Assessing the impact of human–robot collaborative order picking systems on warehouse workers

Abstract

Robotisation is increasing in warehouse operations, but human employment continues to be relevant. Traditionally manual activities, such as order picking, are being re-designed into collaborative human–robot tasks. This trend exemplifies the transition towards a human-centric Industry 5.0, focusing on synergy instead of seeking human replacement. However, human workers are increasingly hard to recruit and retain. We contribute to the underrepresented literature on human factors within the domain of operations and production management research and investigate the deployment of robotic technologies alongside human workers in a sustainable way. With a unique real-effort experiment, we investigate how the manipulation of picker’s experienced levels of autonomy affects their job satisfaction and core self-evaluations, two key behavioural outcomes that determine employee turnover intentions. We establish that the introduction of human–robot collaboration positively affects job satisfaction for the contrasting collaboration dynamics of (i) gaining control (the human leading the robot) and (ii) ceding control (the human following the robot). This positive effect is larger when the human is following the robot. We additionally find that following the robot positively affects pickers’ self-esteem and that self-efficacy related to human–robot interaction benefits from the introduction of collaborative robotics, regardless of the setup dynamics.

KEYWORDS:

• Human factors
• behavioral operations management
• robotics
• warehousing systems

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Probotics AGV Systems, STC Group, Dexion, SSI Schäfer, and DHL who sponsored in kind.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available (anonymized) from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This project was partially sponsored by TKI-Dinalog through grant 2017-1-095TKI, ‘Mens en Robot in het Magazijn’. Co-author Jelle de Vries is funded by Dutch Research Council (NWO) VENI Project 016.Veni.195.292.

Notes on contributors

Alexandros Pasparakis

Alexandros Pasparakis is a PhD Candidate at the department of Technology and Operations Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He received his B. Sc. & M. Sc. diploma in Civil Engineering, and Transportation Planning and Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. His research aims at elevating the human condition by incorporating behavioural factors in the design and implementation of advanced technologies for operations, transportation, and the supply chain. His research findings have been presented at various international conferences, including INFORMS Annual meeting, Behavioral Operations Conference (BOC), and Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM). [email protected]

Jelle De Vries

Jelle de Vries is an associate professor of Operations Management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Before joining RSM, Jelle worked as Assistant Professor at VU University Amsterdam. He obtained his PhD (cum laude) and MPhil at RSM. In his research, Jelle focuses on the influence of behavioural characteristics and outcomes in operational settings. On this topic, he has published in well-respected academic outlets such as the Journal of Operations Management (JOM) and Production and Operations Management (POM). [email protected]

René De Koster

René de Koster is a professor of Logistics and Operations Management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He holds a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology. He is the 2018 honorary Francqui Professor at Hasselt University. His research interests are warehousing, material handling, terminal operations, and behavioural operations. He is the founder of the Material Handling Forum and is author / editor of 8 books and over 250 papers in academic journals and books. He is associate editor of Transportation Science, Service Science, and Operations Research. [email protected]