Impact of social rewarding in dynamic shop floor environments

Cooperation is crucial in collaborative work environments such as manufacturing shop floors. This study investigates the application of indirect reciprocity-where individuals cooperate to build a positive reputation-in improving shop floor efficiency using a cost-benefit mechanism. The research explores a dynamic scenario where workers, possessing varied skill levels, engage in cooperative behaviours when encountering social dilemmas. Using real shop floor data as input to a simulation model, the study analyses how different cooperation strategies can affect key performance metrics, including worker skill scarcity duration, machine delay time, and benefit-cost ratio. Results indicate that full cooperation significantly enhances task allocation efficiency, reduces machine delays, and optimises resource utilisation, outperforming other strategies such as partial cooperation and defection, and full defection. The study provides evidence that cooperative strategies based on social incentives not only improve immediate task execution but also reveal the importance of a culture of accountability and mutual support among workers. These findings suggest the potential of integrating social cooperation principles into shop floor management systems to address skill demand challenges, to minimise operational delays, and to promote overall productivity.