Industry 4.0 design project based on exposure situations: A case study in aeronautics

Industry 4.0 generates risks renewing stakes for design projects integrating work activities, as can be done in activity centred ergonomics and participatory ergonomics.

This article aims to show the contribution of using typical situations to define requirements for Industry 4.0 design projects from a case study supporting a design project for a plant of the future assembling additive metal manufacturing processes (SLM type) in aeronautics.

The method is based on construction of the approach, the identification of typical exposure or action situations (through video and measurement) on four different company sites, three collective confrontation interviews (using typical situations) similar to reflexive and constructive simulations, and the setting of requirements.

Results highlights specific exposure situations during the work, which the collective confrontation interviews made it possible to understand, enabling to collectively debate organisational, technical or social determinants, in order to define requirements from the point of view of the work, within the framework of the design project.

Discussion of exposure situation allows an initial framework to discuss way to implement the work differently as a first step to transform the current situations during the design process. The observation of the possible use of requirements in project management can then be carried out. This exploratory work makes it possible to observe the contribution of the use of typical exposure situations as a complement to typical action situations in order to specify exposure situations and identify transformation perspectives.