Technologies of Industry 4.0 are within each part of business processes these days. Robots, automated guided vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, and smart tools are only a small list of tools that are used in small, medium, and large enterprises worldwide. Researchers at the Kaunas University of Technology showcase that employees remain a key factor in every part of the business chain and ask the question of use of contemporary technologies to investigate performance of employees.
Warehouse management is a fundamental element of the efficiency and effectiveness of every trade or manufacturing enterprise. Nonetheless, despite innovations in the logistics segment, warehouses rely heavily on human operators and their performance. According to Business Wire, today, above 80 percent of warehouses still do not have any form of automation implying all operations depend only on employees.
Therefore, researchers at the University took up to dig deeper into the field, and with the help of smart tools to showcase the most important factors for the productivity of logistics workers.
In fact, human workers the flexibility required for material handling processes thanks to their physical and cognitive abilities. These virtues are still hard to be replaced with automated systems in a cost-effective manner. Therefore, this leads to the need to consider human and work environment factors to elevate business performance, safety of employees, and well-being.
A study undertaken by the research team proposed a new dimension to examine the performance of employees. Observing the opportunities that sensors that can be worn and similar smart tools provide, the researchers put forth a question if wearable sensor tools support the investigation of collaborative, individual, and environmental factors in the operations management area.
