Design Methodology to Improve Human-Robot Coproduction in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises

In recent years, mass-customization and on-demand production have spread to larger ground. To accommodate these developments, manufacturing systems are being transformed to allow more flexibility and agility. One of the technologies that allow flexibility and agility is collaborative robots. The design and implementation of intelligent manufacturing systems (IMS) is a complex activity that requires bridging between disciplines. With the introduction of collaborative robots, new disciplines are added to this activity, which need to be linked to the existing design methods and procedures. Currently, the lack of these links is a bottleneck for small- and medium-sized enterprises that have limited resources for implementation. In this paper, we introduce a human–robot coproduction design methodology, with the aim of raising the capacity of designers for reasoning on collaboration between humans and robots in manufacturing. The methodology comprises four procedural steps: analysis, modeling, simulation, and evaluation, with specific methods, tools, and instruments. The methodology has been evaluated in a laboratory environment by performing a pilot study with designers. While the current implementation of the methodology and its instrumentation is limited, it has been shown that the methodology enables quick design iterations during the conceptual design phase of human–robot coproduction, thanks to procedures that have been tailored for this novel form of organizing and structuring production processes in IMS.