Employee-Driven Innovation for Improving Working Practices: Preliminary Findings from a Case Study

As industrial systems increase in complexity, the direct involvement of employees in the process of designing and redesigning them becomes crucial. In the present work, we describe the initial stage of a project aimed at reshaping the interface of the software used by employees in a home appliances validation laboratory. In particular, we report on the process of involving operators in the identification of the current issues and in the proposal of possible solutions. To this end, we ran a focus group session that allowed to identify the most critical activities employees are required to perform. In addition, we encouraged them to suggest possible solutions to overcome such issues. Data from the focus group were analyzed and summarized into categories that will inform the redesign of the software.