Empowering employees in industrial organizations with IoT in their daily operations

Abstract

Industrial organizations invest more and more in devices that are equipped with sensors to enable Internet of Things (IoT) networks. The options offered by these devices are however often not used adequately by employees as the interaction patterns and roles of IoT-objects are unclear. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the connections between IoT (especially connected objects) and the employee perspective by revealing how IoT as an object-centric information and communication technology (ICT) can structurally empower workers of companies in industry. We gather data from different industrial organizations and apply the method of scenario-based designs. We use data from interviews, observations and company documents to create problem and activity scenarios, and we evaluate the latter with quantitative data. Drawing on previous models of individual-centric ICT, we present a framework for empowering employees with object-centric ICT. The framework provides practical recommendations for empowering industrial employees with object-centric ICT, thereby underlining the importance of empowering employees with IoT instead of allowing them to feel dominated by autonomous objects.