Supporting Organizational Readiness when Implementing Robot in a Collaborative Environment

Industry 4.0 brings several technologies that might be useful for manufacturers to become more competitive. One of these technologies is robots in collaborative environments (RCE), which operate fenceless together with the operators. The interest of these robots in the manufacturing sector has been getting more attention recently. Nevertheless, manufacturers should determine their organization's readiness for implementing RCE successfully. Therefore, this paper presents results from a case study conducted at a manufacturing company in Sweden. The case study approach allowed for insights into how manufacturers can approach RCE organizational readiness. The investigated case company was in the process of acquiring a robot in a collaborative environment. The resulting list of critical factors contains aspects concerning four areas to support organizational readiness for RCE, namely, communication, knowledge, organizational, and resistance. By addressing the critical factors presented in the list, manufacturers can identify critical organizational readiness aspects when implementing RCE.