“Wear” Is the Manufacturing Future: The Latest Fashion Hitting the Workplace

Abstract

The evolution of technology continues to bring socially accepted gadgets such as the smartwatch and other wearable devices into the world of work. The manufacturing sector along with most other sectors is bracing itself for all the functions that are readily acceptable in our daily lives to become part of the armoury of the shop floor personnel. Some of the simple forms of safety clothing such as gloves and safety glasses are mandatory when working in many manufacturing environments so it’s an easy step to add the technology layers to these wearables to create the new Cyber links between people and their machines. In order to deploy these technologies however, we need to understand the barriers that hold back the implementation of these Cyber Physical Systems and the steps necessary for the full implementation Human-Machine linkages from Cloud systems to shop floor environments.