Production Systems Performance Optimization through Human/ Machine Collaboration

*Paul-Eric Dossou, Valentin Verdier and Alan Ogor*

## **Abstract**

The growth of enterprises is a constant source of research and development of new technologies. Indeed, to stand out from the competition and optimize their production, companies are moving toward the centralization of information and the implementation of machines. This dynamic requires a significant investment in terms of organization and research. Industry 4.0 is therefore at the heart of this reflection, as shown in the literature. It brings together many technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data. This chapter focuses on company performance optimization through a sustainable Industry 4.0 framework involving methodologies such as lean manufacturing and DMAIC, new technologies as robotics, in addition to social, societal, and environmental transformations. This chapter will present robotic displacement solutions adapted to the industrial environment for improving production systems performance. Solutions for human-machine interaction problems such as human-machine interface or flexibility 4.0 will be shown.

**Keywords:** Industry 4.0, performance optimization, robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, human-machine collaboration, internet of things (IoTs)

## **1. Introduction**

Faced with increasing competition, companies must develop new ways of optimizing their production, and this involves the use of new technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, internet of things, big data analytics. Even if these technology implementations in large companies have shown their efficiency for increasing the company supply chain performance, most SMEs are not willing to exploit them. Some of the reasons for these breaks are the technologies costs, human fear, employees' knowledge or education on technologies, and resistance to change. For instance, the problem of artificial intelligence or robot acceptability in companies could be pointed out.

The robotic implementation requires the writing of very precise specifications to answer the problems of the company. Robotic solutions are not well known by all companies, and some of them have difficulty visualizing the benefits of this technology. One of the major obstacles is the lack of data on the capabilities of robots to perform generic tasks in certain industrial fields.

Industry 4.0 is expanding with new technology enhancements. Numerous Industry 4.0 concept frameworks exist in the literature such as presented in [1]. The digital and technological transformation of the company is based on dimensions such as a horizontal integration, used to transform the physical production system (robot, internet of things, cyber-physical systems) and processes, or a vertical integration for structuring, and managing data and decisions that would be taken for increasing the company performance. Despite the positive impact of these concepts on the company performance, the integration of robotics, IoT, or artificial intelligence in SMEs transformation is confidential in France. However, technologies such as autonomous guided vehicles (AIV) could be used to transport loads in their production systems or within their warehouses, and cobots to perform daily tasks on fixed stations. Indeed, these frameworks do not obtain the membership of SMEs and it is necessary to find solutions to transform them technologically, digitally, and to optimize them. This chapter presents a framework that exploits sustainability as the kernel of the transformation in order to take into account social, societal, and environmental aspects, combined with new technologies for defining levers of transformation and increasing the company performance. The main objective of the new framework is to transform digitally and sustainably the SMEs for increasing their performance by using new technologies for aiding operators in their daily tasks and facilitating operational information management (between operators, machines, robots, and the information system).

This chapter focuses on solutions of human/machine collaboration for optimizing the company production system. It describes new Industry 4.0 concepts for improving the production processes through the implementation of new technologies such as AIV, cobots, IoT, information systems, and decision-aided tool. These solutions will contribute to the company's digital transformation. The objective of this chapter is to show different solutions, allowing the improvement of logistics within the framework of Industry 4.0.

After a literature review of organizational methodologies, Industry 4.0, robotic collaboration, and big data analytics, the sustainable Industry 4.0 framework will be presented, and the associated human/machine collaboration concepts will be shown. Use cases based on an electronics card company will be exposed.
