented with properly developed plug-ins allowing the parametric design and adaptive re-design of anthropocentric factory-conscious and context-aware workplaces. All the dimensions mapped and formalized within the KNOW pillar have driven the design and re-design of effective workplaces aiming at exploiting each worker’s characteristics, behaviour and safety conditions simultaneously assuring production efficiency and efficacy in defined manufacturing layouts.
MAN-MADE workplaces deployment procedures have driven the integration of sensors, capture systems and workplace (usually sector-specific) automation technologies meant to integrate the MAN-MADE workplace in real production environment. The designed configurations have been also compared against each other considering a wide set of sustainability performances indicators.
Pillar II focused on (1) the development of plug-ins for extending the reference knowledge base of workplace design software (with specific workers- and factory- related data), and on (2) the deployment of representative workplaces, including technologies from Pillar I, addressing the needs of plant and machine operators.
PILLAR III – Plan the production and Organize the work – 3rd S&T objective
Relying on results got from the previous two research pillars, methodologies and tools have been developed under this third pillar enabling the valuable and dynamic integration of workers, workplaces and production requirements taking into account constraints and opportunities deriving from the factory and the contexts. The developed solutions and approaches allowed the identification and characterization of the best performing allocation of resources taking into account changing and evolving jobs and tasks and comprehensive plans for human resources management and effective training.
Four are the (complementary) modules derived from the third pillar’s activities:
• the “worker-centric job allocator” meant to dynamically assign the available workers to the different tasks and jobs considering relevant workers’ characteristics and skills. It receives as an input the production plan for a given time horizon (day/week/month) and allocates the available human resources to the different tasks triggered by that production plan pursuing a valuable balance between worker and factory requirements and needs;
• the "worker- and context- aware job designer" enables the definition and re-definition of the different jobs (in terms of tasks, duties, shifts, workflows, etc.) on the basis of the optimal and more convenient combination of workforce, context and factory factors. The job designer allows the worker-centric parcelling of the production tasks based on indications and inputs collected using tools developed within the KNOW pillar;
• the “training needs detector” dynamically and constantly evaluates workers performances in changing working conditions and requirements. This module is aimed at providing inputs to training programs/schemes configuration in order to constantly align required and available knowledge and skills and triggering worker-improving life-long learning and training programs:
• the “MAN-MADE assessment module” Considering a customizable set of indicators covering all the three dimensions of sustainability and accounting the worker, the factory and the context at the same time, also including dynamic risk assessment functionalities, the assessment module allows to ponder the performances of alternative jobs allocations and tasks subdivision as well as the envisaged impact of planned training programs and workplace designs from Pillar II. The assessment module is thus the engine for decision-making in the design, planning and organization of the worker-aware production.
PILLAR IV – Produce with context-aware factories integrated in their social environment – 4th S&T objective
Pillar IV was meant to favour and ease the integration of the workers into the social and environmental context where the factory is placed. The collected personal needs of the workers, and constraints/requirements and opportunities of the social context where the factory is placed, were both addressed under Pillar IV in order to (i) minimize the environmental impact of the factory activities (identifying sustainability-enhancing strategies), (ii) transforming the factory from a society-affecting entity (due to traffic congestion, noise production, workers’ alienation ...) into an integration-promotion body proactively favouring workers’ valuable inclusion into the social environment (promoting workers as citizens, inclusiveness, working- and non-working life balance). Proper worker-centric services configuration approaches have been adopted fostering the workers- factory-context valuable interaction, and creating personalized service schemas where exploited opportunities of the territory and workers-centric services properly deployed by the company have been used to answer to specific workers requirements for a really “built around the worker” workplace of the future.
Pillar IV thus promoted the integration between workers, factory and the social context by (1) identifying actual opportunities for the reduction of the factory’s environmental impact and (2) defining worker-specific bundles of services meant to radically improve workers’ well-being and working and non-working life balance (flexible working schedules, public transport access, access to nursery/kinder garden...).
Project Results:
Introduction to the MAN-MADE S&T foregrounds
According to Sinha et Al. [1], the “organizations of tomorrow will be employee-centric”. Case studies and investigations on real production environments performances (e.g. [2] and [3]) demonstrate the positive correlation between organizations performances and employee recognition as a critical resource in strategic management. Many (especially big) companies declare in their websites and annual reports their “attention towards all the company stakeholders” and “especially employees’ behaviour”, where the employees are referred to as the company greatest asset.
Experience, however, suggests that few organizations actually treat their employees as such. In his 2011 book [4], Walker discusses on the methodologies and approaches that an organization can implement in order to put the employee at the centre of the working environment, postulating that “only when management recognizes that the firm exists to provide an ethical environment in which employees can fully develop and apply their business skills, will the firm be positioned for true success”.
Many authors (e.g.: [5]) point out that the employees’ voice is an important component of business from a strategic perspective, organizations can rely on for pursuing success (measured through economic indicators). Recognizing the worker as a critical resource for the enterprise success, as detailed in [6], has been the starting point for the development of structured employee-centred Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies. This vision produced the notion of employees as human capital: they collectively represent the sum of all their knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as additional characteristics such as energy, drive and motivation they bring with them to the working context [7]. “Knowing” the worker is thus fundamental in order to be able to foresee value generation capabilities of the company. In literature and in real manufacturing environments, heterogeneous parameters, tools and means are described for worker “characteristics” monitoring, going from mere biographical data up to physical dimensions and aptitude/skills.
The MAN-MADE concept holds its foundation in the acknowledgement of the worker’s importance and promotes its S&T foregrounds as a concrete answer to the fundamental question:
What does it mean putting the employee “at the centre” of the organization? Which are the levers and the areas of knowledge employee-centric organizations may rely on to pursue their objective? Which are the tools supporting them?
Four are the elements through which the interaction between the employee and the working environment/context can be examined: (i) ergonomics and anthropometry, (ii) functional capacities (iii) knowledge, and (iv) personal needs, life-work balance.
These elements are never considered within a unique and holistic strategy, even if specific methodologies and approaches can be reported for each of them. Nowadays, in fact, all the strategies, approaches, tools and skills that companies can use:
• refer to almost independent and compartmentalized areas of knowledge (social science for effective balance between job-private life, applied economics and psychology for knowledge management, medicine for ergonomic studies, ...)
• are often used within stand-alone initiatives (especially for ergonomics, personal needs monitoring, ...)
• rely on heterogeneous data sets (properly monitored physical data, rules and cases collected for knowledge storage and share, open questionnaires for monitoring personal expectations and desires,...)
• usually pursue different goals: compliance to laws and regulations, actual workers’ protection and safety assurance, efficiency and production effectiveness, ...
• focus on single steps of the factory lifecycle: either providing inputs to the design phase or supporting the effective management of the middle of life steps, ...
As an answer to these limits, MAN-MADE proposes an integrated strategy for developing and adopting context-aware and worker-centric workplaces:
• designed considering the integrated collection of physical and anthropometric parameters, tacit and explicit knowledge, and personal needs. Existing tools and means mentioned above are never (or, sometimes, just partially) combined, thus inhibiting the creation of complex workers’ profiles. Moreover, heterogeneous profile data are rarely compared and combined for knowledge generation;
• constantly updated and self-improving. Workers’ profiles strongly evolve during time for many reasons: improved skills thanks to training, changed functional or anthropometric characteristics, improved knowledge as a result of the gained experience, varied personal needs. Workplaces structure and characteristics evolution and workplaces combination with workers profiles have thus to be always running and updated to varied workers’ profiles;
• enabling data integrity. Centralized workers profiles are created and constantly updated. Knowledge collected through the workplace is centrally stored and carefully made re-usable by the workers;
• pursuing the adoption of a fully worker-centric point of view. The final goal of the project was the value for the worker, while existing approaches widely drive towards the optimization of the factory benefit. This implies the adoption of a specific set of KPIs and parameters enabling the in-depth awareness creation of the worker needs and requirements;
• covering all the workplace-factory lifecycle phases going from design and deploy, through plan and organize, down to the produce phase, all based on an effective KNOW S&T pillar.
Overall strategy for the S&T foreground development
To guarantee the objectives achievement and to efficiently and effectively manage the project, the project has been articulated in a coherent work-plan that, over the 36 months of project duration, has guided the conception, development, testing, demonstration and validation of the MAN-MADE foregrounds.
The MAN-MADE work-plan has been split in 8 work-packages, each devoted to the achievement of a subset of the project objectives:
• WP1 has set the reference context for the project.
• Within this context, WP2 has addressed MAN-MADE Pillar I (Anthropometric characterization, knowledge capture and factory-context model definition).
• WP3 has addressed Pillar II (MAN-MADE workplace design and deployment).
• Pillar III (MAN-MADE production planning and work organization) has been dealt within WP4.
• WP5 has addressed Pillar IV (production integrated in the social environment).
• All the WPs dealing with the MAN-MADE pillars development pointed to WP6, that has carried out a proper validation and also the prototype implementation.
• In WP7 dissemination and exploitation, running in parallel throughout the other project Work Packages, has allowed to target a wide audience of industrials, academician and practitioners while defining strategies for industrialisation of the project results.
• Eventually WP8 has dealt with the management of the project.
By following the work packages structure and, in particular, by focusing on the RTD ones, the final foregrounds developed in MAN-MADE will be presented in the next sections. Demonstration, Dissemination & Exploitation and Management work packages will not be described as they are not associated with foreground development.
Work Package 1 – Reference Architecture
This preliminary RTD work package acted as a conceptualisation and formalisation moment for the whole project and:
• has defined the overall architecture concepts;
• has defined the foundation of the four MAN-MADE pillars;
• has defined the validation scenarios to be realized in WP6.
While most of the outcome of the work package was directed to steering the consequent activities of the project some developments can be considered a result per se. In particular the work package devised the overall MAN-MADE Reference Framework thus creating the overall tool landscape, requirements and implementation guidelines.
The Reference Framework
The Reference Framework acts as main driver for interpretation and explanation of the activities related to the design and management of a worker-centric workplace and production system at large. For this reason it constitutes a practical and useful tool for the whole consortium in exploring and interpreting the implications and opportunities of implementing the MAN-MADE paradigm within a company’s business.
The main achieved goal of this work laid the basis for a consistent design of the KNOW Platform, the Design Tools, the Production Tools and the Service and Assessment Modules. The early envisaged System Architecture ensured consistency of the design and development activities carried out in the pillar-related RTD work packages thus avoiding the risk of scattered development and low level of interoperability.
The whole concept of the project is based on a framework of integrated tools that relies on a solid data layer characterizing the worker, the factory and the context. The issue of creating such an holistic yet focused and usable repository has been addressed in this work package starting from the characterization of the data consumer tools, their functionalities, requirements and needed data. In this way it has been ensured that future efforts are coherently focused on the same, commonly shared and accepted objectives and languages.
A very important step in order to build up the system architecture has been to point out the exchanged information between the various tools that have been introduced in the logical architecture. To this end a diagram meant to highlight the needed data exchange between tools has been created. In the diagram input required by each tool and generated output has been clearly depicted and development responsibilities in terms of leading and support partner appointment are pinpointed as well.
Work Package 2 – Know the Worker/Factory/Context
WP2 addressed the first Pillar of MAN-MADE, thus focusing on the knowledge of the three project entities, namely the worker, the factory and the context. The work package:
• has developed techniques and tool for constant anthropometric characterization with the support of image capture systems;
• has identified and monitored the functional capacities (physical, sensorial and cognitive) of the worker towards a worker assessment model;
• has developed methods and tool to gather and to make available the knowledge resident in each worker involved in the production related processes
• has developed a factory representation from the worker perspective;
• has developed a formalized representation, and proper tools to represent and dynamically evaluate all risks to be integrated in the factory model;
• has analysed the territorial context in which factories are located towards a dynamic decision making support system.
The foregrounds related to this work package, that will be described in the following, are:
• the Anthropometric Scanning Tool;
• the Physical Worker Profiler;
• the KSN Platform;
• the Factory Description Tool.
The Anthropometric Scanning Tool
Description. The Framos Anthropometric Scanning Tool (FAST) is an easy to use and yet precise system to measure anthropometric data. The 23 most important measures have been identified which can be extracted out of only 3 postures. Positioning of the person being measured and taking the measurements can be done by non-experts.
FAST features a 3D stereo camera system consisting of 2 calibrated industrial cameras. The system is controlled via a dedicated graphical user interface which guides the user through the measurement process. Measurement points are detected automatically by the means of a machine learning process in one of the 2 camera images. The corresponding point in the second camera image is found using state of the art matching procedures. Knowing both measurement points in the images the coordinate is calculated in 3D-Space and distances between two respective measurement points can be calculated with high precision. At the end of the measurement procedure the whole anthropometric dataset is stored in the database.
Innovation content. FAST for the first time combines accurate and robust measurements known from existing but complex 3D scanning technology with the ease-of-use and low cost of conventional 2D scanning tools.
For the realization of the automatic point detection a contour fitting algorithm by the means of machine learning is used for the first time in this field.
The Physical Worker Profiler
Description. The Physical Worker Profiler is a tool aimed to help the companies to obtain, in a protocoled manner, the profile of functional capacities of their workers. That includes: physical, intellectual and sensorial capacities.
It is worth noting that the objectives of the functional assessment can be very different (i.e. to classify and quantify degree of impairment, to determine whether a person can return to a previous job after a disabling condition, etc.). Functional evaluation of an individual can be performed in several environments and situations. One of these possible environments is the workplace. In this case the objective is to assess the capacity of the person to compare it with the demand of work and adapt a particular work situation.
Thanks to this worker information, other MAN-MADE system tools are able to guarantee a better adaptation of jobs and tasks to the capacities of workers.
The tool features:
• step-by-step methodology that guides the user through the process of functional characterization of the worker;
• an incorporated additional/optional module to assess quantitatively certain physical capacities using instrumentation;
• maintenance tool to keep updated a database with the critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, tools and machinery from an anthropocentric perspective.
Innovation content. The Physical Worker Profiler allows occupational health specialists to assess the capabilities of workers taking into account those aspects that may be related to work demands. Thus this is not thought to be just a check-up, but a guided process to assess capabilities that in a later step will be related to job demands.
The KSN Platform
Description. The KSN platform is a web-based application oriented to resource management in the context of a factory. It support the process of assessment of a worker's potential, through a qualification and quantification of their knowledge, skills and needs, to be evaluated in relation to existent evaluation criteria, both from the company's and from global standards.
The platform manages a shared repository of data, related to workers potentials and job requirements. It offers various tools to create an interactive user interface and a set of web services to enable cooperation with different software tools.
In addition, it implements various social network functionalities, to support the cooperation between workers, the employing company and the service providers around the factory.
The platform offers web-based services to support the integration of all the tools developed by the Manmade project.
Eventually, the KSN Platform joins the functionalities of three main tools developed by Synesis in the project: KSN Worker Profiler, Know Platform, Context Participatory Tool.
Innovation content. The KSN platform supports the development of a socially sustainable workplace, focusing on the human dimension of the worker and his involvement in the working and environmental context.
It integrates various functionalities oriented to the qualification of workers, both from their professional point of view (knowledge, skills, capacities ...) and their personal needs or preferences.
In addition, it offers to workers the opportunity to get in contact with the context around the factory, through social networking functionalities and a description of available service providers.
The platform integrates various aspects of the overall MAN-MADE architecture and is designed to evolve through the addition of new modules. Both its user interface development tools and its web-service layer, indeed, allow a comfortable implementation of new modules.
The Factory Description Tool
Description. The Factory Description Tool deals with the identification of critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, etc. that have or can have relation or influence in the workers and the suitable performance and safe of their job.
These are organized by typologies that correspond with the following topics:
• critical workplace dimensions (e.g. standing or seated working height, chair dimensions, working area for arms, etc.)
• functional tasks demands (physical, sensorial and intellectual tasks demands)
• knowledge & skill demands
• environmental factors (thermal, visual and acoustic comfort)
• organizational factors (e.g. working shifts, tasks duration, breaks, etc.)
• occupational health & safety risks (e.g. repetitive movements, manual material handling, awkward postures, etc.)
In the framework of the MAN-MADE system, the Factory Description Tool gathers information from the company that is compared with the data that of the workers in order to establish a proper adaptation of these to their jobs.
The tool features:
• user-friendly tool interface, to facilitate the companies in filling information related with the anthropocentric approach;
• incorporated tools and aids to facilitate the collection of information in different topics. (checklist, assessment methods recommended, standards recommended, etc.);
• maintenance tool, to keep updated a database with the critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, tools and machinery from an anthropocentric perspective.
Innovation content. With the Factory Description Tool, aspects describing the work requirements are not just focused to calculate an ergonomic risk index, but to gather all this information that can be compared to the user’s capabilities and skills. For pursuing such an ambitious goal, the Factory Description Tool takes into account all those aspects that ergonomic and psychosocial risk methodologies consider critical so as to create a worker-centred workplace.
Furthermore, the Factory Description Tool offers an added value related to the compatibility of its outputs with those obtained from the Physical Worker Profiler, thus providing together the essential information that allows to take decisions about how to design factories and workplaces. To this regards, it has to be considered that, up to now, most of software tools and ergonomic methodologies are simply oriented to assess the risk, not to improve the design of workplaces.
Work Package 3 – Workplace Design and Deployment
This work package embodies the second MAN-MADE Pillar and is meant to design anthropocentric model workplaces that exploit the worker and context information gathered thanks to the approaches and tools developed within WP2 and formalized into the MAN-MADE Knowledge Database. To achieve this goal, the work package:
• has investigated worker’s personal needs and translate them into formalized services requirements;
• has investigated factory’s context related issues enabling the identification of targeted area of intervention;
• has experienced a worker-centric services configurations aimed at strengthening workers’ inclusiveness in the social environment and streamlining the factory-context interaction.
The work package has envisioned and developed the following tools and methodologies:
• the CAD Plugin;
• the Parametric Workplace Design Methodology.
Moreover, the work package has developed the two workplaces respectively in the transportation and white-goods sectors.
The CAD Plugin
Description. The CAD Plugin extends the functionalities of available CATIA ergonomics modules (e.g. Human Builder) by supporting design of personalized and configurable workplaces capable to adapt to single worker anthropometric characteristics thus providing reduced ergonomic impact and higher coupling with specific working needs.
The tool features:
• access, inside the CAD, to information stored in the MAN-MADE KNOW Platform (worker anthropometric data, worker list, critical worker dimensions) for the creation of 3D mannequins of specific workers, or workforce subsets;
• retrieval, from the KNOW Platform, of configurable workplace dimensions;
• definition and storage of personalized configuration parameters of the workplace for automatic adaptation of the real working environment to the single worker;
• interactive browsing of the Parametric workplace design methodology as guidelines for the ergonomic design of adaptable workplaces.
Innovation content. Although statistical anthropometric data sets are available on the market in order to create CAD-based human models, a CAD plug-in or dedicated software able to support the characterisation of the worker is missing. This is of primary importance, since gathering and analysing worker’s data such as characteristics, needs, abilities and skills of human beings leads to deliver more ergonomic workplaces thus improving the efficiency, safety and well-being of the workers. In fact, design made for the “average worker” doesn’t fit properly with the requirement of most of the real workers on a production line. Moreover available data-sets are too broad and generic to effectively couple with allocation decisions taken at shop floor that don’t follow stochastic processes.
As thoroughly discussed in the literature, considering the aforementioned aspects strongly improves the product quality and the efficiency of the production processes.
The Parametric Design Methodology
Description. This methodology supports the design of parametric workplaces in order that this can be easily and quickly configured and reconfigured, in order this will be adapted to the characteristics and needs of the worker that are going to be working in this workstation.
This has been concretized, in the definition of a design approach and the derived guidelines for the generation and adaptation of configurable workplaces to the specific worker.
The methodology follows a stepwise approach. after determination of the main working posture, the critical dimensions of the workplace are determined. For instance, if the worker is going to perform his activity in a standing posture the main dimensions will be the working height and the foot space, and it becomes unnecessary to determine either space requirements for the legs or dimensions of the seat. For each described working posture, several dimensions for workstations design are given. These dimensions, as mentioned before, are based on anthropometric data.
In the third step, according to the anthropometric data of the considered population, the workplace dimensions are determined. The last step is the actual design of a new or the modification of an existing adaptable workplace according to the calculated measures. To this aim the Parametric Design Methodology has been integrated in the CAD Plugin that allows to consider each worker’s specific anthropometric data in order to perform ergonomics analysis within a CAD environment.
Innovation content. Different tools are available in the market to know ergonomic guidelines or risk assessment, but all of them are based on tasks analysis and not on worker capabilities. In this case the parametric workplace design methodology offers a workplace design methodology based in the comparison of work description with workers capabilities and skills.
The white-goods industry workplace
The conceptual design of the white-goods experimental line has been based on the following principles. The experimental line is a continuous flow line as recommended by Whirlpool Production System (WPS) and is composed of three workplaces. It has adaptable height and is designed so that it can treat both ovens and refrigerators. It has been designed so that it can accommodate further improvements in terms of adaptability.
An analysis of the main parameters (i.e. laterality, platform height, workplace light, etc.) to be considered in the creation of the adaptable experimental line has been carried out.
Moreover Whirlpool decided to go beyond mere automation to be incorporated in the design of the adjustable workplace by scoping on advanced methods for automation and part presentation. This covered the assessment of both screwdrivers technology (fundamental for the task to be performed on the line) and on the collaborative robots (cobot) technology.
The designed prototypal workplace has been set up in a 400m2 space dedicated in the Biandronno (VA) plant for the MAN-MADE experimental line. The workplace is a 6-meter long continuous line with possibility to be adapted in:
• height: dynamically through an electronic controlled actuator in the range 600mm to 110mm
• width: manually in the range 800mm to 110mm
• speed: electronically in the range 0.5 m/min to 2.5 m/min
Experiments concerning the workplace adaptation have been carried out on the experimental line. For example a potential way to implement the criterion Part Selection / Accessibility has been experimented by assisting the operator in heavy weight transformer assembly. In this case workers have to lift a 4.5 kg transformer and assemble it into a microwave which is a very tough operation requiring an individual with very special physical features (male, tall, pretty strong in arms and back). The novel approach tested consisted in a special transfer bay to be placed in front of the operator (enabling the concept of frontal feeding) and let the cooperative robot to transfer the heavy component from the container to the golden zone of the operator.
The transportation industry workplace
The design and implementation of the Alstom transportation industry workplace has taken place in the context of a re reorganization of the activities done in the electrical workshop area, following the MAN-MADE principles. This has led to the creation of a real production line where job definition and parcelling is much more structured and where, for each workstation, it is possible to set up adjustable features according to the design principles of MAN-MADE.
The worker-centric adaptation principles of the project have been applied in 4 workplaces:
• Workstation A: equipment assemblies in train driving desks;
• Workstation B: mock-up connections on vertical panels;
• Workstation C: mock-up connections on horizontal panels;
• Workstation D: equipment assemblies in electrical cases.
In the first two cases, , the MAN-MADE workplaces have been designed, built and tested. For the other two, the new workplaces have been designed and simulated in the CAD environment.
Each workplace has been characterized by:
• describing the main process features;
• designing the new process in terms of working posture and main dimensions of the workstation;
• identifying the technical requirements that have been then gathered in four Technical Specifications documents meant to guide the design team during the development of the workplace.
Work Package 4 – Production Planning and Work Organization
WP4 dealt with the development of the MAN-MADE worker-centric and context-aware production planning and work organization platform related to the third MAN-MADE Pillar. The development of a comprehensive approach for effective job assignment and workers-workplaces-production integration and synchronization has allowed the identification and characterization of the better performing allocation of resources to changing and evolving jobs and tasks, also including comprehensive plans for human resources management and personalized lifelong training programmes. To this end the work package:
• has moved from a production/factory-centric to a worker-centric production planning and tasks assignment;
• has simultaneously contemplated workers, factory and context requirements and constraints in the dynamic definition of jobs and tasks;
• has supported in the identification of the best equilibrium between collected workers needs/attitudes/skills and manufacturing required output and performances;
• has compared actual and required skills to provide inputs to appropriate worker-enhancing training design.
The four tools developed in the work package, three stand-alone and one web-service, are:
• the Job Allocator;
• the Worker- and context- aware Job Designer;
• the Training Needs Detector;
• the Assessment module.
The Job Allocator
Description. The MAN-MADE Job Allocator is a worker-centric decision support tool meant to propose dynamic assignment of the available workers to the different tasks and/or jobs. The worker-centric Job Allocator considers workers’ skills, capacities and needs, seeing human dimension as a key cornerstone. It runs when the Production Manager and/or Team Leader needs to identify the better performing workers allocation. The job-workers matching finds out the best fit between the characteristics of each available worker and the demands of every task considering the production plan as well for retrieving needed requirements for the jobs to be performed. The module provides following output:
• job allocation, i.e. list of jobs with assigned workers to each of it;
• job allocation statistics, i.e. statistics of jobs-workers matching that enables analysis of requirements against offer by date and shift; by person; by line and by job in order to define corrective actions.
Its main features include:
• compares worker skills with skills required for a specific job;
• communicates with existing production plan’s data source (ERP);
• provides the optimum resource allocation considering worker-centricity;
• provides statistics;
• provides different alternatives for resource allocation;
• keeps track of all job-worker alternatives;
• supports the production manager in handling data entry and in visualizing suggested allocations.
Innovation content. The Job Allocator is a customer-centric decision support tool meant to dynamically assign the available workers to the different tasks and jobs considering workers’ relevant characteristics, skills and availabilities, short-term production plans, time-schedules, job and task description.
MAN-MADE worker-centric job allocator formalizes workers’ profile (i.e. knowledge, skills, capabilities, etc.) and process requirements regardless of the structure and characteristics of the current production line.
The Worker- and context- aware Job Designer
Description. The worker- and context-aware Job Designer solution is meant to support the design of manual or semi-manual fabrication and assembly jobs to balance production lines from different perspectives, and taking into consideration technical, physical and organizational constraints. The considered perspectives are the workload of each working position, the workers safety from an ergonomic point of view, the workers compliance to the job requirements in terms of capacities, skills and experience and the sustainability performances of a given solution.
The main features of the proposed solution are:
• the use of standard methods to assess manual operations time as well as ergonomic risks;
• the retrieval of information about workers’ capacity, skills and experiences from the KNOW Platform based on a well-defined ontology in the manufacturing domain;
• multi-criteria line balancing;
• graphical matching/comparison of alternative balanced solutions.
Innovation content. The MAN-MADE Job Designer drives the balancing process not only considering workloads and time but also from workers and sustainability points of view. In fact, the tool provides a multi-criteria balancing approach.
The software is worker-centric: it allows to assess the safety risks of each workplace based on the set of tasks assigned to it in order to reduce the ergonomic risks for workers. Furthermore, it allows to compare skills and functional capacities required to perform a job, as designed with this tool, with the available workers’ skill and functional capacities in order to increase their safety and to reduce the risk for health and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
The solution is also context-aware: each configuration can be evaluated from a sustainability point of view, using the MAN-MADE Assessment Module.
This solution is based on a well-defined ontology in the manufacturing domain.
The Training Needs Detector
Description. The Training Needs Detector provides worker-specific training hints based on workers’ knowledge and skills, factory demands, job content and job allocation statistics. It is meant to work on long term by comparing workers’ knowledge, skills and needs with required competence of jobs and tasks, to provide inputs for training programs triggering worker-improving life-long learning. The software is able to monitor and track necessary trainings for workers, and will trigger training programs.
Main features of the expected result:
• defines training and learning needs of workers;
• provides inputs for training programs triggering worker-improving life-long learning.
Innovation content. Traditional methods for identifying training needs and defining training programs offer standard modules covering knowledge and skills required for a specific job position, i.e. role-specific but fail to tackle worker-specific training needs linked with particular skill gaps of employees.
The MAN-MADE Training Needs Detector provides worker-specific training hints based on workers’ knowledge and skills, factory demands, job content and job allocation statistics differing form traditional organizational training identification tools.
The Assessment Module
Description. The Assessment Module evaluates impacts and benefits related to decision-making processes supported by the MAN-MADE tools in the three traditional dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. It allows thus to compare different solutions proposed or designed in the MAN-MADE tools from a sustainability perspective. In the same way it estimates the impact of personalized services provision against the same set of sustainability indicators thus allowing to rank them from an impact point of view.
For the computation of the sustainability indicators, it relies on specialized assessment models coping with the different nature of the connected tools and services. These models and the related data needed for the computation are defined for each tool or service category. The Assessment Module provides its functionalities acting as a web service where different MAN-MADE tools can connect to:
• Job Designer tool: for assessing a complete design of a production line (workplaces, jobs, tasks, operations, etc.) features like ergonomics, line balancing, production lead time, etc.
• Job Allocator tool: for measuring improvements in terms of skill matching, workers satisfaction, workers’ productivity, etc. against a defined job allocation (worker-workplace set of couples).
• Training Needs Detector tool: for measuring achievement of career development, skill acquisition, worker satisfaction, etc. through the provision of worker-specific training programs based on workers’ available knowledge and skills, factory demands, job content and job allocation statistics.
• Services Configurator tool: for ranking the suggested services aimed at harmonizing working and non-working life against the defined set of sustainability indicators. Different assessment models are foreseen for each category of provided service (e.g. gym, car sharing, etc.).
Innovation content. The strength of the MAN-MADE Assessment Module relies upon the amount and quality of data managed within the whole MAN-MADE system. Availability of complete workers profiles, factory representation and context services allows to serve the decision-support and design tools with complex assessment methods that would otherwise be too time-consuming (rapid assessment criteria) to be performed. Moreover, the possibility to define new assessment models that plug into the module (e.g. when a new tool or new service category is connected to the system) grants the extensibility of the proposed result beyond the boundaries of the solutions implemented in MAN-MADE.
Work Package 5 – Production Integrated in the Social Environment
Starting from data and information gathered in WP2 concerning the characterization of factory’s context and the workers, WP5 has enabled the creation of a worker-centric services configuration tool promoting a worker-context interaction, increasing worker’s satisfaction and production performances within the environment-aware factory and concretising the fourth and last MAN-MADE Pillar. In this way, the work package:
• has investigated worker’s personal needs and translate them into formalized services requirements;
• has investigated factory’s context related issues enabling the identification of targeted area of intervention;
• has experienced a worker-centric services configurations aimed at strengthening workers’ inclusiveness in the social environment and streamlining the factory-context interaction.
Through its activities the work package has developed:
• the Services Configurator;
• the Services Provision Plan.
The Services Configurator
Description. The Services Configurator is a smartphone application that matches the worker needs with the services available in the context, towards an improved balance of working and non-working life and a higher worker satisfaction. It also evaluates the selected services based on their impacts and benefits on social, environmental and economic areas. In doing so, it exploits information regarding the available services in the living environment so to address in the best way the worker needs.
Two different kind of interactions based on the attitude of the so-called Proactive Worker and Unaware Worker have been developed and analysed as reference for the overall design of the tool.
Innovation content. The Services Configurator has a twofold aim. On the one hand, it improves the worker’s satisfaction by helping him/her in finding desired services available in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, it lets the factory be more integrated and accepted in the living environment by sustaining the local development and economic growth. Moreover, this tool can be scaled in order to be implemented not only in large companies but also in SMEs.
The Services Provision Plan
The Services Provision Plan has been developed to describe the communication plans among the stakeholders throughout the service lifecycle. The main goal is to provide a guide for adopting the MAN-MADE platform in any industrial sector. This basic guide describes the tasks that each stakeholder is in charge of for each phase of the service lifecycle.
The identified service lifecycle phases are:
• Design: it involves all the activities of planning and organizing the resources needed to activate a new service on the service platform.
• Procurement and deployment: it includes the operative actions finalized to deploy a new service such as: the identification of the right service provider and the sign of the agreement, the development of the sustainability assessment if needed, and the publication of all the info related to a new service and provider on the service platform.
• Usage: it is the phase when workers are using the service through the platform.
• Evaluation and improvement: workers, using services, can vote the service and put their feedbacks and leave comments. Based on their evaluation, a service can be improved or modified.
• Disposition: is the final step of a service, it won’t be available on the platform any longer.
For each phase of the service lifecycle, a basic communication plan schema has been defined with the scope to point out the main flow of data and information exchanged among the different stakeholders with the help of the service platform.
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Potential Impact:
Potential impact
MAN-MADE aims at providing a major impact for European manufacturing employees and employers by fostering the development and adoption of worker-centric, context-aware workplaces of the future significantly improving the working conditions (in terms of safety, work-life balance, work-related satisfaction and skills widening) especially at the shop floor level, with a measurable effect on workers productivity (increased of more than 20%) within social- and environmental- aware production systems.
According to Eurofound (Fifth European Working Conditions Survey, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 2012) and to “Europe 2020: a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” quality of work and employment has four complementary dimensions: ensuring career and employment security, maintaining and promoting the health and wellbeing of workers, developing skills and competences, and reconciling working and non-working life.
Leaving career and employment security aside (these factors are not strictly dependent on workplace structure and characteristics), EWCS1 data can be used to show that plant and machine operators in manufacturing contexts are among the most disadvantaged job categories in terms of:
• workplace healthiness/ work safety:
o they have the highest levels of exposure to biological and chemical risks
o they are among the three most exposed categories to posture-related risks
o 40% of them judge job negatively influence their health status
o some 20% of them was absent from work due to a work-accident
• well-being and job satisfaction, resulting from:
o over 80% has low procedural autonomy (and low job satisfaction)
o they are least exposed to workplace innovation
• skills development and training:
o less than 28% undergoes employee-paid training / development of skills activities (among the lowest levels)
o the great part works with highly monotonous and repetitive tasks
o they have among the lowest match between skills and duties (especially true for young workers)
MAN-MADE results can measurably impact on the European manufacturing industry ability to handle working conditions but, above all, on the 17 millions of shop-floor workers operating in European manufacturing.
At the end of the project, a plan has been drawn to evaluate the impact of the MAN-MADE tools on a company’s social and financial performances. Specifically, MAN-MADE is expected to improve a company’s social and financial outcomes through four mechanisms:
1) enhancing the company human capital and its exploitation. As an example, Training Need Detector is aimed at improving the recognition of candidates for training activities and Job Allocator is aimed at fully exploiting available knowledge and skills during production activities;
2) enhancing the physical health status of workers. As an example, by reconfiguring the workplace according to the worker’s characteristics, her/his health status is positively affected;
3) enhancing the motivation of workers. As an example, Job Designer will help design worpkplaces with intrinsic ergonomic evaluation, more equal distributed workload and a better fit on selected population of workers. As a further examples, Job Allocator takes into account workers’ job preferences and, thus, can enhance workers’ job satisfaction, while Service Configurator is aimed at providing workers with the service offerings that match their needs at best;
4) directly improving the company’s operational outcomes. As an example, Job Designer is aimed at supporting the company in designing and balancing the production line in an optimal way, taking into account both the production and the worker perspectives.
In order to operationalize the set of identified relationships, to measure the performance and to demonstrate the positive benefits generated by MAN-MADE, a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has been designed on the basis of the state-of-the-art in social sustainability performance measurement, as well as taking into account the requirements of the Industrial Partners involved in the project. A final list has been derived considering the peculiarities of the MAN-MADE tools. Since the time span of the MAN-MADE project is relatively short compared to the time frame that should be taken into account to assess the relationships identified, it has been decided that, during the evaluation phase, the attention has been focused only on direct benefits related to human capital, physical health status, motivation and operational outcomes that most likely can be evaluated in the short term, whilst it would take more to get perceptible effects on the financial.
A set of activities has been devoted to demonstrate the transferability of the developed solutions outside the boundaries of the industrial sectors addressed in the project and to cross-fertilize them absorbing issues, hints and solutions coming from other fields of application. To do so, the MAN-MADE results have been clustered in different areas to be proposed on the basis of the companies’ interests and priorities in order to better target the needs of the interested parties:
• Cluster 1 Workplace adaptation, this cluster gathers the MAN-MADE tools aiming at capturing the anthropometric characteristics of the workers and adapting the workplace (Scanning Tool, CAD Plugin).
• Cluster 2 Human-centric production, dedicated to a work organization that puts the worker at the centre and is sustainable on economic, environmental and social levels (worker profiler, factory description tools, job designer, job allocator, training needs detector, assessment engine).
• Cluster 3 Personalized services, meant to connect the activities within the factory with the context it is participating into (social participatory web tool, service configurator).
Furthermore, the results transfer has been designed with two different degrees of intensity, so that the process could be adapted to the enterprises:
• Low intensity – the project results and the embedded knowledge are transferred through demonstration cases and examples developed within the MAN-MADE consortium.
• High intensity – the knowledge is transferred by the application of the project solutions/tools to the specific case of the individual enterprise.
This clustering has made it possible to create different packages that could suit the needs and opportunities arising from each of the approached cases.
Once transfer packages have been created, potential sectors for the transfer have been identified. In particular the most promising sub-sectors appear those with higher value added and higher level of employment. Furthermore, the project’s solutions are particularly indicated in case there is a physical interaction between the worker and the workplace, in which the physical characteristics matter, and task are quite differentiated, requiring different abilities, skills and knowledge. This type of situation usually occurs more frequently in the discrete manufacturing workplaces rather than to the process industry. In particular, the following sub-sectors have been identified as potential target of the MAN-MADE transfer activities:
• Transport equipment
• Electrical machinery
• Machinery, equipment, appliances
• Medical precision and optical
• Automotive
Main dissemination activities
By the end of the project, more than 50 dissemination activities have been undertaken in three continents and reaching more than thousand people.
For each main dissemination actions, a brief overview of the work done is provided:
• Clustering with related EU-projects: these activities have been performed under the “Domain 5: Human-centred manufacturing”, “Area 1: Workplaces of the future” and have, over time, involved 4 projects (FACT4WORKERS, SATISFACTORY, SO SMART and SO-PC-PRO). Further, through the preparation and participation to the three annual Impact Workshops, MAN-MADE has contributed to the mapping of the scientific and technical goals of these affine projects and of their impacts with a particular focus on the three dimensions of sustainability. A definition of cross-cutting issues to be undertaken among the projects has been achieved.
• Organization of international sessions and workshops: for special sessions in conferences the IFIP working group 5.7 Advances in Production Management Systems (http://www.ifipwg57.org/about-us/) has been targeted through their annual international conferences. The following special sessions were organized:
- 2015 JAPAN – Product-service lifecycle management: knowledge-driven innovation and social implications
- 2014 FRANCE – Co-evolving Production and Society in a Global-local world
- 2013 USA – Social sustainability in manufacturing
Furthermore, the project partners took advantage of the World Manufacturing Forum 20145, a big international event gathering wider communities of manufacturing researchers, practitioners and stakeholders to organize workshops. Within this event, MAN-MADE organized the Side event: Socially sustainable manufacturing ecosystem workshop.
An interactive workshop was also designed and organized within the Industrial Technologies 2016. Participants were exposed to a sequence of questions aiming at focusing their attention and activate their reflection on the topics presented by some selected speakers, some of which belonging to the MAN-MADE project. The result of the poll were immediately displayed on a dedicated screen, so that the participants could see the distribution of the answers and the presenters could comment this result and modulate their presentations to better suits or address the believes and knowledge of the audience.
Finally, the project partners committed to liaise and strengthen the connection with the industrial companies, the managers and the employees main beneficiaries of the MAN-MADE project, through several initiatives organized on a regional level by the individual partners, such as the workshop co-organized in the Lombardy Region with the Fondazione ERGO, which raised significant interest.
• Project web-site: the website (www.man-made.eu) has been populated with general information about the project and the partners. Furthermore, it highlights the main results and achievements and provides the information to establish contacts in order to receive more information, try the solutions and eventually being consulted about adopting MAN-MADE.
• Dissemination by playing the game: The event Industrial Technologies 2016 was also exploited to launch a novel type of MAN-MADE dissemination means, based on gaming.
A serious game called “JobMatch” has been developed to disseminate the concepts and feeling of the MAN-MADE human-centric job allocation. The game has been conceived to be very friendly and it requires few minutes to be played through a web application accessible through a link or QR code. It has been tailored for an urban setting rather than for the original manufacturing environment, so that it could be better enjoyed by any kind of people, including youngsters with poor knowledge of production jobs. The players are requested through an easy and intuitive user interface to register and profile themselves with reference to a predefined set of traits. Although extremely simplified, this task represents quite well to the characterization of the workers, which in the MAN-MADE vision covers different traits (physical, physiological, skills) and is supported by a set tools (profilers). The game has turned out to be playful, to have enjoyed and intrigued the players, so that it is meant to be reused in future events. Furthermore, it can be reshaped to a production but simplified setting to be used with the students for education purposes.
• Scientific papers: academic partners presented several papers showing MAN-MADE concepts and results to international conferences.
Each project partner also commented on its own dissemination achievement to illustrate how and to what extent performed dissemination activities have reached the target communities and obtained the anticipated effects.
Exploitation of results
The exploitation of the MAN-MADE results will be translated into tangible benefits not only for the internal project consortium, but also beyond, to the users that will be directly affected from the advancement brought by the project. The different stakeholders take advantage from the project outcomes as it follows:
• Research institutes: will exploit the results to advance in the relevant fields of research. Moreover, deriving consultant products from the research will transfer knowledge from universities to industry.
• Industrial partners: will benefit of the impact of the improved worker-factory assessment aimed to optimize technical and organizational strategies to take into account in different phases/elements of design and development of production processes. It will provide a considerable enhancement of the productivity rate due to an enhanced use of human resources and reduction of accidents, and will leverage on the high number of workers involved in the white-good and transportation sector.
• Key tech providers: will create new solutions and additional knowledge in their specific sphere of competence during the project. These members of the consortium will exploit the results in innovative and competitive products.
The consortium has explored potential applications of the generated results, while also considering the possibility of transferring the generated technology to other industrial practices that have not yet been considered. The new fields and sector to which MAN-MADE results and concepts could be transferred or applied have been identified and analysed by each owner of the exploitable result. In what follows, a brief overview of the foreseen exploitation is presented for each exploitable result.
CAD-Plugin
The CAD plugin is the tool that supports the design of personalised and configurable workplaces by adapting the specific anthropometric characteristics of the worker in order to improve them ergonomically and addressing specific working needs. The CAD plugin tool will be presented and taught in the course of “Industrial Plants” in the MSc. in Engineering at SUPSI. The CAD plugin tool will be presented and taught in the course of “Industrial Plants” in the MSc. in Engineering at SUPSI.
Assessment module
The assessment module is the sustainability assessment tool that allows manufacturers to evaluate different processes and products/services across economic, social and environmental impact indicators. The assessment module developed differs from standard offerings on the market thanks to its specific applicability, as a result it applies for rapid assessment criterion. The tool will be presented and studied in the course “Integrated sustainable management of production systems” deployed in the Master Degree in Engineering at SUPSI and in other Advanced training courses. Moreover, it will provide the fundamentals for consultancy activities at national level towards sustainability assessment of Swiss SMEs. The mandatory investments are related to the integration of the tools into the specific company since different sectors can be more or less complex (i.e. tools heterogeneity, information structure and accessibility) from the assessment point of view. It is estimated a 6 months period for getting the tool ready to a saleable version.
Services configurator
Relying on the workers’ specific information, the service configurator improves their satisfaction by matching personal interests with activities and services available in the neighbourhood. Furthermore, it allows the evaluation of these activities on the sustainability indicators. Although large companies provide several offerings to engage the workers on the leisure activities present outside the factory these are typically not tailored for the worker’s needs. Other than being a tool that can be exploited for the development of new projects both at European and national level, the service configurator can be a suitable service for the creation of a spin-off with a B2B based business model. Investments needed to finalize the tool and to take it to the market are: maintenance of servers, integration to firms’ existing information systems, personalisation of the smartphone app, Google licenses for the matching algorithms. It will take approximately one-year time to have a saleable version. The selling price will be defined according to the needs of the company, since the service offering is scalable and can be adapted to each specific scenario.
Worker- and context- aware Job designer
The worker centric Job Designer allows balancing production lines not only considering marketing or production issues, as all the available commercial solutions are capable to carry out, but also giving an high importance to human factors. This tool can assess the ergonomic risks of each manual assembly station, according to some standard methodologies, to reduce these risks and to comply with the current laws. According to the 2015 European working condition surveys, more than 50% of workers are exposed to repetitive movements that can cause musculoskeletal disorders if proper actions are not taken during the design of jobs. This tool aims at assessing this risks and helps designing jobs to reduce it. The revenue model preferred by TTS is License fee per active user and a commissioned application. The chosen revenues model foresees the Job Designer has a license per active user. When required or needed, the installation and customization services will be priced hourly as a usual consultancy. This model will generate revenues to the current and future developers. The commercial exploitation of the Job Designer will be carried on by the company.
Initially, a demo of this tool can be downloaded, for free, from the company website. The end user can play with this demo, which cannot be used in the real operation. In the future, the commercialization channels can change based on the market conditions and the selling results. The initial investment can range from 15K€ to 30K€ mainly to engineer the Job Designer in order to make it a commercial solution. The selling price envisioned by TTS is 6.000€ per active user and it includes post-sale support, maintenance and updating for the first year.
Job Allocator and Training Needs Detector
The Job Allocator is based on fully customizable characterization of the jobs and of the workers. Moreover it allows the users to customize their objective priorities. This is quite unique and makes the tool extremely adaptable and valuable for various production sectors and processes.
In its simplified version can be easily customized in order to allow different gaming and learning scenarios. The revenue model is based on subscription of free licences for the tool. This should encourage system integrators to promote the tool to the final customers, together with their services. Polimi will obtain its revenues from single purchase or subscription models of consulting and training packages associated to the Job Allocator. Given the chosen revenue model, the initial investment will be limited to the preparation and customization of the training material and will be covered by the customers’ orders. The tool is already available for free licence. As a consequence, the expected time to market is 1-2 years Training and consulting prices in line with the fees of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano.
KSN Platform
The KSN Platform implements and exploits very specific conceptual and functional requirements, originally defined by the MAN-MADE project pillars and guidelines. Revenue model foreseen for this tool is based on low-cost subscription of licences, included in consultancy for system integration and custom development. Limited investment is expected, aimed to support the promotion of system integration consultancies where this tool is included, possibly integrated with other results from the MAN-MADE project. The tool is ready, but its tuning will heavily depend on specific implementation and integration. So, we estimate a 1-2 years of time to market. The price will be mainly represented by consultancy services, which will include this tool as a background platform.
Physical Worker Profiler
The developed Physical Worker Profiler allows assessing physical, sensorial and cognitive characteristics of workers. Currently, there are not profilers including these three aspects for no disability people. It will allow occupational health professionals to assign each worker to the most appropriate job, taking into account his/her skills. To get revenue from the profiler it is necessary to integrate it in the MAN-MADE system.
The Physical Worker Profiler is not marketable separately. IBV will get paid in terms of fees from the commercialization of KNOW Platform. Work together with KP owner will be required to make this platform marketable.
Investments are required to adapt the profiler to each company. Customers will pay for it.
Translation to other languages could be necessary. The is already available and is free. IBV will get paid from the adjustment of the profiler.
Factory Description Tool
The Factory Description Tool deals with the identification of critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, etc... that have or can have relation or influence on the workers and the suitable performance and safety of their job.
The tool is not marketable separately. IBV will get paid in terms of fees from the commercialization of KNOW Platform. Work together with KNOW Platform owner will be required to make this platform marketable. Investments are required to adapt the tool to each company. Customers will pay for it.
Translation to other languages could be necessary. Fees will be defined as a percentage of the KNOW Platform selling price.
Parametric Workplace Design Methodology
This methodology will allow to make a matching between job demands and worker capabilities. This matching will take into account the specific anthropometry of workers and workplaces dimensions, whilst currently general databases are used to design workplaces. It is not possible to sell the developed methodology separately. It is included in the CAD Plugin. IBV will get paid from the commercialization of the CAD Plugin in terms of fees. Investments in time will be required to reach a marketable CAD Plugin including this methodology.
Translation to other languages could be necessary. Fees will be defined as a percentage of the CAD Plugin selling price.
Anthropometric Scanning Tool (FAST)
FAST is the only “product” available that offers ease-of-use combined with fully automatic extraction of highly accurate date. This together with the much higher cost efficiency compared to other 3D scanners creates a clear unique selling proposition. Thus not only specialized research institutes and service companies will be willing to invest into such a scanning device but all companies that have clear ergonomic requirements to improve their staff welfare. Framos currently does not have access to the “Ergonomics Industry”. Framos therefore addresses added value resellers and service companies and aims at multiple product sales. Additional investments are needed for finalization of the product. This includes generation of a full user documentation, documentation and testing for CE certification and sales and production personnel. Price will be defined by means of market analysis and business case generation.
List of Websites:
Project website: http://www.man-made.eu/
Contacts: Andrea Bettoni - Project Coordinator - andrea.bettoni@supsi.ch
The MAN-MADE project aims at defining new socially sustainable workplaces where the human dimension is a key cornerstone. Workers are foreseen at the centre of the factory, on the one hand, in terms of workplace adaptation (and production planning, at large) to skills, expertise and characteristic of each single worker and, on the other hand, in terms of capability to make the most out of worker’s knowledge and potentials across all age groups and different roles, simultaneously fostering enhanced worker’s safety. Moreover MAN-MADE promotes the vision of an effective integration of this anthropocentric factory within the social environment toward the implementation of context-aware factories that promotes and take advantage of extended services to the workers in terms of accessibility, inclusiveness, efficiency and work satisfaction. The context aware anthropocentric manufacturing model promoted by the project has been demonstrated by pilot implementations in the transportation industry (Alstom) and in the white-goods sector (Whirlpool), two European industrial sectors of excellence.
Expected benefits from the MAN-MADE project will have a huge impact on the productivity rate due to an enhanced use of human resources and reduction of accidents, and will leverage on the high number of workers involved in the white-good and transportation sector. The MAN-MADE project will contribute to the achievement of best in class performance, making available advanced anthropocentric workplace technologies, that also support a considerable improvement of worker integration in the social environment. The MAN-MADE impact is also guaranteed by the influence and relevance of the project actors such as Whirlpool (with more than 14.000 workers) and Alstom (with more than 92.000 workers worldwide).
Project Context and Objectives:
MAN-MADE concept
The MAN-MADE project aimed at defining new socially sustainable workplaces where the human dimension is a key cornerstone. Workers are foreseen at the centre of the factory, on the one hand, in terms of workplace adaptation (and production planning, at large) to skills, expertise and characteristics of each single worker and, on the other hand, in terms of capability to make the most out of worker’s knowledge and potentials across all age groups and different roles, simultaneously fostering enhanced worker’s safety. Moreover MAN-MADE promoted the vision of an effective integration of this anthropocentric factory within the social environment toward the implementation of context-aware factories that encourage and take advantage of extended services to the workers in terms of accessibility, inclusiveness, work-life balance and work satisfaction. The context aware anthropocentric manufacturing model promoted by the project will be demonstrated by pilot implementations in the transportation industry (Alstom) and in the white-goods sector (Whirlpool), two European industrial sectors of excellence.
The anthropocentric workplace takes into consideration the main human-centric factors governing production, namely efficiency, occupational health and safety and risk management, effective use of knowledge.
Evolving characteristics of each single worker in terms of age, expertise, attitudes and health conditions, imply an ever changing profile of skills and tasks, that needs to be taken into consideration in terms of work organisation and workplace adaptation and in terms of capability to make the most out of worker’s knowledge and potentials.
The effective integration of the worker-aware factory in its social environment needs to be dynamically analysed evaluating constraints and opportunities, linked with specific stakeholders and local conditions. The implementation of strategies for these factories need to be defined in terms of organisation of work (i.e. remote work, flexibility, interoperability), production planning and relocation, management of incentives and facilitations for the workforce (transport, shopping), vocational training and lifelong learning.
In order to address these challenges, MAN-MADE will develop new concepts and solutions both for existing and new production plants in order to enhance flexible, safe and smart production where adequate levels of automation are applied, while maintaining a level of employment with highly satisfied and skilled workers and, at the same time, ensuring competitiveness. These objectives have been pursued by developing 4 RTD pillars:
1. Know the worker / factory / context;
2. Design and Deploy the anthropocentric, ergonomic and safe workplace, and the related
enabling technologies needed to empower the workplace actual instantiation in the selected demo sectors;
3. Plan the production and Organize the work;
4. Produce with context-aware factories integrated in their social environment.
The project proposed an innovative point of view through which a factory and its workers are seen: instead of adopting a classic third-person perspective, where workers are just static elements of a complex, hierarchical representation of the production environment, MAN-MADE put the person at the centre of the stage, looking through his/her eyes, from a first person point of view, at the activities, interactions and relationships in which he/she is involved. The adoption of this approach is fundamental to effectively enable a shift of paradigm from the labour-centric to the anthropocentric manufacturing environment.
Moreover, MAN-MADE also addressed a problem that companies are facing, namely the lack of skilled human resources who are willing to work in manufacturing. In fact a manufacturing company is perceived as a hard, dirty and in general difficult environment for working conditions. MAN-MADE will ensure that tomorrow’s factories will be a much better working environment.
Expected benefits from the MAN-MADE results are expected to have a huge impact on the productivity rate due to an enhanced use of human resources and reduction of accidents, and leveraged on the high number of workers involved in the white-good and transportation sector. The MAN-MADE project contributes to the achievement of best in class performances, making available advanced anthropocentric workplace technologies that also support a considerable improvement of worker integration in the social environment.
MAN-MADE objectives
The implementation of MAN-MADE pillars promotes the transition to an industry where the human dimension is a key cornerstone. The S&T objectives are strictly linked with the MAN-MADE pillars, thus the overall framework was based on four research objectives:
PILLAR I – KNOW the worker / factory / context – 1st S&T objective
Worker - methodologies and tools conceived to represent in real time the evolving profile of the worker through his characterisation have been developed considering 4 dimensions:
• Anthropometry. The anthropometric characterization of the worker resulted into a detailed
picture with the most significant dimensions of the human body for each worker captured with completely non-invasive data capture systems (such as sensors, video/image motion capture or advanced body scanning technologies).
• Functional capacities. Functional capacities (physical, sensorial and cognitive) are identified, collected and formalised in detail in a specific worker assessment model.
• Knowledge. Knowledge resident in each worker involved in production-related processes have been assessed, thanks to the adoption of a properly developed knowledge profiler enabling the careful representation of both general skills and specific expertise, gained in workers life.
• Personal needs. Specific workers needs have been profiled, paying particular attention to aspects more related to the personal and private life of the worker such as, for example, territorial origin, nationality, family composition, physical activity, mobility, religion, leisure etc.
Factory - factory characteristics have been analysed in detail using a worker’s perspective in order to clearly identify and represent potential interactions between the worker and the elements of the working environment with which he/she interacts while performing his/her job. The main considered factory elements are: economic KPIs characterising production; jobs/tasks and related needed skills; processes; organisational structure; workplaces shapes and placing; interactions with other workers and corporate services.
These elements formed the basis to create a formalized representation of the factory also complemented with all the key risk factors, essential to assess the adequacy of workers evolving conditions to the jobs assigned. These include: physical workload responsible for musculoskeletal disorders (manual materials handling, repetitive movements, forceful postures), task duration, man-machine conflict (ergonomic design of machinery, tools and equipment, ergonomic design of HMI), environmental comfort (related to thermal conditions, noise, lighting conditions, etc.) and organizational items.
Context - The environmental and social context in which factories are placed has been analysed through the development of stakeholder-specific relationship management approaches, deployed on the three dimensions of sustainability, namely economic (i.e. customers, distributors,..), social (i.e. workers conditions, schools,..) and environmental (i.e. transports, pollution, quality of air,..). This has allowed to create a comprehensive awareness and understanding of the territory and trends in which the factory is located, providing valuable inputs to a dynamic decision making support system promoting context-aware strategies and objectives definition for the MAN-MADE-enabled factory.
Pillar I output has been the MAN-MADE “KNOW” platform constituted by Technologies (sensors, data acquisition systems, knowledge management systems), Software (centralized database and data analysis systems), Methodologies (procedures and formalized approaches) for creating worker- pertinent workers, factory and context profiles.
PILLAR II – Design and Deploy the MAN-MADE workplace – 2nd S&T objective
Data and information gathered thanks to the tools developed within the KNOW RTD pillar represent a comprehensive, consistent and evolving knowledge base enabling the design of worker-centric, factory-conscious and context-aware MAN-MADE workplaces. The concrete output of this research pillar has been the design of anthropocentric model workplaces addressing the needs of the specific target group “plant and machine operators” working in manufacturing production environments.
The designed workplace has been enabled by methodological approaches and cutting-edge CAD applications complemented with properly developed plug-ins allowing the parametric design and adaptive re-design of anthropocentric factory-conscious and context-aware workplaces. All the dimensions mapped and formalized within the KNOW pillar have driven the design and re-design of effective workplaces aiming at exploiting each worker’s characteristics, behaviour and safety conditions simultaneously assuring production efficiency and efficacy in defined manufacturing layouts.
MAN-MADE workplaces deployment procedures have driven the integration of sensors, capture systems and workplace (usually sector-specific) automation technologies meant to integrate the MAN-MADE workplace in real production environment. The designed configurations have been also compared against each other considering a wide set of sustainability performances indicators.
Pillar II focused on (1) the development of plug-ins for extending the reference knowledge base of workplace design software (with specific workers- and factory- related data), and on (2) the deployment of representative workplaces, including technologies from Pillar I, addressing the needs of plant and machine operators.
PILLAR III – Plan the production and Organize the work – 3rd S&T objective
Relying on results got from the previous two research pillars, methodologies and tools have been developed under this third pillar enabling the valuable and dynamic integration of workers, workplaces and production requirements taking into account constraints and opportunities deriving from the factory and the contexts. The developed solutions and approaches allowed the identification and characterization of the best performing allocation of resources taking into account changing and evolving jobs and tasks and comprehensive plans for human resources management and effective training.
Four are the (complementary) modules derived from the third pillar’s activities:
• the “worker-centric job allocator” meant to dynamically assign the available workers to the different tasks and jobs considering relevant workers’ characteristics and skills. It receives as an input the production plan for a given time horizon (day/week/month) and allocates the available human resources to the different tasks triggered by that production plan pursuing a valuable balance between worker and factory requirements and needs;
• the "worker- and context- aware job designer" enables the definition and re-definition of the different jobs (in terms of tasks, duties, shifts, workflows, etc.) on the basis of the optimal and more convenient combination of workforce, context and factory factors. The job designer allows the worker-centric parcelling of the production tasks based on indications and inputs collected using tools developed within the KNOW pillar;
• the “training needs detector” dynamically and constantly evaluates workers performances in changing working conditions and requirements. This module is aimed at providing inputs to training programs/schemes configuration in order to constantly align required and available knowledge and skills and triggering worker-improving life-long learning and training programs:
• the “MAN-MADE assessment module” Considering a customizable set of indicators covering all the three dimensions of sustainability and accounting the worker, the factory and the context at the same time, also including dynamic risk assessment functionalities, the assessment module allows to ponder the performances of alternative jobs allocations and tasks subdivision as well as the envisaged impact of planned training programs and workplace designs from Pillar II. The assessment module is thus the engine for decision-making in the design, planning and organization of the worker-aware production.
PILLAR IV – Produce with context-aware factories integrated in their social environment – 4th S&T objective
Pillar IV was meant to favour and ease the integration of the workers into the social and environmental context where the factory is placed. The collected personal needs of the workers, and constraints/requirements and opportunities of the social context where the factory is placed, were both addressed under Pillar IV in order to (i) minimize the environmental impact of the factory activities (identifying sustainability-enhancing strategies), (ii) transforming the factory from a society-affecting entity (due to traffic congestion, noise production, workers’ alienation ...) into an integration-promotion body proactively favouring workers’ valuable inclusion into the social environment (promoting workers as citizens, inclusiveness, working- and non-working life balance). Proper worker-centric services configuration approaches have been adopted fostering the workers- factory-context valuable interaction, and creating personalized service schemas where exploited opportunities of the territory and workers-centric services properly deployed by the company have been used to answer to specific workers requirements for a really “built around the worker” workplace of the future.
Pillar IV thus promoted the integration between workers, factory and the social context by (1) identifying actual opportunities for the reduction of the factory’s environmental impact and (2) defining worker-specific bundles of services meant to radically improve workers’ well-being and working and non-working life balance (flexible working schedules, public transport access, access to nursery/kinder garden...).
Project Results:
Introduction to the MAN-MADE S&T foregrounds
According to Sinha et Al. [1], the “organizations of tomorrow will be employee-centric”. Case studies and investigations on real production environments performances (e.g. [2] and [3]) demonstrate the positive correlation between organizations performances and employee recognition as a critical resource in strategic management. Many (especially big) companies declare in their websites and annual reports their “attention towards all the company stakeholders” and “especially employees’ behaviour”, where the employees are referred to as the company greatest asset.
Experience, however, suggests that few organizations actually treat their employees as such. In his 2011 book [4], Walker discusses on the methodologies and approaches that an organization can implement in order to put the employee at the centre of the working environment, postulating that “only when management recognizes that the firm exists to provide an ethical environment in which employees can fully develop and apply their business skills, will the firm be positioned for true success”.
Many authors (e.g.: [5]) point out that the employees’ voice is an important component of business from a strategic perspective, organizations can rely on for pursuing success (measured through economic indicators). Recognizing the worker as a critical resource for the enterprise success, as detailed in [6], has been the starting point for the development of structured employee-centred Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies. This vision produced the notion of employees as human capital: they collectively represent the sum of all their knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as additional characteristics such as energy, drive and motivation they bring with them to the working context [7]. “Knowing” the worker is thus fundamental in order to be able to foresee value generation capabilities of the company. In literature and in real manufacturing environments, heterogeneous parameters, tools and means are described for worker “characteristics” monitoring, going from mere biographical data up to physical dimensions and aptitude/skills.
The MAN-MADE concept holds its foundation in the acknowledgement of the worker’s importance and promotes its S&T foregrounds as a concrete answer to the fundamental question:
What does it mean putting the employee “at the centre” of the organization? Which are the levers and the areas of knowledge employee-centric organizations may rely on to pursue their objective? Which are the tools supporting them?
Four are the elements through which the interaction between the employee and the working environment/context can be examined: (i) ergonomics and anthropometry, (ii) functional capacities (iii) knowledge, and (iv) personal needs, life-work balance.
These elements are never considered within a unique and holistic strategy, even if specific methodologies and approaches can be reported for each of them. Nowadays, in fact, all the strategies, approaches, tools and skills that companies can use:
• refer to almost independent and compartmentalized areas of knowledge (social science for effective balance between job-private life, applied economics and psychology for knowledge management, medicine for ergonomic studies, ...)
• are often used within stand-alone initiatives (especially for ergonomics, personal needs monitoring, ...)
• rely on heterogeneous data sets (properly monitored physical data, rules and cases collected for knowledge storage and share, open questionnaires for monitoring personal expectations and desires,...)
• usually pursue different goals: compliance to laws and regulations, actual workers’ protection and safety assurance, efficiency and production effectiveness, ...
• focus on single steps of the factory lifecycle: either providing inputs to the design phase or supporting the effective management of the middle of life steps, ...
As an answer to these limits, MAN-MADE proposes an integrated strategy for developing and adopting context-aware and worker-centric workplaces:
• designed considering the integrated collection of physical and anthropometric parameters, tacit and explicit knowledge, and personal needs. Existing tools and means mentioned above are never (or, sometimes, just partially) combined, thus inhibiting the creation of complex workers’ profiles. Moreover, heterogeneous profile data are rarely compared and combined for knowledge generation;
• constantly updated and self-improving. Workers’ profiles strongly evolve during time for many reasons: improved skills thanks to training, changed functional or anthropometric characteristics, improved knowledge as a result of the gained experience, varied personal needs. Workplaces structure and characteristics evolution and workplaces combination with workers profiles have thus to be always running and updated to varied workers’ profiles;
• enabling data integrity. Centralized workers profiles are created and constantly updated. Knowledge collected through the workplace is centrally stored and carefully made re-usable by the workers;
• pursuing the adoption of a fully worker-centric point of view. The final goal of the project was the value for the worker, while existing approaches widely drive towards the optimization of the factory benefit. This implies the adoption of a specific set of KPIs and parameters enabling the in-depth awareness creation of the worker needs and requirements;
• covering all the workplace-factory lifecycle phases going from design and deploy, through plan and organize, down to the produce phase, all based on an effective KNOW S&T pillar.
Overall strategy for the S&T foreground development
To guarantee the objectives achievement and to efficiently and effectively manage the project, the project has been articulated in a coherent work-plan that, over the 36 months of project duration, has guided the conception, development, testing, demonstration and validation of the MAN-MADE foregrounds.
The MAN-MADE work-plan has been split in 8 work-packages, each devoted to the achievement of a subset of the project objectives:
• WP1 has set the reference context for the project.
• Within this context, WP2 has addressed MAN-MADE Pillar I (Anthropometric characterization, knowledge capture and factory-context model definition).
• WP3 has addressed Pillar II (MAN-MADE workplace design and deployment).
• Pillar III (MAN-MADE production planning and work organization) has been dealt within WP4.
• WP5 has addressed Pillar IV (production integrated in the social environment).
• All the WPs dealing with the MAN-MADE pillars development pointed to WP6, that has carried out a proper validation and also the prototype implementation.
• In WP7 dissemination and exploitation, running in parallel throughout the other project Work Packages, has allowed to target a wide audience of industrials, academician and practitioners while defining strategies for industrialisation of the project results.
• Eventually WP8 has dealt with the management of the project.
By following the work packages structure and, in particular, by focusing on the RTD ones, the final foregrounds developed in MAN-MADE will be presented in the next sections. Demonstration, Dissemination & Exploitation and Management work packages will not be described as they are not associated with foreground development.
Work Package 1 – Reference Architecture
This preliminary RTD work package acted as a conceptualisation and formalisation moment for the whole project and:
• has defined the overall architecture concepts;
• has defined the foundation of the four MAN-MADE pillars;
• has defined the validation scenarios to be realized in WP6.
While most of the outcome of the work package was directed to steering the consequent activities of the project some developments can be considered a result per se. In particular the work package devised the overall MAN-MADE Reference Framework thus creating the overall tool landscape, requirements and implementation guidelines.
The Reference Framework
The Reference Framework acts as main driver for interpretation and explanation of the activities related to the design and management of a worker-centric workplace and production system at large. For this reason it constitutes a practical and useful tool for the whole consortium in exploring and interpreting the implications and opportunities of implementing the MAN-MADE paradigm within a company’s business.
The main achieved goal of this work laid the basis for a consistent design of the KNOW Platform, the Design Tools, the Production Tools and the Service and Assessment Modules. The early envisaged System Architecture ensured consistency of the design and development activities carried out in the pillar-related RTD work packages thus avoiding the risk of scattered development and low level of interoperability.
The whole concept of the project is based on a framework of integrated tools that relies on a solid data layer characterizing the worker, the factory and the context. The issue of creating such an holistic yet focused and usable repository has been addressed in this work package starting from the characterization of the data consumer tools, their functionalities, requirements and needed data. In this way it has been ensured that future efforts are coherently focused on the same, commonly shared and accepted objectives and languages.
A very important step in order to build up the system architecture has been to point out the exchanged information between the various tools that have been introduced in the logical architecture. To this end a diagram meant to highlight the needed data exchange between tools has been created. In the diagram input required by each tool and generated output has been clearly depicted and development responsibilities in terms of leading and support partner appointment are pinpointed as well.
Work Package 2 – Know the Worker/Factory/Context
WP2 addressed the first Pillar of MAN-MADE, thus focusing on the knowledge of the three project entities, namely the worker, the factory and the context. The work package:
• has developed techniques and tool for constant anthropometric characterization with the support of image capture systems;
• has identified and monitored the functional capacities (physical, sensorial and cognitive) of the worker towards a worker assessment model;
• has developed methods and tool to gather and to make available the knowledge resident in each worker involved in the production related processes
• has developed a factory representation from the worker perspective;
• has developed a formalized representation, and proper tools to represent and dynamically evaluate all risks to be integrated in the factory model;
• has analysed the territorial context in which factories are located towards a dynamic decision making support system.
The foregrounds related to this work package, that will be described in the following, are:
• the Anthropometric Scanning Tool;
• the Physical Worker Profiler;
• the KSN Platform;
• the Factory Description Tool.
The Anthropometric Scanning Tool
Description. The Framos Anthropometric Scanning Tool (FAST) is an easy to use and yet precise system to measure anthropometric data. The 23 most important measures have been identified which can be extracted out of only 3 postures. Positioning of the person being measured and taking the measurements can be done by non-experts.
FAST features a 3D stereo camera system consisting of 2 calibrated industrial cameras. The system is controlled via a dedicated graphical user interface which guides the user through the measurement process. Measurement points are detected automatically by the means of a machine learning process in one of the 2 camera images. The corresponding point in the second camera image is found using state of the art matching procedures. Knowing both measurement points in the images the coordinate is calculated in 3D-Space and distances between two respective measurement points can be calculated with high precision. At the end of the measurement procedure the whole anthropometric dataset is stored in the database.
Innovation content. FAST for the first time combines accurate and robust measurements known from existing but complex 3D scanning technology with the ease-of-use and low cost of conventional 2D scanning tools.
For the realization of the automatic point detection a contour fitting algorithm by the means of machine learning is used for the first time in this field.
The Physical Worker Profiler
Description. The Physical Worker Profiler is a tool aimed to help the companies to obtain, in a protocoled manner, the profile of functional capacities of their workers. That includes: physical, intellectual and sensorial capacities.
It is worth noting that the objectives of the functional assessment can be very different (i.e. to classify and quantify degree of impairment, to determine whether a person can return to a previous job after a disabling condition, etc.). Functional evaluation of an individual can be performed in several environments and situations. One of these possible environments is the workplace. In this case the objective is to assess the capacity of the person to compare it with the demand of work and adapt a particular work situation.
Thanks to this worker information, other MAN-MADE system tools are able to guarantee a better adaptation of jobs and tasks to the capacities of workers.
The tool features:
• step-by-step methodology that guides the user through the process of functional characterization of the worker;
• an incorporated additional/optional module to assess quantitatively certain physical capacities using instrumentation;
• maintenance tool to keep updated a database with the critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, tools and machinery from an anthropocentric perspective.
Innovation content. The Physical Worker Profiler allows occupational health specialists to assess the capabilities of workers taking into account those aspects that may be related to work demands. Thus this is not thought to be just a check-up, but a guided process to assess capabilities that in a later step will be related to job demands.
The KSN Platform
Description. The KSN platform is a web-based application oriented to resource management in the context of a factory. It support the process of assessment of a worker's potential, through a qualification and quantification of their knowledge, skills and needs, to be evaluated in relation to existent evaluation criteria, both from the company's and from global standards.
The platform manages a shared repository of data, related to workers potentials and job requirements. It offers various tools to create an interactive user interface and a set of web services to enable cooperation with different software tools.
In addition, it implements various social network functionalities, to support the cooperation between workers, the employing company and the service providers around the factory.
The platform offers web-based services to support the integration of all the tools developed by the Manmade project.
Eventually, the KSN Platform joins the functionalities of three main tools developed by Synesis in the project: KSN Worker Profiler, Know Platform, Context Participatory Tool.
Innovation content. The KSN platform supports the development of a socially sustainable workplace, focusing on the human dimension of the worker and his involvement in the working and environmental context.
It integrates various functionalities oriented to the qualification of workers, both from their professional point of view (knowledge, skills, capacities ...) and their personal needs or preferences.
In addition, it offers to workers the opportunity to get in contact with the context around the factory, through social networking functionalities and a description of available service providers.
The platform integrates various aspects of the overall MAN-MADE architecture and is designed to evolve through the addition of new modules. Both its user interface development tools and its web-service layer, indeed, allow a comfortable implementation of new modules.
The Factory Description Tool
Description. The Factory Description Tool deals with the identification of critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, etc. that have or can have relation or influence in the workers and the suitable performance and safe of their job.
These are organized by typologies that correspond with the following topics:
• critical workplace dimensions (e.g. standing or seated working height, chair dimensions, working area for arms, etc.)
• functional tasks demands (physical, sensorial and intellectual tasks demands)
• knowledge & skill demands
• environmental factors (thermal, visual and acoustic comfort)
• organizational factors (e.g. working shifts, tasks duration, breaks, etc.)
• occupational health & safety risks (e.g. repetitive movements, manual material handling, awkward postures, etc.)
In the framework of the MAN-MADE system, the Factory Description Tool gathers information from the company that is compared with the data that of the workers in order to establish a proper adaptation of these to their jobs.
The tool features:
• user-friendly tool interface, to facilitate the companies in filling information related with the anthropocentric approach;
• incorporated tools and aids to facilitate the collection of information in different topics. (checklist, assessment methods recommended, standards recommended, etc.);
• maintenance tool, to keep updated a database with the critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, tools and machinery from an anthropocentric perspective.
Innovation content. With the Factory Description Tool, aspects describing the work requirements are not just focused to calculate an ergonomic risk index, but to gather all this information that can be compared to the user’s capabilities and skills. For pursuing such an ambitious goal, the Factory Description Tool takes into account all those aspects that ergonomic and psychosocial risk methodologies consider critical so as to create a worker-centred workplace.
Furthermore, the Factory Description Tool offers an added value related to the compatibility of its outputs with those obtained from the Physical Worker Profiler, thus providing together the essential information that allows to take decisions about how to design factories and workplaces. To this regards, it has to be considered that, up to now, most of software tools and ergonomic methodologies are simply oriented to assess the risk, not to improve the design of workplaces.
Work Package 3 – Workplace Design and Deployment
This work package embodies the second MAN-MADE Pillar and is meant to design anthropocentric model workplaces that exploit the worker and context information gathered thanks to the approaches and tools developed within WP2 and formalized into the MAN-MADE Knowledge Database. To achieve this goal, the work package:
• has investigated worker’s personal needs and translate them into formalized services requirements;
• has investigated factory’s context related issues enabling the identification of targeted area of intervention;
• has experienced a worker-centric services configurations aimed at strengthening workers’ inclusiveness in the social environment and streamlining the factory-context interaction.
The work package has envisioned and developed the following tools and methodologies:
• the CAD Plugin;
• the Parametric Workplace Design Methodology.
Moreover, the work package has developed the two workplaces respectively in the transportation and white-goods sectors.
The CAD Plugin
Description. The CAD Plugin extends the functionalities of available CATIA ergonomics modules (e.g. Human Builder) by supporting design of personalized and configurable workplaces capable to adapt to single worker anthropometric characteristics thus providing reduced ergonomic impact and higher coupling with specific working needs.
The tool features:
• access, inside the CAD, to information stored in the MAN-MADE KNOW Platform (worker anthropometric data, worker list, critical worker dimensions) for the creation of 3D mannequins of specific workers, or workforce subsets;
• retrieval, from the KNOW Platform, of configurable workplace dimensions;
• definition and storage of personalized configuration parameters of the workplace for automatic adaptation of the real working environment to the single worker;
• interactive browsing of the Parametric workplace design methodology as guidelines for the ergonomic design of adaptable workplaces.
Innovation content. Although statistical anthropometric data sets are available on the market in order to create CAD-based human models, a CAD plug-in or dedicated software able to support the characterisation of the worker is missing. This is of primary importance, since gathering and analysing worker’s data such as characteristics, needs, abilities and skills of human beings leads to deliver more ergonomic workplaces thus improving the efficiency, safety and well-being of the workers. In fact, design made for the “average worker” doesn’t fit properly with the requirement of most of the real workers on a production line. Moreover available data-sets are too broad and generic to effectively couple with allocation decisions taken at shop floor that don’t follow stochastic processes.
As thoroughly discussed in the literature, considering the aforementioned aspects strongly improves the product quality and the efficiency of the production processes.
The Parametric Design Methodology
Description. This methodology supports the design of parametric workplaces in order that this can be easily and quickly configured and reconfigured, in order this will be adapted to the characteristics and needs of the worker that are going to be working in this workstation.
This has been concretized, in the definition of a design approach and the derived guidelines for the generation and adaptation of configurable workplaces to the specific worker.
The methodology follows a stepwise approach. after determination of the main working posture, the critical dimensions of the workplace are determined. For instance, if the worker is going to perform his activity in a standing posture the main dimensions will be the working height and the foot space, and it becomes unnecessary to determine either space requirements for the legs or dimensions of the seat. For each described working posture, several dimensions for workstations design are given. These dimensions, as mentioned before, are based on anthropometric data.
In the third step, according to the anthropometric data of the considered population, the workplace dimensions are determined. The last step is the actual design of a new or the modification of an existing adaptable workplace according to the calculated measures. To this aim the Parametric Design Methodology has been integrated in the CAD Plugin that allows to consider each worker’s specific anthropometric data in order to perform ergonomics analysis within a CAD environment.
Innovation content. Different tools are available in the market to know ergonomic guidelines or risk assessment, but all of them are based on tasks analysis and not on worker capabilities. In this case the parametric workplace design methodology offers a workplace design methodology based in the comparison of work description with workers capabilities and skills.
The white-goods industry workplace
The conceptual design of the white-goods experimental line has been based on the following principles. The experimental line is a continuous flow line as recommended by Whirlpool Production System (WPS) and is composed of three workplaces. It has adaptable height and is designed so that it can treat both ovens and refrigerators. It has been designed so that it can accommodate further improvements in terms of adaptability.
An analysis of the main parameters (i.e. laterality, platform height, workplace light, etc.) to be considered in the creation of the adaptable experimental line has been carried out.
Moreover Whirlpool decided to go beyond mere automation to be incorporated in the design of the adjustable workplace by scoping on advanced methods for automation and part presentation. This covered the assessment of both screwdrivers technology (fundamental for the task to be performed on the line) and on the collaborative robots (cobot) technology.
The designed prototypal workplace has been set up in a 400m2 space dedicated in the Biandronno (VA) plant for the MAN-MADE experimental line. The workplace is a 6-meter long continuous line with possibility to be adapted in:
• height: dynamically through an electronic controlled actuator in the range 600mm to 110mm
• width: manually in the range 800mm to 110mm
• speed: electronically in the range 0.5 m/min to 2.5 m/min
Experiments concerning the workplace adaptation have been carried out on the experimental line. For example a potential way to implement the criterion Part Selection / Accessibility has been experimented by assisting the operator in heavy weight transformer assembly. In this case workers have to lift a 4.5 kg transformer and assemble it into a microwave which is a very tough operation requiring an individual with very special physical features (male, tall, pretty strong in arms and back). The novel approach tested consisted in a special transfer bay to be placed in front of the operator (enabling the concept of frontal feeding) and let the cooperative robot to transfer the heavy component from the container to the golden zone of the operator.
The transportation industry workplace
The design and implementation of the Alstom transportation industry workplace has taken place in the context of a re reorganization of the activities done in the electrical workshop area, following the MAN-MADE principles. This has led to the creation of a real production line where job definition and parcelling is much more structured and where, for each workstation, it is possible to set up adjustable features according to the design principles of MAN-MADE.
The worker-centric adaptation principles of the project have been applied in 4 workplaces:
• Workstation A: equipment assemblies in train driving desks;
• Workstation B: mock-up connections on vertical panels;
• Workstation C: mock-up connections on horizontal panels;
• Workstation D: equipment assemblies in electrical cases.
In the first two cases, , the MAN-MADE workplaces have been designed, built and tested. For the other two, the new workplaces have been designed and simulated in the CAD environment.
Each workplace has been characterized by:
• describing the main process features;
• designing the new process in terms of working posture and main dimensions of the workstation;
• identifying the technical requirements that have been then gathered in four Technical Specifications documents meant to guide the design team during the development of the workplace.
Work Package 4 – Production Planning and Work Organization
WP4 dealt with the development of the MAN-MADE worker-centric and context-aware production planning and work organization platform related to the third MAN-MADE Pillar. The development of a comprehensive approach for effective job assignment and workers-workplaces-production integration and synchronization has allowed the identification and characterization of the better performing allocation of resources to changing and evolving jobs and tasks, also including comprehensive plans for human resources management and personalized lifelong training programmes. To this end the work package:
• has moved from a production/factory-centric to a worker-centric production planning and tasks assignment;
• has simultaneously contemplated workers, factory and context requirements and constraints in the dynamic definition of jobs and tasks;
• has supported in the identification of the best equilibrium between collected workers needs/attitudes/skills and manufacturing required output and performances;
• has compared actual and required skills to provide inputs to appropriate worker-enhancing training design.
The four tools developed in the work package, three stand-alone and one web-service, are:
• the Job Allocator;
• the Worker- and context- aware Job Designer;
• the Training Needs Detector;
• the Assessment module.
The Job Allocator
Description. The MAN-MADE Job Allocator is a worker-centric decision support tool meant to propose dynamic assignment of the available workers to the different tasks and/or jobs. The worker-centric Job Allocator considers workers’ skills, capacities and needs, seeing human dimension as a key cornerstone. It runs when the Production Manager and/or Team Leader needs to identify the better performing workers allocation. The job-workers matching finds out the best fit between the characteristics of each available worker and the demands of every task considering the production plan as well for retrieving needed requirements for the jobs to be performed. The module provides following output:
• job allocation, i.e. list of jobs with assigned workers to each of it;
• job allocation statistics, i.e. statistics of jobs-workers matching that enables analysis of requirements against offer by date and shift; by person; by line and by job in order to define corrective actions.
Its main features include:
• compares worker skills with skills required for a specific job;
• communicates with existing production plan’s data source (ERP);
• provides the optimum resource allocation considering worker-centricity;
• provides statistics;
• provides different alternatives for resource allocation;
• keeps track of all job-worker alternatives;
• supports the production manager in handling data entry and in visualizing suggested allocations.
Innovation content. The Job Allocator is a customer-centric decision support tool meant to dynamically assign the available workers to the different tasks and jobs considering workers’ relevant characteristics, skills and availabilities, short-term production plans, time-schedules, job and task description.
MAN-MADE worker-centric job allocator formalizes workers’ profile (i.e. knowledge, skills, capabilities, etc.) and process requirements regardless of the structure and characteristics of the current production line.
The Worker- and context- aware Job Designer
Description. The worker- and context-aware Job Designer solution is meant to support the design of manual or semi-manual fabrication and assembly jobs to balance production lines from different perspectives, and taking into consideration technical, physical and organizational constraints. The considered perspectives are the workload of each working position, the workers safety from an ergonomic point of view, the workers compliance to the job requirements in terms of capacities, skills and experience and the sustainability performances of a given solution.
The main features of the proposed solution are:
• the use of standard methods to assess manual operations time as well as ergonomic risks;
• the retrieval of information about workers’ capacity, skills and experiences from the KNOW Platform based on a well-defined ontology in the manufacturing domain;
• multi-criteria line balancing;
• graphical matching/comparison of alternative balanced solutions.
Innovation content. The MAN-MADE Job Designer drives the balancing process not only considering workloads and time but also from workers and sustainability points of view. In fact, the tool provides a multi-criteria balancing approach.
The software is worker-centric: it allows to assess the safety risks of each workplace based on the set of tasks assigned to it in order to reduce the ergonomic risks for workers. Furthermore, it allows to compare skills and functional capacities required to perform a job, as designed with this tool, with the available workers’ skill and functional capacities in order to increase their safety and to reduce the risk for health and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
The solution is also context-aware: each configuration can be evaluated from a sustainability point of view, using the MAN-MADE Assessment Module.
This solution is based on a well-defined ontology in the manufacturing domain.
The Training Needs Detector
Description. The Training Needs Detector provides worker-specific training hints based on workers’ knowledge and skills, factory demands, job content and job allocation statistics. It is meant to work on long term by comparing workers’ knowledge, skills and needs with required competence of jobs and tasks, to provide inputs for training programs triggering worker-improving life-long learning. The software is able to monitor and track necessary trainings for workers, and will trigger training programs.
Main features of the expected result:
• defines training and learning needs of workers;
• provides inputs for training programs triggering worker-improving life-long learning.
Innovation content. Traditional methods for identifying training needs and defining training programs offer standard modules covering knowledge and skills required for a specific job position, i.e. role-specific but fail to tackle worker-specific training needs linked with particular skill gaps of employees.
The MAN-MADE Training Needs Detector provides worker-specific training hints based on workers’ knowledge and skills, factory demands, job content and job allocation statistics differing form traditional organizational training identification tools.
The Assessment Module
Description. The Assessment Module evaluates impacts and benefits related to decision-making processes supported by the MAN-MADE tools in the three traditional dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. It allows thus to compare different solutions proposed or designed in the MAN-MADE tools from a sustainability perspective. In the same way it estimates the impact of personalized services provision against the same set of sustainability indicators thus allowing to rank them from an impact point of view.
For the computation of the sustainability indicators, it relies on specialized assessment models coping with the different nature of the connected tools and services. These models and the related data needed for the computation are defined for each tool or service category. The Assessment Module provides its functionalities acting as a web service where different MAN-MADE tools can connect to:
• Job Designer tool: for assessing a complete design of a production line (workplaces, jobs, tasks, operations, etc.) features like ergonomics, line balancing, production lead time, etc.
• Job Allocator tool: for measuring improvements in terms of skill matching, workers satisfaction, workers’ productivity, etc. against a defined job allocation (worker-workplace set of couples).
• Training Needs Detector tool: for measuring achievement of career development, skill acquisition, worker satisfaction, etc. through the provision of worker-specific training programs based on workers’ available knowledge and skills, factory demands, job content and job allocation statistics.
• Services Configurator tool: for ranking the suggested services aimed at harmonizing working and non-working life against the defined set of sustainability indicators. Different assessment models are foreseen for each category of provided service (e.g. gym, car sharing, etc.).
Innovation content. The strength of the MAN-MADE Assessment Module relies upon the amount and quality of data managed within the whole MAN-MADE system. Availability of complete workers profiles, factory representation and context services allows to serve the decision-support and design tools with complex assessment methods that would otherwise be too time-consuming (rapid assessment criteria) to be performed. Moreover, the possibility to define new assessment models that plug into the module (e.g. when a new tool or new service category is connected to the system) grants the extensibility of the proposed result beyond the boundaries of the solutions implemented in MAN-MADE.
Work Package 5 – Production Integrated in the Social Environment
Starting from data and information gathered in WP2 concerning the characterization of factory’s context and the workers, WP5 has enabled the creation of a worker-centric services configuration tool promoting a worker-context interaction, increasing worker’s satisfaction and production performances within the environment-aware factory and concretising the fourth and last MAN-MADE Pillar. In this way, the work package:
• has investigated worker’s personal needs and translate them into formalized services requirements;
• has investigated factory’s context related issues enabling the identification of targeted area of intervention;
• has experienced a worker-centric services configurations aimed at strengthening workers’ inclusiveness in the social environment and streamlining the factory-context interaction.
Through its activities the work package has developed:
• the Services Configurator;
• the Services Provision Plan.
The Services Configurator
Description. The Services Configurator is a smartphone application that matches the worker needs with the services available in the context, towards an improved balance of working and non-working life and a higher worker satisfaction. It also evaluates the selected services based on their impacts and benefits on social, environmental and economic areas. In doing so, it exploits information regarding the available services in the living environment so to address in the best way the worker needs.
Two different kind of interactions based on the attitude of the so-called Proactive Worker and Unaware Worker have been developed and analysed as reference for the overall design of the tool.
Innovation content. The Services Configurator has a twofold aim. On the one hand, it improves the worker’s satisfaction by helping him/her in finding desired services available in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, it lets the factory be more integrated and accepted in the living environment by sustaining the local development and economic growth. Moreover, this tool can be scaled in order to be implemented not only in large companies but also in SMEs.
The Services Provision Plan
The Services Provision Plan has been developed to describe the communication plans among the stakeholders throughout the service lifecycle. The main goal is to provide a guide for adopting the MAN-MADE platform in any industrial sector. This basic guide describes the tasks that each stakeholder is in charge of for each phase of the service lifecycle.
The identified service lifecycle phases are:
• Design: it involves all the activities of planning and organizing the resources needed to activate a new service on the service platform.
• Procurement and deployment: it includes the operative actions finalized to deploy a new service such as: the identification of the right service provider and the sign of the agreement, the development of the sustainability assessment if needed, and the publication of all the info related to a new service and provider on the service platform.
• Usage: it is the phase when workers are using the service through the platform.
• Evaluation and improvement: workers, using services, can vote the service and put their feedbacks and leave comments. Based on their evaluation, a service can be improved or modified.
• Disposition: is the final step of a service, it won’t be available on the platform any longer.
For each phase of the service lifecycle, a basic communication plan schema has been defined with the scope to point out the main flow of data and information exchanged among the different stakeholders with the help of the service platform.
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Potential Impact:
Potential impact
MAN-MADE aims at providing a major impact for European manufacturing employees and employers by fostering the development and adoption of worker-centric, context-aware workplaces of the future significantly improving the working conditions (in terms of safety, work-life balance, work-related satisfaction and skills widening) especially at the shop floor level, with a measurable effect on workers productivity (increased of more than 20%) within social- and environmental- aware production systems.
According to Eurofound (Fifth European Working Conditions Survey, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 2012) and to “Europe 2020: a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” quality of work and employment has four complementary dimensions: ensuring career and employment security, maintaining and promoting the health and wellbeing of workers, developing skills and competences, and reconciling working and non-working life.
Leaving career and employment security aside (these factors are not strictly dependent on workplace structure and characteristics), EWCS1 data can be used to show that plant and machine operators in manufacturing contexts are among the most disadvantaged job categories in terms of:
• workplace healthiness/ work safety:
o they have the highest levels of exposure to biological and chemical risks
o they are among the three most exposed categories to posture-related risks
o 40% of them judge job negatively influence their health status
o some 20% of them was absent from work due to a work-accident
• well-being and job satisfaction, resulting from:
o over 80% has low procedural autonomy (and low job satisfaction)
o they are least exposed to workplace innovation
• skills development and training:
o less than 28% undergoes employee-paid training / development of skills activities (among the lowest levels)
o the great part works with highly monotonous and repetitive tasks
o they have among the lowest match between skills and duties (especially true for young workers)
MAN-MADE results can measurably impact on the European manufacturing industry ability to handle working conditions but, above all, on the 17 millions of shop-floor workers operating in European manufacturing.
At the end of the project, a plan has been drawn to evaluate the impact of the MAN-MADE tools on a company’s social and financial performances. Specifically, MAN-MADE is expected to improve a company’s social and financial outcomes through four mechanisms:
1) enhancing the company human capital and its exploitation. As an example, Training Need Detector is aimed at improving the recognition of candidates for training activities and Job Allocator is aimed at fully exploiting available knowledge and skills during production activities;
2) enhancing the physical health status of workers. As an example, by reconfiguring the workplace according to the worker’s characteristics, her/his health status is positively affected;
3) enhancing the motivation of workers. As an example, Job Designer will help design worpkplaces with intrinsic ergonomic evaluation, more equal distributed workload and a better fit on selected population of workers. As a further examples, Job Allocator takes into account workers’ job preferences and, thus, can enhance workers’ job satisfaction, while Service Configurator is aimed at providing workers with the service offerings that match their needs at best;
4) directly improving the company’s operational outcomes. As an example, Job Designer is aimed at supporting the company in designing and balancing the production line in an optimal way, taking into account both the production and the worker perspectives.
In order to operationalize the set of identified relationships, to measure the performance and to demonstrate the positive benefits generated by MAN-MADE, a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has been designed on the basis of the state-of-the-art in social sustainability performance measurement, as well as taking into account the requirements of the Industrial Partners involved in the project. A final list has been derived considering the peculiarities of the MAN-MADE tools. Since the time span of the MAN-MADE project is relatively short compared to the time frame that should be taken into account to assess the relationships identified, it has been decided that, during the evaluation phase, the attention has been focused only on direct benefits related to human capital, physical health status, motivation and operational outcomes that most likely can be evaluated in the short term, whilst it would take more to get perceptible effects on the financial.
A set of activities has been devoted to demonstrate the transferability of the developed solutions outside the boundaries of the industrial sectors addressed in the project and to cross-fertilize them absorbing issues, hints and solutions coming from other fields of application. To do so, the MAN-MADE results have been clustered in different areas to be proposed on the basis of the companies’ interests and priorities in order to better target the needs of the interested parties:
• Cluster 1 Workplace adaptation, this cluster gathers the MAN-MADE tools aiming at capturing the anthropometric characteristics of the workers and adapting the workplace (Scanning Tool, CAD Plugin).
• Cluster 2 Human-centric production, dedicated to a work organization that puts the worker at the centre and is sustainable on economic, environmental and social levels (worker profiler, factory description tools, job designer, job allocator, training needs detector, assessment engine).
• Cluster 3 Personalized services, meant to connect the activities within the factory with the context it is participating into (social participatory web tool, service configurator).
Furthermore, the results transfer has been designed with two different degrees of intensity, so that the process could be adapted to the enterprises:
• Low intensity – the project results and the embedded knowledge are transferred through demonstration cases and examples developed within the MAN-MADE consortium.
• High intensity – the knowledge is transferred by the application of the project solutions/tools to the specific case of the individual enterprise.
This clustering has made it possible to create different packages that could suit the needs and opportunities arising from each of the approached cases.
Once transfer packages have been created, potential sectors for the transfer have been identified. In particular the most promising sub-sectors appear those with higher value added and higher level of employment. Furthermore, the project’s solutions are particularly indicated in case there is a physical interaction between the worker and the workplace, in which the physical characteristics matter, and task are quite differentiated, requiring different abilities, skills and knowledge. This type of situation usually occurs more frequently in the discrete manufacturing workplaces rather than to the process industry. In particular, the following sub-sectors have been identified as potential target of the MAN-MADE transfer activities:
• Transport equipment
• Electrical machinery
• Machinery, equipment, appliances
• Medical precision and optical
• Automotive
Main dissemination activities
By the end of the project, more than 50 dissemination activities have been undertaken in three continents and reaching more than thousand people.
For each main dissemination actions, a brief overview of the work done is provided:
• Clustering with related EU-projects: these activities have been performed under the “Domain 5: Human-centred manufacturing”, “Area 1: Workplaces of the future” and have, over time, involved 4 projects (FACT4WORKERS, SATISFACTORY, SO SMART and SO-PC-PRO). Further, through the preparation and participation to the three annual Impact Workshops, MAN-MADE has contributed to the mapping of the scientific and technical goals of these affine projects and of their impacts with a particular focus on the three dimensions of sustainability. A definition of cross-cutting issues to be undertaken among the projects has been achieved.
• Organization of international sessions and workshops: for special sessions in conferences the IFIP working group 5.7 Advances in Production Management Systems (http://www.ifipwg57.org/about-us/) has been targeted through their annual international conferences. The following special sessions were organized:
- 2015 JAPAN – Product-service lifecycle management: knowledge-driven innovation and social implications
- 2014 FRANCE – Co-evolving Production and Society in a Global-local world
- 2013 USA – Social sustainability in manufacturing
Furthermore, the project partners took advantage of the World Manufacturing Forum 20145, a big international event gathering wider communities of manufacturing researchers, practitioners and stakeholders to organize workshops. Within this event, MAN-MADE organized the Side event: Socially sustainable manufacturing ecosystem workshop.
An interactive workshop was also designed and organized within the Industrial Technologies 2016. Participants were exposed to a sequence of questions aiming at focusing their attention and activate their reflection on the topics presented by some selected speakers, some of which belonging to the MAN-MADE project. The result of the poll were immediately displayed on a dedicated screen, so that the participants could see the distribution of the answers and the presenters could comment this result and modulate their presentations to better suits or address the believes and knowledge of the audience.
Finally, the project partners committed to liaise and strengthen the connection with the industrial companies, the managers and the employees main beneficiaries of the MAN-MADE project, through several initiatives organized on a regional level by the individual partners, such as the workshop co-organized in the Lombardy Region with the Fondazione ERGO, which raised significant interest.
• Project web-site: the website (www.man-made.eu) has been populated with general information about the project and the partners. Furthermore, it highlights the main results and achievements and provides the information to establish contacts in order to receive more information, try the solutions and eventually being consulted about adopting MAN-MADE.
• Dissemination by playing the game: The event Industrial Technologies 2016 was also exploited to launch a novel type of MAN-MADE dissemination means, based on gaming.
A serious game called “JobMatch” has been developed to disseminate the concepts and feeling of the MAN-MADE human-centric job allocation. The game has been conceived to be very friendly and it requires few minutes to be played through a web application accessible through a link or QR code. It has been tailored for an urban setting rather than for the original manufacturing environment, so that it could be better enjoyed by any kind of people, including youngsters with poor knowledge of production jobs. The players are requested through an easy and intuitive user interface to register and profile themselves with reference to a predefined set of traits. Although extremely simplified, this task represents quite well to the characterization of the workers, which in the MAN-MADE vision covers different traits (physical, physiological, skills) and is supported by a set tools (profilers). The game has turned out to be playful, to have enjoyed and intrigued the players, so that it is meant to be reused in future events. Furthermore, it can be reshaped to a production but simplified setting to be used with the students for education purposes.
• Scientific papers: academic partners presented several papers showing MAN-MADE concepts and results to international conferences.
Each project partner also commented on its own dissemination achievement to illustrate how and to what extent performed dissemination activities have reached the target communities and obtained the anticipated effects.
Exploitation of results
The exploitation of the MAN-MADE results will be translated into tangible benefits not only for the internal project consortium, but also beyond, to the users that will be directly affected from the advancement brought by the project. The different stakeholders take advantage from the project outcomes as it follows:
• Research institutes: will exploit the results to advance in the relevant fields of research. Moreover, deriving consultant products from the research will transfer knowledge from universities to industry.
• Industrial partners: will benefit of the impact of the improved worker-factory assessment aimed to optimize technical and organizational strategies to take into account in different phases/elements of design and development of production processes. It will provide a considerable enhancement of the productivity rate due to an enhanced use of human resources and reduction of accidents, and will leverage on the high number of workers involved in the white-good and transportation sector.
• Key tech providers: will create new solutions and additional knowledge in their specific sphere of competence during the project. These members of the consortium will exploit the results in innovative and competitive products.
The consortium has explored potential applications of the generated results, while also considering the possibility of transferring the generated technology to other industrial practices that have not yet been considered. The new fields and sector to which MAN-MADE results and concepts could be transferred or applied have been identified and analysed by each owner of the exploitable result. In what follows, a brief overview of the foreseen exploitation is presented for each exploitable result.
CAD-Plugin
The CAD plugin is the tool that supports the design of personalised and configurable workplaces by adapting the specific anthropometric characteristics of the worker in order to improve them ergonomically and addressing specific working needs. The CAD plugin tool will be presented and taught in the course of “Industrial Plants” in the MSc. in Engineering at SUPSI. The CAD plugin tool will be presented and taught in the course of “Industrial Plants” in the MSc. in Engineering at SUPSI.
Assessment module
The assessment module is the sustainability assessment tool that allows manufacturers to evaluate different processes and products/services across economic, social and environmental impact indicators. The assessment module developed differs from standard offerings on the market thanks to its specific applicability, as a result it applies for rapid assessment criterion. The tool will be presented and studied in the course “Integrated sustainable management of production systems” deployed in the Master Degree in Engineering at SUPSI and in other Advanced training courses. Moreover, it will provide the fundamentals for consultancy activities at national level towards sustainability assessment of Swiss SMEs. The mandatory investments are related to the integration of the tools into the specific company since different sectors can be more or less complex (i.e. tools heterogeneity, information structure and accessibility) from the assessment point of view. It is estimated a 6 months period for getting the tool ready to a saleable version.
Services configurator
Relying on the workers’ specific information, the service configurator improves their satisfaction by matching personal interests with activities and services available in the neighbourhood. Furthermore, it allows the evaluation of these activities on the sustainability indicators. Although large companies provide several offerings to engage the workers on the leisure activities present outside the factory these are typically not tailored for the worker’s needs. Other than being a tool that can be exploited for the development of new projects both at European and national level, the service configurator can be a suitable service for the creation of a spin-off with a B2B based business model. Investments needed to finalize the tool and to take it to the market are: maintenance of servers, integration to firms’ existing information systems, personalisation of the smartphone app, Google licenses for the matching algorithms. It will take approximately one-year time to have a saleable version. The selling price will be defined according to the needs of the company, since the service offering is scalable and can be adapted to each specific scenario.
Worker- and context- aware Job designer
The worker centric Job Designer allows balancing production lines not only considering marketing or production issues, as all the available commercial solutions are capable to carry out, but also giving an high importance to human factors. This tool can assess the ergonomic risks of each manual assembly station, according to some standard methodologies, to reduce these risks and to comply with the current laws. According to the 2015 European working condition surveys, more than 50% of workers are exposed to repetitive movements that can cause musculoskeletal disorders if proper actions are not taken during the design of jobs. This tool aims at assessing this risks and helps designing jobs to reduce it. The revenue model preferred by TTS is License fee per active user and a commissioned application. The chosen revenues model foresees the Job Designer has a license per active user. When required or needed, the installation and customization services will be priced hourly as a usual consultancy. This model will generate revenues to the current and future developers. The commercial exploitation of the Job Designer will be carried on by the company.
Initially, a demo of this tool can be downloaded, for free, from the company website. The end user can play with this demo, which cannot be used in the real operation. In the future, the commercialization channels can change based on the market conditions and the selling results. The initial investment can range from 15K€ to 30K€ mainly to engineer the Job Designer in order to make it a commercial solution. The selling price envisioned by TTS is 6.000€ per active user and it includes post-sale support, maintenance and updating for the first year.
Job Allocator and Training Needs Detector
The Job Allocator is based on fully customizable characterization of the jobs and of the workers. Moreover it allows the users to customize their objective priorities. This is quite unique and makes the tool extremely adaptable and valuable for various production sectors and processes.
In its simplified version can be easily customized in order to allow different gaming and learning scenarios. The revenue model is based on subscription of free licences for the tool. This should encourage system integrators to promote the tool to the final customers, together with their services. Polimi will obtain its revenues from single purchase or subscription models of consulting and training packages associated to the Job Allocator. Given the chosen revenue model, the initial investment will be limited to the preparation and customization of the training material and will be covered by the customers’ orders. The tool is already available for free licence. As a consequence, the expected time to market is 1-2 years Training and consulting prices in line with the fees of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano.
KSN Platform
The KSN Platform implements and exploits very specific conceptual and functional requirements, originally defined by the MAN-MADE project pillars and guidelines. Revenue model foreseen for this tool is based on low-cost subscription of licences, included in consultancy for system integration and custom development. Limited investment is expected, aimed to support the promotion of system integration consultancies where this tool is included, possibly integrated with other results from the MAN-MADE project. The tool is ready, but its tuning will heavily depend on specific implementation and integration. So, we estimate a 1-2 years of time to market. The price will be mainly represented by consultancy services, which will include this tool as a background platform.
Physical Worker Profiler
The developed Physical Worker Profiler allows assessing physical, sensorial and cognitive characteristics of workers. Currently, there are not profilers including these three aspects for no disability people. It will allow occupational health professionals to assign each worker to the most appropriate job, taking into account his/her skills. To get revenue from the profiler it is necessary to integrate it in the MAN-MADE system.
The Physical Worker Profiler is not marketable separately. IBV will get paid in terms of fees from the commercialization of KNOW Platform. Work together with KP owner will be required to make this platform marketable.
Investments are required to adapt the profiler to each company. Customers will pay for it.
Translation to other languages could be necessary. The is already available and is free. IBV will get paid from the adjustment of the profiler.
Factory Description Tool
The Factory Description Tool deals with the identification of critical characteristics of tasks, workplaces, equipment, etc... that have or can have relation or influence on the workers and the suitable performance and safety of their job.
The tool is not marketable separately. IBV will get paid in terms of fees from the commercialization of KNOW Platform. Work together with KNOW Platform owner will be required to make this platform marketable. Investments are required to adapt the tool to each company. Customers will pay for it.
Translation to other languages could be necessary. Fees will be defined as a percentage of the KNOW Platform selling price.
Parametric Workplace Design Methodology
This methodology will allow to make a matching between job demands and worker capabilities. This matching will take into account the specific anthropometry of workers and workplaces dimensions, whilst currently general databases are used to design workplaces. It is not possible to sell the developed methodology separately. It is included in the CAD Plugin. IBV will get paid from the commercialization of the CAD Plugin in terms of fees. Investments in time will be required to reach a marketable CAD Plugin including this methodology.
Translation to other languages could be necessary. Fees will be defined as a percentage of the CAD Plugin selling price.
Anthropometric Scanning Tool (FAST)
FAST is the only “product” available that offers ease-of-use combined with fully automatic extraction of highly accurate date. This together with the much higher cost efficiency compared to other 3D scanners creates a clear unique selling proposition. Thus not only specialized research institutes and service companies will be willing to invest into such a scanning device but all companies that have clear ergonomic requirements to improve their staff welfare. Framos currently does not have access to the “Ergonomics Industry”. Framos therefore addresses added value resellers and service companies and aims at multiple product sales. Additional investments are needed for finalization of the product. This includes generation of a full user documentation, documentation and testing for CE certification and sales and production personnel. Price will be defined by means of market analysis and business case generation.
List of Websites:
Project website: http://www.man-made.eu/
Contacts: Andrea Bettoni - Project Coordinator - andrea.bettoni@supsi.ch
