An interdisciplinary approach between human factor and industrial engineering to a better understanding of RMS: an industrial case

Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS) offer the possibility of modifying their organisation to adapt to fluctuating demand. However, companies with RMS are still rare in industry and their reconfiguration potential is underworked. In the context of RODIC project, financed by the French research agency (ANR), we propose to show how an interdisciplinary approach, combining human factors and industrial engineering, represents an added value for understanding RMSs, in the context of Industry 5.0. We are proposing an original 3-stage methodology which begins with a measurement of the company’s RMS degree of maturity through the Koren’s criteria; followed by an analysis of the tasks and the decisions made by the people in charge of the design of the reconfiguration of the system according to the Cognitive Work Analysis methodology; and finally, a comparison of the criteria and the carried-out activity. We applied this methodology to a company having an RMS. We can see that the company can be considered as RMS regarding its criteria and that the decisions made to reconfigure are directly linked to these criteria. These results provide a better understanding of what an RMS is and raise the question of a potential hierarchy of criteria. This study demonstrates the value of interdisciplinarity in studying this subject.