Industry 4.0: The use of simulation for human reliability assessment

Abstract

Nowadays, many manufacturers and organizations are successfully transitioning to Industry 4.0 by realizing the advantages of digitized manufacturing and adapting highly data-driven and automated processes, which enable them to deliver improved services and products to customers. Yet, the human factor seems not to be considered adequately in the Industry 4.0 processes. Neglecting the humans in a complex system such as the Industry 4.0 will have impacts on the system performance and the system’s ability to function safely. This work explores the impact of human error on Industry 4.0 by considering the deployment of an anthropocentric approach, where human operators will make decisions, supported by cyber physical systems, rather than human work being dominated and determined by technology. More specifically, this work proposes a human reliability assessment simulation model that takes into consideration performance shaping factors that affect human work in a complex Industry 4.0 system. The simulation model allows quantifying human error in a given scenario. The model’s functionality and the implementation of the human reliability assessment formulas were verified. Finally, we discuss future plans and steps to validate the model using a detailed case study in the Industry 4.0 context in order to draw conclusions about the impact of each performance shaping factor and their effect on the human error.