Design and Digital Manufacturing: an ergonomic approach for Industry 4.0

Abstract

[EN] The aim of the present paper is to propose innovative methods for ergonomic design of tools, equipment and manual tasks on workplaces of an automotive assembly line, in order to increase worker’s welfare and system’s performance by improving general safety conditions. The manufacturing industry is heading to the ever more pushed use of digital technologies in order to achieve very dynamic production environments and to be able to develop continuous process and product innovations to fit into the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution, also identified as Industry 4.0. The main goal of Industry 4.0 is to “re-think” factories through the use of digital, to reconsider the design approach and to monitor the production process in real time. The research addresses the evolution of industry 4.0 in relation to the discipline of “design”, where the management of knowledge in the production process has led to the strengthening and improvement of tangible goods. Starting by current ergonomic analysis models and innovative approaches to the process design of industrial production line, the manufacturing processes in the virtual environment were defined and optimized with the use of innovative 3D visualization technologies. The constant interaction among the different disciplines of design, engineering and occupational medicine, enables the creation of advanced systems for simulating production processes based on virtual reality and augmented reality, mainly focused on the needs and requirements of the workers on a production line with the main objective of bringing out the interaction between real and virtual factory (Cyber-Physical System - CBS). The objective is to define new models of analysis, of development and of testing for the ergonomic configuration of processes, that improve and facilitate the human-machine interaction in a holistic view, in order to protect and enhance human capital, transferring the experiences and knowledge in the factory system, as key factors for the company and for the sustainability of workers welfare levels.