SatisFactory project for more attractive factories launched

Known as either "Industrial Revolution 4.0" or as "Industrial Renaissance", the need for visionary industrial approaches is widely recognized in the European Union. SatisFactory, a three-year research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon2020 program, started in January 2015 to tackle this problem and offer a feasible and attractive solution for the shopfloor of smart factories. The Information Technologies Institute (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas), the coordinator of the project is going to research and develop emerging knowledge-driven training techniques and wearable devices for the enhancement of innovation, productivity and scheduling of work in factory production lines, while improving flexibility through the support of team interactions.

Dr. Dimitrios Tzovaras, Coordinator of SatisFactory and Director of the Information Technologies Institute (CERTH/ITI), underlines: "Manufacturing is a vital component of our society, but can only realize its full potential if it can embrace the ongoing changes in global economy and technology. Nowadays, there is a rapid growth of information technology (IT) towards its integration into factories around the world. Manufacturing enterprises need to incorporate human-centric technologies on one hand to increase their competitiveness and on the other to offer a working environment that is knowledge-driven and attractive to employees."

The SatisFactory vision of the factory of the future is a place that provides a healthy and pleasant working experience to all employees, who feel appreciated and valued for their contribution and take an active part in improving processes and methods. This enhancement of the overall working experience will make industrial employment more attractive to potential applicants – young people in particular – and will improve the wellbeing and satisfaction of the employees. Specifically, SatisFactory will work towards attractive factories of the future that encompass key enabling technologies such as augmented reality, wearable devices and ubiquitous computing as well as customized social communication platforms. These technologies coupled with experience design and gamification techniques will contribute to the efficient transfer of knowledge and experience among employees.

The key research technologies the SatisFactory consortium will address to make this possible are:

• gamification techniques for increasing the attractiveness of the factory environment to younger workers;
• real-time knowledge-sharing base for the training of employees;
• augmented reality (AR) technologies for interactive training services;
• decision making techniques for gains in productivity, workers wellbeing and comfort;
• adaptive and augmented communication interfaces for collaboration, knowledge sharing and real-time support.