Wearable Computing im Betrieb gestalten

Evers, Maren; Krzywdzinski, Martin; Pfeiffer, Sabine

doi:10.1515/arbeit-2019-0002

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Recent advances regarding the properties and functionalities of HWDs may serve to understand the situated use of HWDs in practice (Evers et al, 2018). However, they are presented statically: either as a fixed given, or as a potential to be realized (Orlikowski and Scott, 2008).…”

Section: Properties and Functionalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting head-worn displays to use for order picking: a most-similar comparative case study

Bal

Vermeerbergen

Benders

2022

IJLM

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PurposeThis paper aims to identify why warehouses do or do not succeed in putting to use digital technologies for order picking.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on structuration theory, the authors investigate the situated use of one such a digital technology, more particularly the head-worn display (HWD). Based on a most-similar comparative case study of two Belgian warehouses pioneering HWDs, the authors focus on whether and how order pickers and their manager interact to modify the properties, functionalities, and the context in which the HWD is used.FindingsIn one warehouse, using the HWD was discontinued after implementation. In the other, order pickers and the order pickers' manager succeeded in implementing the HWD into their work. The authors find that the prime explanation for these opposite findings lies in the extent to which order pickers were given room to improve the properties and functionalities of the HWD as well as the conditions that unfold in the HWD's use context. In the latter warehouse, pressing issues were overcome and improvement suggestions were implemented, both regarding the HWD itself as well as regarding the job-related and person-related conditions.Originality/valueTheoretically, the authors contribute to the situated use of technology stating that (1) giving room to alter the use of digital technologies, and (2) fostering continuous employee participation regarding conditions stemming from the use context are necessary to realize the promising and unexploited potential of digital technology in practice. Empirically, this paper exposes distinct types of interactions that explain whether and how digital technologies, in particular HWDs, are put to use for order picking practices.

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Section: Properties and Functionalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting head-worn displays to use for order picking: a most-similar comparative case study

Bal

Vermeerbergen

Benders

2022

IJLM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In all four focus cases, management instead chose to implement digital assistance systems, which allowed for a lowering of qualification requirements with the aim of integrating cheaper labor. 11 "We are really shifting work to less qualified and therefore cheaper workers, sure," a manager of Smart Electrics stated. Migrants were a major source of such cheap labor.…”

Section: The Arena Of Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Internationally, the overwhelming majority of studies research algorithmic management in the context of the so-called platform or gig economy [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In the German context, which will be central to this article, this focus is supplemented by studies that research algorithmic management in the context of manufacturing [8][9][10][11][12]. There is a consensus among those studies that at the level of the labor process, algorithmic management enables extensive surveillance and, in terms of employment relations, contributes to precar-the different forms in which workers influence the use of technology at work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technopolitics from Below: A Framework for the Analysis of Digital Politics of Production

Schaupp

2021

Nanoethics

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This article develops a multi-level framework for the analysis of a bottom-up politics of technology at the workplace. It draws on a multi-case study on algorithmic management of manual labor in manufacturing and delivery platforms in Germany. In researching how workers influenced the use of algorithmic management systems, the concept of technopolitics is developed to refer to three different arenas of negotiation: (1) the arena of regulation, where institutional framings of technologies in production are negotiated, typically between state actors, employers’ associations, and unions. (2) The arena of implementation, where strategies of technology deployment are negotiated—in the German production model typically between management and works council. (3) The arena of appropriation, in which different organizational technocultures offer contesting schemes for the actual use of technology at work. Whereas most recent research on digitalization of work conceptualizes workers as mere objects of digitalization processes, this paper focuses on worker agency as a “technopolitics from below.” It thus demonstrates how workers influence the concrete outcome of digitalization projects.

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“…Despite the fact that this is one of the most important industrial sectors in all the three countries considered, and by far the most important buyer of manufacturing technologies worldwide, the sector's experiences in these projects show that the technological change is much slower than expected and the prospects for a wider diffusion of industry 4.0 manufacturing technologies in automotive plants remain unclear. In the case of Germany, where the automotive sector is much more involved than in the US and China, most of the experiments under development concern the soft side of the smart factory through the introduction of digital assistance systems such as data glasses, "smart" gloves or "smart" maintenance technologies (Nyhuis et al 2017;Evers et al 2019). By contrast, a new wave of automation does not seem to be on the agenda as the actual number of assembly robots in use is actually declining in Germany and the pilot projects of "collaborative robots" only concern some ad-hoc improvements of ergonomically unfavourable tasks and do not represent a threat to employment (Krzywdzinski et al 2016).…”

Section: Industrial Revolution Concepts As Political Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fourth industrial revolution concepts in the automotive sector: performativity, work and employment

Pardi

2019

J. Ind. Bus. Econ.

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In order to assess the possibility for a digital manufacturing revolution to take place in the automotive sector, the article reviews the historical evolution of automotive manufacturing technologies and organisations and analyses the impact on "fourth industrial revolution" concepts on their current transformations, taking into account in particular their consequences for employment and work. It shows that previous attempts of automating final assembly have failed because human based teamwork organizations have proved more flexible and efficient in dealing with complex assembly processes. It also highlights that the two main reasons behind these attempts in the past are not present anymore: important gaps in productivity and quality between leading and lagging firms; and shortages of skilled and unskilled manpower willing to work in automotive factories. The scope for a digital manufacturing revolution taking place in the automotive sector appears therefore limited. The analysis of the impact on automotive manufacturing of the three main "fourth industrial revolution" concepts in Germany (Industrie 4.0) in the US (advanced manufacturing), and in China (Made in China 2025) supports more than it challenges this historical understanding of the future of manufacturing in the automotive sector. It dismisses the idea that a fourth industrial revolution is under way and that a radical disruptive break will take place in the coming years.

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Wearable Computing im Betrieb gestalten

Cited by 10 publications

References 16 publications

Putting head-worn displays to use for order picking: a most-similar comparative case study

Putting head-worn displays to use for order picking: a most-similar comparative case study

Technopolitics from Below: A Framework for the Analysis of Digital Politics of Production

Fourth industrial revolution concepts in the automotive sector: performativity, work and employment

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