Humans are all makers of a sort. The tools we operate constantly leverage our human capabilities and evolve over history to take advantage of any innovation or a new source of power that emerges. Human-Technology Symbiosis has always been the basis for leaps in human prosperity. As we are presently in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, it is important to focus on challenges and opportunities of contemporary work-life. Here we find the worker, the operator, benefitting from cyber-physical systems technology, connectivity, and global information networks while retaining human strengths and weaknesses. In this conversation we will discuss the implications of a new breed of the manufacturing worker, “The Operator 4.0”
Professor Dr. David Romero is a Senior Research Scientist and Scientific Project Manager at Tecnologico de Monterrey University in Mexico. His research interests include: Circular Manufacturing, Service Engineering, Cyber-Physical Systems & Human Systems, Advanced Production Management Systems, Green Virtual Enterprises, and Technology and Engineering Management. He is a member of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society and the IEEE Internet of Things Community. Furthermore, he is an Agenda Contributor at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Council on "Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production", and a World Manufacturing Forum (WMF) Ambassador. He has published more than 100 journal and international conference articles and serves at different editorial and scientific committees and advisory boards in academia, industry and government in the disciplines of business and industrial engineering. Nowadays is focus on promoting the concepts of the "Operator 4.0" and "Digital Lean Manufacturing".
