One of the central elements of European industrial production is the manufacturing of finished parts from raw materials. Even in highly automated scenarios, the part manufacturing processes (e.g., milling) still require human interaction. Human workers are needed in the factories to ensure steady manufacturing and high part quality. Due to this dependency, part manufacturing is highly susceptible to reduced workforce situations as they occur, e.g., during pandemics like the previous COVID-19 outbreak. New modes of telework collaboration based on interactive systems that comprise visualization and communication technologies, collaborative robots, fast internet connections, and remote control of machine tools bear the potential to overcome these challenges. 

In the project PartRe²Work, we aim to find out how such modes and systems need to be designed to share tasks between teleworkers and on-site employees. We apply an interdisciplinary approach between manufacturing engineering, ergonomics/human factors, and human-computer interaction to find out how the concept of Human-centered Design (HCD) needs to be designed. After describing use-case scenarios, we will specify the user context and identify requirements. Afterward, we will develop solutions for the collaboration and evaluate them. Finally, the findings are generalized to form a framework that provides guidelines for manufacturers to partially relocate on-site manufacturing tasks to telework.

Duration: 15.11.2023 - 14.12.2025

Funding Agency: Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds (FWF)

Partner:

• Institute of Visual Computing and Human-Centered Technology, TU Wien
• Manufacturing Technology and Production Systems, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, RPTU Kaiserslautern
• Visualization & HCI Group, Department of Computer Science, RPTU Kaiserslautern

Contact: Taeho Kang
E-Mail: taeho.kang@tuwien.ac.at