Advanced technologies to support Industry 4.0 operators

The LangileOK project aims to advance the development and implementation of the Smart Factory concept in the Basque Country, recognizing the fundamental role that factory workers play in the production process. Through research and development of scientific and technological lines in the ICT field by various technology centers and specialized university departments, cross-cutting solutions will be proposed that can be transferred to industry, helping to position the Basque Country favorably in this area of ​​R&D&I internationally. The LangileOK project focuses on the Industry 4.0 paradigm, which applies new information and communication technologies to industry and manufacturing, but also identifies workers as a key and unifying element of the technologies related to the fourth industrial revolution.

Within the context of focusing technological solutions on operators in Basque Country manufacturing plants, four challenges have been identified that the business sector is already addressing, but which will be even more relevant in the near future:

Flexible production. Operators will increasingly need more skills in a flexible production environment, with constant variability in machines, manufacturing orders, optimal manufacturing configurations, and machine maintenance, among other functions.

Operator empowerment. Related to the previous point, the sector trend is aligned with providing operators with tools and granting them greater decision-making capabilities.

Knowledge management. Including operators in decision-making requires a comprehensive view of the people in the production plant, so that overall knowledge is managed efficiently and information sharing is promoted.

Digital divide. It must be acknowledged that the Basque business sector is very diverse, but so too is its workforce. In the midst of the transition to the digital world, there is a risk of fragmenting the Basque business fabric, with some companies successfully adapting their processes and workforce to the underlying technologies, while others have not.

With this in mind, the developments proposed within the LangileOK project pursue the following specific objectives:

• Enhancement of the "cognitive capabilities" of the workers' work environment
• Non-invasive location and monitoring of workers and mobile systems
• Natural interaction with production systems
• Advanced visualization and interaction techniques and data access
• Technologies that adapt to the production context
• Technologies that enable the concept of a Social Factory