How Inclusive is Manufacturing? An Analysis of Today’s Workplace Design

Abstract

Demographic shifts and workforce shortages impose change to today's work system, inter alia, for integrating diverse human populations. Industry 4.0 and emerging technologies further amplify the potential of having enabled work systems for people with a different range of (dis-)abilities and preferences. Aligned with the global trend of integrating marginalized groups into the mainstream of society, inclusive design introduces innovative approaches to work system design, enhancing its capacity to encompass a wider spectrum of workforce. This could be well simulated and demonstrated in the context of learning factories (LF) providing guidelines and tangible showcases for introducing inclusive work systems in human-centered manufacturing. To lay the ground, this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review, i.e., to identify, and categorize inclusive design principles tailored to dimensions of work systems. The goal is to provide a conceptual model characterizing inclusive work systems in manufacturing and thus support work system designers and planners for assessing and redesigning (learning) factory work systems. This is in particular studied in the example of an assembly site and a single assembly work system at the TU Wien’s Pilot Factory Industry 4.0.