Two competence days took place on November 13 and 26, 2020, in the Demonstration Factory Aachen (Demofabrik Aachen - DFA) as part of the ESKODIA research project. The goal was to determine existing competence and qualification requirements of shop floor employees, in cooperation with the application partners Ph-Mechanik, AUT-TECH and LBBZ. An additional goal was to determine possible competence gaps in working with assistance systems and in the related ability and readiness of employees to resolve them. 

The three application partners provided shop floor employees for this purpose. The test subjects were to solve one task each with the support of “smart” technology at assembly, maintenance, and intralogistics stations, which represented the different areas of producing companies. 

Demonstration station 1:  Assembly – augmented-reality-supported station for assembly of a component

Demonstration station 2:  Maintenance - video-supported repair/maintenance instruction for inserting a copper welding rod blank into a welding system

Demonstration station 3: Intralogistics - speech-controlled, paperless order-picking procedure (pick-by-voice vest) for packing a pallet according to specifications (specifically: picking the correct quantity of different materials according to specifications)

Demonstration station 1                 Demonstration station 2                                             Demonstration station 3

Besides the observations of shop-floor employees at the three work stations (demonstrators), illuminating results were collected through work-based competence interviews as well as a self-assessment by shop-floor employees on a seven-point Likert scale. The observations, interviews, and self-assessments provide an important contribution to the ESKODIA research project.