Using the Internet of Things for Enhanced Support of Workers in Manufacturing

Work processes such as assembly in manufacturing are often highly complex and change frequently due to today’s high rate of technological innovation. Thus, the usage of assistance services to support workers in assembly can result in significant benefits. However, adequate assistance requires knowledge about the actual actions of the workers. In this chapter, we present a use case in aviation, where a manufacturing environment that carries no sensors at all is extended with off-the-shelf sensors that enable capturing the effect of physical actions and, in consequence, adequate reactions of a support system. We also give an overview of technologies of the Internet of Things and a category of human errors in industry to simplify the replication of the described digitization in other workplaces.