Hybrid teams of industry 4.0: A work place considering robots as key players

Abstract

The ongoing modernization of today's workplaces within the framework of industry 4.0 is leading to radical new developments and forcing fundamental changes to the way companies and factories are established. The purpose of this paper is to develop and improve a concept that organizes the workplace on a basic level in order to meet the upcoming challenge of accounting for robots as key players in it. There are several organizational structures that include the traditional hierarchical structures as well as the modern agile management models that are rising in the world of industry 4.0. Within it, the usage of robots is increasing due to the vast and multiple functions each robot is able to perform. This implies automation, but it also implies that different forms of collaboration with humans are becoming necessary as factories are tending to produce customized products. Individualized products require different methods and different skills which span different sets of abilities of humans and robots. How does this increase of robots' usage affect the applied organization structures and flows of the decision-making processes? What are necessary changes that need to be considered to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of a workplace with robots that already existing structures do not compensate for? This paper highlights the existing gap and addresses the required changes in the organization models. Following that is an evaluation and outlook on that validates the legitimacy of the approach.