SNCF, CESI and Strate PhD project
“Ikigai" robotics: A lever to increase workers’ engagement and assure a high industrial performance.
Description
The acceptance of robotics: the individual and collective scale
Ikigai representation by Marc Winn (2014)
A certain collective imaginary fed by "the end of work" scenarios, demonizes robots and leads to movements such as neo-Luddism, or "machine breakers", based on the irrational or "technophobic" fear of having humans replaced by robots. On the other hand, transhumanism, driven by "technophiles", believes that robotics will enhance humanity, and willingly adopts an empathetic attitude towards them. One thing is certain: robotics does not leave one indifferent, it arouses positive or negative emotions in humans. Moreover, a significant gap can also be expected between individual and collective acceptance.
For the machine to be accepted, and therefore successfully integrated, it is essential to take human aspects into consideration. This is a major element of fulfillment at work for production agents.
In this thesis, professional fulfillment will be approached using the Japanese Ikigaï model, which literally means “reason for being”. Until now, the tools have been designed by considering the safety, health, skills and performance level of agents, which refer to two dimensions of this model: "what I am qualified for" and "what I am paid for".
But what about motivation, commitment and, ultimately, the meaning of work and the pleasure of working? These are the two other dimensions that we want to integrate into the design process: "what I like" and "what the world needs". The Ikigai of an individual is at the centre of these 4 dimensions.
PhD objectives
Change has always been complicated for human beings, which has led to a wide range of approaches for its acceptance. But we also want to go beyond acceptance by creating enthusiasm for robotics!
Initially, this thesis aims to propose a dynamic model representing the Ikigai process, allowing us to understand this process and how it operates in practice. This model will be used to conceive a new design method, involving in particular:
UX (User Experience) (lack of industrial use)
Participatory Design (cultural probes)
Emotional Design (emotional and affective dimensions).
We want to propose a forward-thinking approach to conceive the future by reassessing the value of the expertise and the role of agents and by reinforcing cooperation through robotics.
In our approach, robotics is the driving force of:
Individual and collective motivation
Organizational and emotional commitment
The meaning of work
The goal of this thesis is to bring human-centered robotics from design to reality by considering all the dimensions of Ikigaï and all the associated levers (technology, organization, process, management, tool design...).
Supervisors
This vision is shared with her management team, which is the result of a partnership between the thesis director, Stéphanie Buisine from CESI, the co-director, Ioana Ocnarescu from Robotics by Design Lab and the industrial tutor, Louis-Romain Joly from SNCF.