“Mind before Matter?” – Neuroscience for Understanding the Human Element in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Modern-day operations management is pivoting towards human factor issues. For instance, the Industry 5.0 concept emphasizes that human-centric approaches enhance resilience, sustainability, competitiveness, and well-being, necessitating new research methods. Supported by a practical business need from REWE, this paper investigates the application of such a human-centric approach by testing the possibility of assessing neurophysiological responses in three operational areas: assembly line management, order picking, and workload monitoring. We conduct three experimental pilot studies using wearable devices to demonstrate the potential of assessing real-time human responses potentially related to arousal, vigilance, ocular search strategies, and workload. These pilots have helped identify key methodological factors essential for human-centric research, such as ethical responsibility and compliance, technology acceptance, data management, and biosensor management. Building on these findings, the paper delves into methodological and theoretical advancements as well as practical business applications.