Robots are increasingly used in a variety of work environments, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to how robots change work. In this comparative case study, we explore how robotization changed the work design of order pickers and order packers in eight logistic warehouses. We found that all warehouses robotized tasks based on technological functionality to increase efficiency, which sometimes created jobs consisting of ‘left-over tasks’. Only two warehouses used a bottom-up approach, where employees were involved in the implementation and quality of work was considered important. Although the other warehouses did not, sometimes their work design still benefitted from robotization. The positive effects we identified are reduced physical and cognitive demands and opportunities for upskilling. Warehouses that lack attention to the quality of work may risk ending up with the negative effects for employees, such as simplification and intensification of work, and reduced autonomy. We propose that understanding the consequences of robots on work design supports HR professionals to help managing this transition by both giving relevant input on a strategic level about the importance of work design and advocating for employees and their involvement.
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Future work processes are going to change in several aspects. The working population (at least in Western European countries) is decreasing, while average age of employees increases. Their productivity is key to continuity in sectors like healthcare and manufacturing. Health and safety monitoring, combined with prevention measures must contribute to longer, more healthy and more productive working careers. The ‘tech-optimist’ approach to increase productivity is by means of automation and robotization, supported by IT, AI and heavy capital investments. Unfortunately, that kind of automation has not yet fulfilled its full promise as productivity enhancer as the pace of automation is significantly slower than anticipated and what productivity is gained -for instance in smart industry and healthcare- is considered to be ‘zero-sum’ as flexibility is equally lost (Armstrong et al., 2023). Simply ‘automating’ tasks too often leads to ‘brittle technology’ that is useless in unforeseen operational conditions or a changing reality. As such, it is unlikely to unlock high added-value. In healthcare industry we see “hardly any focus on research into innovations that save time to treat more patients.” (Gupta Strategists, 2021). Timesaving, more than classic productivity, should be the leading argument in rethinking the possibilities of human-technology collaboration, as it allows us to reallocate our human resources towards ‘care’, ’craft’ and ’creativity’.
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Deze Powerpoint presentatie werd door lector Cock Heemskerk gebruikt voor een lezing over zorgrobots in het Slimste Huis in Alkmaar. Na een korte uitleg over het werkveld van het lectoraat en de wetenschappelijke definitie van een robot wordt nader ingegaan op de inzetbaarheid van zorgrobots anno 2017. De testresultaten van de zorgrobots Alice en ROSE worden duidelijk uiteengezet. Er wordt ingezoomd op de 21ste eeuw vaardigheden van studenten verpleegkunde en die onderzoekers. Tot slot wordt de opbouw en de doelstelling van een klinische les (nagespeelde praktijksituatie) gepresenteerd.
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De horeca-sector en het toerisme worden zwaar getroffen door de huidige crisis. Omzetschade is historisch groot; tegelijkertijd zijn er vanuit de praktijk veel vragen over hoe nieuwe werkwijzen moeten worden ontwikkeld en toegepast. Voor onze sector voorziet onderzoek in het kader van de Impuls-regeling daarom onmiskenbaar in een grote maatschappelijke behoefte. Hotelschool The Hague (HTH) zet strategisch in op het behoud en de versterking van praktijkgericht onderzoek en op het onderzoekend vermogen van haar studenten. Onderzoekend vermogen is, voor toekomstige afstudeerders in een snel veranderende arbeidsmarkt, door de HTH gedefinieerd als cruciale kernvaardigheid. In dit kader zijn recent de onderwijs- en onderzoeksprogramma’s van de HTH hervormd rond de principes van Design Oriented Research. Door de COVID-19 crisis is de continuïteit van het praktijkgericht onderzoek van de HTH, misschien nog wel meer dan bij brede hogescholen onder druk komen te staan. Met het hier voorgestelde Impuls 2020 bestedingsplan wil HTH de onderzoeksfunctie van haar praktische outlets — haar schoolrestaurants en -hotels— verder versterken zodat deze kunnen worden ingericht en gebruikt als ‘test-beds’ of HTH Labs. De schoolrestaurants en -hotels worden hiermee een faciliteit voor experimenteel, praktijkgericht onderzoek waar in commerciële bedrijven vaak geen mogelijkheid voor is. Dit Impuls 2020 voorstel behelst de visievorming voor de HTH Labs en de netwerkvorming met andere kennisinstellingen en met bedrijven als beoogde afnemers van de kennis die in de Labs ontwikkeld zal worden. Het voorstel voorziet tevens in de uitvoering van 3 pilotstudies die de mogelijkheden van de HTH Labs inzichtelijk maken voor het bedrijfsleven. De Impuls financiering zal uiteindelijk resulteren in een operationele onderzoeksfaciliteit in de schoolrestaurants en -hotels van de HTH, en in drie onderzoeksrapporten met bijbehorende disseminatie-activiteiten.
We live in a time of radical changes in Europe. The climate crisis, the war in Ukraine, energy crisis, the pandemic, increasedprice levels and interest rates, digitalization, robotization, reduced birth rates, an aging population, migration, a decliningdemocracy index and increasing friction level between continents and powerful states makes us uncertain about tomorrow.Deglobalization, shorter production lines, changed export models, bloc formations and sovereignty might be results of someof the large challenges we see today. We see tendencies towards increasing poverty and a declining middle class. It isperhaps more important than ever in recent times to show optimism on behalf of young people and future generations.European cooperation and the link between the right skills for the right future seems to be more actual and important thanever. A report from McKinsey Global Institute (2017) about future work life, competence development and digitalization,shows that approximately 50 % of todays jobs can disappear in the nearest future caused digitalization, robotization and AI.MGI’s in-dept report have covered more than 20 countries and 30 industries (mckinsey.com). We have also a commonEuropean challenge reagarding too many youth outside the working life. The NEET index (Not in Employment, Education orTraining) was 14 % totally for the EU countries, 9.6 % for Germany, 6.3 % for Netherlands and also 6.3 % for Norway in2021 (ssb.no).This is a challenge we have to solve as we need to increase the work participation as welfare costs willincrease as a consequence of more immigration and several older people.
With increasing labor shortages, sectors using mobile machines (automotive/industry/agrifood/logistics) have a rising need for productivity improvement. With evolving technology, mobile machine control has stepped from hydraulics to electronics using sensors and smart systems to support drivers and allowing intelligent and automated machine functions. Verification and validation costs of such complex functionality urge the need for virtual solution routes to limit the lead time, cost and safety issues of real-world testing. RAAK-mkb project Fast&Curious developed tools to enable model-driven development for the control of a wide range of vehicle systems. This included automatic code generation support from MATLAB/Simulink® into the Bodas RC30 family vehicle controllers from Bosch Rexroth (see www.openMBD.com). The solution has been adopted by several SMEs allowing them to start working in a model-driven way, helping them to do virtual verification&validation, lowering development time and costs. Meanwhile, Rexroth adopted MATLAB/Simulink for core vehicle functions development and currently develops Fast&Curious-alike automatic code generation support for their recent RC40 controllers. Virtuoso aims to further improve productivity on simulation level by creating an interface layer in Simulink to (automatically) test impact of hardware interface imperfections and failures, such as noise and short circuits, as well as to seamlessly switch between continuous (early development) and discretized (deployment-oriented) input/output behavior. Companies like Emoss and Jautomatisering are interested in such solutions, allowing them to adopt efficient, model-driven processes and supporting their engineers in the required hydraulics-to-software/electronics skill-shift. The solution connects well to future developments like robotization. Besides supporting development of vehicle automation and mobile robotics, MATLAB/Simulink also supports ROS (Robot Operating System) via co-simulation and co-deployment. ROS has become the standard in (mobile) robot control development and is used by many parties. Virtuoso further closes the gap between development and deployment and allows future integration in mobile robotics, foreseen as next step.
