Augmenting the Production Operators for Continuous Improvement

This paper discusses how continuous improvement activities can be supported by augmenting the operators in production. After a brief literature background, real life case examples from manufacturing companies are provided and discussed. Enabling technologies, specifically AR and embedded sensors, can guide the operators in execution of their tasks, quality verification of work done step by step, and data collection from both manual and automated operations in much higher levels of details. Collected data provides an empirical foundation for data-driven analysis and improvement potentials in production and quality operations. The paper contributes to theory and practice by providing research-based innovation experiences on this emerging topic of interest for manufacturing companies.