Integrating operator health and performance dilemmas into the planning and scheduling of intelligent production systems – Prod4Human
Integration of the performance-health trade-off for operators into the planning and scheduling of intelligent production systems
Prod4Human: Optimizing Production While Preserving Operator Health
Challenges and Objectives
The production of goods faces increasing challenges in optimization due to product diversity, heightened consumer demands, and fluctuating demand. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in the e-commerce sector, often referred to as the “parcel factory,” which is directly impacted by these variations. The management of logistics and production is still largely dominated by human expertise and is only minimally supported by digital tools, leading to fragmented (siloed) management. Additionally, while algorithms for planning exist, they typically do not account for human constraints related to the physical, psychological, and cognitive capabilities of operators. This contributes to an increase in musculoskeletal disorders, professional burnout, and psychological exhaustion among workers, a problem exacerbated by the aging workforce. The Prod4Human project aims to address these issues by integrating human capabilities into the planning processes. It first seeks to understand the sociotechnical and psychosocial conditions of logistics operators' work. This includes analyzing individual modalities (movements and professional practices), collective aspects (teamwork, group dynamics), organizational factors (maneuver margins, work organization), and identity-related elements (work perception, meaning, and quality of work). The goal is to better understand the actual work of operators, the resources and constraints they face, and how technological tools can facilitate their tasks while preserving their health and well-being. Building on these observations, Prod4Human intends to design high-performance planning algorithms that respect human capacities. These algorithms rely on a high-level modeling language capable of representing not only complex logistics processes but also the physical and psychological limits of workers identified during the work analysis. This would enable the development of planning solutions that maximize both production performance and the preservation of operator health. Another key dimension of the project is the integration of these algorithms into a comprehensive production management system, promoting a cross-functional approach as opposed to the siloed management often observed. The goal is to facilitate smoother and more coherent management of production while preventing physical or mental overload risks for operators. This system could also support technological and organizational developments through digital simulations (prospective ergonomics), thus anticipating the impacts of changes before their actual implementation.
The Prod4Human project aims to optimize industrial production while preserving operator health. It is based on an innovative approach that integrates physical, cognitive, and organizational dimensions into planning and scheduling. Its objective is to provide a better understanding of current challenges and to develop tools that anticipate and address these issues in a more human-centered and efficient manner.
Theoretical Outcomes:
1. Understanding Industrial Planning: Prod4Human analyzes the structure and complexity of production processes to identify optimization levers while considering human constraints.
2. Relationship Between Workplace Health and Organization: The project explores the interaction between operator health and work organization, identifying the impact of organizational decisions on workers' physical, cognitive, and psychological well-being.
3. Occupational Risk Assessment: It develops a comprehensive method for assessing occupational risks, including physical, cognitive, and perceptual factors, going beyond traditional ISO standards.
4. Integration of Algorithms into Decision-Support Tools: Advanced planning algorithms will be incorporated into existing industrial tools to simulate different production configurations while considering performance constraints and health requirements.
5. Adaptive Planning Algorithms: These algorithms will not only account for production constraints but will also integrate worker health parameters, ensuring dynamic and optimal management of both human and industrial resources.
Practical Applications:
1. Industry-Oriented Tools: The project develops tools based on a declarative modeling language, facilitating their adoption in companies without requiring extensive technical expertise.
2. Anticipating Organizational Impacts: Through simulation tools, Prod4Human will enable the assessment of organizational decisions' consequences on worker health before implementation. This preventive approach will help reduce occupational risks and optimize production processes.
By combining these approaches, Prod4Human aims to reconcile industrial performance with operator well-being, integrating analytical tools, advanced simulations, and intelligent planning algorithms for more efficient and worker-friendly production.
The Prod4Human project aims to optimize industrial production while preserving the health of operators. It relies on an innovative approach that integrates physical, cognitive, and organizational dimensions into planning and scheduling. Its goal is to provide a better understanding of current challenges and develop tools that allow for anticipating and solving these issues in a more humane and effective way.
Theoretical Results:
1. Understanding industrial planning: Prod4Human analyzes the structure and complexity of production processes to identify optimization levers while considering human constraints.
2. Work health and organization relationships: The project explores the interaction between operator health and work organization, identifying the impact of organizational decisions on the physical, cognitive, and psychological health of workers.
3. Measurement of professional risks: It develops a comprehensive method for assessing professional risks, including physical, cognitive, and perceptual factors, going beyond traditional ISO standards.
4. Integration of algorithms into decision-support tools: Advanced planning algorithms will be integrated into existing industrial tools to simulate different production configurations, taking into account performance constraints and health requirements.
5. Adaptive planning algorithms: These algorithms will not only address production constraints but will also incorporate parameters related to worker health, ensuring dynamic and optimal management of human and industrial resources.
Practical Results:
1. Tools tailored to industrial needs: The project develops tools based on a declarative modeling language, facilitating their adoption in companies without requiring deep technical expertise.
2. Anticipating organizational impacts: Through simulation tools, Prod4Human will allow for the evaluation of organizational decisions' consequences on worker health before their implementation. This preventive approach will help reduce professional risks and optimize production processes.
By combining these approaches, Prod4Human aims to reconcile industrial performance with operator well-being by integrating analytical tools, advanced simulations, and intelligent planning algorithms for more efficient and worker-friendly production.
The Prod4Human project is transforming industrial management by placing humans at the heart of production and planning processes. Its goal is to reconcile industrial performance with operator health, adapting production systems to make them more flexible, human-centered, and sustainable.
1. Improving Working Conditions
One of the project's key benefits is the reduction of musculoskeletal disorders, stress, and workplace accidents by integrating human constraints into planning algorithms. This approach adjusts tasks to match operators' physical and cognitive capabilities, promoting job satisfaction and reducing absenteeism. By also considering mental health, especially in demanding sectors like logistics, Prod4Human fosters healthier and more motivating work environments.
2. Sustainable Industrial Performance
Integrating human constraints into planning enables a more adaptive and efficient management system, reducing costs related to burnout and absenteeism. The developed algorithms also anticipate demand and adjust production in real time, ensuring increased flexibility and resilience to unforeseen events (breakdowns, strikes, health crises).
3. Reconfiguring Management Systems
In the long term, Prod4Human is revolutionizing industrial decision-making by incorporating human data (physical condition, cognitive abilities, experience) into planning. This approach enhances transparency, improves organizational change management, and encourages less hierarchical, more collaborative models. The use of intelligent decision-support systems optimizes industrial processes by considering all human and organizational variables.
4. Expansion to Other Sectors
Although the project primarily targets logistics, its principles can be applied to other industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and services. Simulation and modeling tools could be adapted to environments where human resource management is complex. This approach could ultimately become an industrial standard, systematically integrating the human factor into strategic planning.
5. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Prod4Human also aligns with corporate social responsibility (CSR) by improving workplace quality of life and public health. It provides companies with a competitive advantage by enhancing employee well-being, an increasingly important factor for attracting talent seeking respectful and sustainable working conditions.
By combining industrial performance with worker well-being, Prod4Human initiates a profound transformation of production systems toward a more human-centered and sustainable approach.
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Production of goods is increasingly challenging to optimize due to diverse customer demands for quality, availability, and quick delivery. Product variety and demand fluctuations, especially in mail-order logistics, pose planning difficulties. In this sector, production planning is often isolated and reliant on human expertise, with minimal digital support. Even when algorithms are used, they often neglect human capabilities and expertise, resulting in health issues due to inefficient order of operations. To address this challenge, it's crucial to incorporate human limitations into production planning algorithms within digital systems, balancing performance and health considerations to empower emerging technologies. In this context, the interdisciplinary "Prod4Human" project aims to:
1. Understand the sociotechnical and psychosocial conditions of logistics operators' activities, including individual, collective, organizational, and identity-related aspects. This helps improve work processes using technological support.
2. Develop an efficient planning tool as a demonstrator for industrial process planning. It relies on a straightforward modeling language for both industrial processes and human capabilities.
3. Demonstrate that planning tools can reconcile performance and worker health, enabling cross-functional production management instead of isolated silo management. They also support prospective ergonomics by simulating the impacts of production changes on performance and health indicators.
Project coordination
Damien Pellier (Université Grenoble Alpes)
The author of this summary is the project coordinator, who is responsible for the content of this summary. The ANR declines any responsibility as for its contents.
Partnership
LIG Université Grenoble Alpes
CRTD Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers Paris
Help of the ANR 467,974 euros
Beginning and duration of the scientific project:
December 2024
- 48 Months
