Potentials of IT-supported Assistive Systems: Comparison of two User Studies in the Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

Since the demand for customized products increases steadily and the work tasks become more complex, the employees at the shop floor have to deal with a higher information density. Although it is obvious to use information technology to output the required information, work stations might require different supportive technologies. Besides finding adequate work stations to be supported by information technologies, there is also the need to have criteria on which technology is suitable for supporting a specific work task and how the needed information has to be displayed to the employees. In this paper, two user studies of implementing different supportive technologies in different manufacturing work tasks are presented, the potentials shown and compared to derive adequate recommendations for actions.