Elsevier

Computers in Industry

Volume 129, August 2021, 103445
Computers in Industry

Empowering employees in industrial organizations with IoT in their daily operations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2021.103445Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • IoT leads to role changes of employees and thus challenges in implementation.

  • Structural empowerment is a promising way to successfully include employees.

  • We present a framework on how to empower employees with IoT.

  • Our approach is based on scenario-based designs.

  • Results from several empirical studies in industry show positive effects.

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.

Keywords

Internet of Things
Structural empowerment
Scenario-based design

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