Digital Twin and Human Factors in Manufacturing and Logistics Systems: State of the Art and Future Research Directions

Today, Digital Twin (DT) represents an emerging topic in Manufacturing and Logistics (M&L) systems due to its role as an enabler of digital transformation in the so-called Smart Factories. It has been widely integrated into maintenance, production planning, and control or layout planning decisions. Several frameworks and surveys have been proposed to provide guidelines, managerial insights, limitations, and future research perspectives on this emerging topic. However, just a few works focus the attention on DT and its role in quantifying, evaluating, and providing ergonomics, mental or physical workload, posture feedback, or warnings to workers, aiming to improve their safety conditions. For this reason, this study investigates the current state of the art in DT and its application as a tool to evaluate and integrate ergonomic aspects, or additional human factors, in M&L systems. Furthermore, future research directions are provided. Copyright (C) 2022 The Authors.

Automated summary

Digital Twin is an emerging topic in Manufacturing and Logistics systems, with applications in maintenance, production planning, and control. However, there is limited research on its role in evaluating and integrating ergonomic aspects in these systems.