Operators of cyber-physical production system (CPPS) will use handheld interactive control panels for supervising production processes. These interactive and handheld control panels will present numerous sensors data. Processing of such complex data for task fulfilment in critical scenario will cause cognitive workload on operators. The prevalent industry efficiency measures so far have focused on human physical workload measures; the human cognitive load has not been considered in industrial practices. Smart factories in the near future will begin to integrate intelligent machines with complex communication network systems between human and machines. In this paper, we argue that the changing industrial scenario requires developing new measures of production efficiency. As a result, we propose a theoretical framework for a smart factory efficiency measure as a function of the combined efficiencies of the human cognitive system, smart machines, and their shared communication systems.
Whereas the concept of usability is predominantly defined analytically, people relate to systems through personal usability constructs. Based on 48 repertory-grid interviews, this study investigates how such personal constructs are affected by two factors crucial to the international development and uptake of systems: nationality (Chinese, Danish, or Indian) and stakeholder group (developer or user). We find no significant overall difference across nationalities, but further analyses suggest that conventional usability aspects such as ease of use and simplicity are prominent for Chinese and Danish but not Indian participants and that a distinction between work and leisure-related communication is central to Chinese and Indian but not Danish participants. For stakeholder groups, we find a significant overall difference between developers and users. Unlike developers, users associate ease of use with leisure and, conversely, difficulty in use with work-relatedness. Further, users perceive usefulness as related to frustration and separate from ease of use, whereas developers construe usefulness, fun, and ease of use as related. In construing usability, participants make use of several constructs that are not part of prevailing usability definitions, including usefulness, fun, and security.
Abstract. Whereas research on usability predominantly employs universal definitions of the aspects that comprise usability, people experience their use of information systems through personal constructs. Based on 48 repertory-grid interviews, this study investigates how such personal constructs are affected by two factors crucial to the international development and uptake of information systems: cultural background (Chinese, Danish, or Indian) and stakeholder group (developer or user). We find that for the user group frustrating and useful systems are experienced similarly, whereas for the developers frustrating systems are experienced similarly to easy-to-use systems. Looking at the most characteristic construct for each participant we find that Chinese participants use constructs related to security, task types, training, and system issues, whereas Danish and to some extent Indian participants make more use of constructs traditionally associated with usability (e.g., easy-to-use, intuitive, and liked). Further analysis of the data is ongoing.
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