Nowadays industrial robots are an appropriate technology for developing flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems which contribute to perform automatically operation such as milling, cutting, drilling, grinding, deburring and polishing. Machining robots symbolize a cost-saving and flexible alternative compared to conventional CNC machines which are the restricted working area and produced shape limitations. The improvement of individual elements and development of new devices has caused a perception change about the use of industrial robots to perform machining operations. The approach to this research was to analyze technical barriers of individual components that it was broken-down as well as full improving the system. This document is intended to provide technical constraints, current technology and future potential researches about robotic machining

The Industry 4.0 era has resulted in several opportunities and challenges for the manufacturing industry and for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME); technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR) or Cloud Computing are changing business structures in profound ways. A literature review shows that most large-sized enterprises have rolled out investment plans, some of which are reviewed during this research and show that Industry 4.0 investments in such companies exceed the turnover of SMEs in all cases (<€50 million), which makes access to those technologies by SMEs very difficult. The research has also identified two gaps: firstly, the recent literature review fails to address the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies in SMEs from a practical viewpoint; secondly, the few existing roadmaps for the implementation of Industry 4.0 lack a focus on SMEs. Furthermore, SMEs do not have the resources to select suitable technologies or create the right strategy, and they do not have the means to be fully supported by consultancies. To this end, a simple six-step roadmap is proposed that includes real implementations of Industry 4.0 in SMEs. Our results show that implementing Industry 4.0 solutions following the proposed roadmap helps SMEs to select appropriate technologies. In addition, the practical examples shown across this work demonstrate that SMEs can access several Industry 4.0 technologies with low-cost investments.

Industry 4.0 in the contemporary operating context carries important sources of complexity. This context generates both traditional risks and emerging risks that must be managed. The management of these risks includes both industrial risks and occupational risks, since they are heavily interlinked. The human factor can be considered the main link between both types of risks. Thus, understanding risks originating from human errors and organizational weaknesses as causes of accidents and other disruptions in complex systems requires elaborating sophisticated modeling approaches. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to propose an organizational and human performance approach to improve the emerging risk management linked to the complex systems, like as Human‐Machine Interactions (HMI) and Human‐Robot Interaction (HRI). To fulfill this objective, we first introduce the concept of emerging risk linked to human factor. Then, we introduce the concept of emerging risk management in the Industry 4.0 context. Under this complex context, we expose the concept considering the current models of risk management. Finally, we discuss how enhancing human and organizational performance can be achieved through risk management in complex systems linked to Industry 4.0. Therefore, we conclude that while Industry 4.0 brings numerous advantages, it must contend with emerging risks and challenges associated with organizational and human factors. These emerging risks include industrial risks as well as occupational risks. Moreover, the human factor aspect of Industry 4.0 is directly linked to industrial emerging and occupational emerging via context of operations. To cope with these new challenges, it is necessary to develop new approaches. One of such approaches is Complex System Governance. This approach is discussed along with the need for adequate organizational and human performance models dealing with, for example, experience from other domains such as nuclear, space, aviation, and petrochemical.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) that result from poor ergonomic design are one of the occupational disorders of greatest concern in the industrial sector. A key advantage in the primary design phase is to focus on a method of assessment that detects and evaluates the potential risks experienced by the operative when faced with these types of physical injuries. The method of assessment will improve the process design identifying potential ergonomic improvements from various design alternatives or activities undertaken as part of the cycle of continuous improvement throughout the differing phases of the product life cycle. This paper presents a novel postural assessment method (NERPA) fit for product-process design, which was developed with the help of a digital human model together with a 3D CAD tool, which is widely used in the aeronautic and automotive industries. The power of 3D visualization and the possibility of studying the actual assembly sequence in a virtual environment can allow the functional performance of the parts to be addressed. Such tools can also provide us with an ergonomic workstation design, together with a competitive advantage in the assembly process. The method developed was used in the design of six production lines, studying 240 manual assembly operations and improving 21 of them. This study demonstrated the proposed method’s usefulness and found statistically significant differences in the evaluations of the proposed method and the widely used Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) method.

The lack of specific standards for characterization of materials manufactured by Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) makes the assessment of the applicability of the test methods available and the analysis of their limitations necessary; depending on the definition of the most appropriate specimens on the kind of part we want to produce or the purpose of the data we want to obtain from the tests. In this work, the Spanish standard UNE 116005:2012 and international standard ASTM D638–14:2014 have been used to characterize mechanically FDM samples with solid infill considering two build orientations. Tests performed according to the specific standard for additive manufacturing UNE 116005:2012 present a much better repeatability than the ones according to the general test standard ASTM D638–14, which makes the standard UNE more appropriate for comparison of different materials. Orientation on-edge provides higher strength to the parts obtained by FDM, which is coherent with the arrangement of the filaments in each layer for each orientation. Comparison with non-solid specimens shows that the increase of strength due to the infill is not in the same proportion to the percentage of infill. The values of strain to break for the samples with solid infill presents a much higher deformation before fracture.