Technological development enables efficient manufacturing processes and brings changes in human work, which may cause new threats to employee well-being and challenge their existing skills and knowledge. Human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) is a scientific discipline to optimize simultaneously overall system performance and human well-being in different work contexts.
The review describes the state-of-the-art of HF/E research in Industry 4.0 manufacturing contexts. A total of 336 research articles were identified for the review, of which 37 were analysed utilizing a human-centric work system presented in the HF/E literature.
The scoping review identifies how organisations can have different levels of HF/E and technological maturities and how there are products of the organisational and operational contexts (external environment, the socio-organizational context, and the local context). An essential finding of the paper is also indications of a maturity paradox, where positive development on one variable (HF/E or technology) has a detrimental effect on the other. This is important to keep in mind and address in future manufacturing and societal developments.
Finally, the article presents a series of identified macro ergonomics viewpoints in manufacturing in Industry 4.0 context:
Technological:
Post-doctoral research fellow, University of Oulu
Entrepreneur, Human Process Consulting Oy
Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Helsinki
Research Director
FFRC, University of Turku
Post-doc. Researcher, FFRC
University of Turku
Reiman, A., Kaivo-oja, J., Parviainen, E., Takala, E.-P. & Lauraéus, T., 2021, Human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing in the industry 4.0 context – A scoping review. Technology in Society.
Human factors, Ergonomics, Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Maturity models.
Organisational:
Personnel:
For more information on the important subject of human factors and ergonomics in Industry 4.0 contexts, please contact the article authors.
