Identification of digitization trends and use cases in assembly

Digitization and Industrie 4.0 are two of the most common keywords in research and industry in the last few years, which changed production systems significantly. These changes not only affect the used technologies but also the work organization and competences of the production workers. To determine the effects on the qualification profiles of workers, the relevant digitization trends in manual assembly must be identified. This article presents the results of a quantitative literature review, in which the authors identified and rated the most common digitization trends and how their mentioning in assembly related scientific literature developed over the last years. More than 300 publications were examined concerning their relevance for assembly workers. In this process, 13 typical trends, so-called enablers, and 7 use cases were distinguished, which have a major impact on manual assembly.