Abstract This study investigates issues of (KES) in conventional manufacturing processes concerning the use of welding. In view of the shortage of skilled workers and the advancing digitalisation processes in welding, it is essentially relevant to identify how KES takes place. Based on an in-depth study, the possibilities of digital assistance systems to support KES in welding are discussed. The novelty of our contribution lies in the use of a (CSCW) perspective to understand how welding practices can be supported and shared among co-workers. Such practices, as made evidence across the contribution, have particular aspects that make them unique in comparison with other practices in the metal-working industry. Technologies that are already available offer promising possibilities to the challenges faced by KES in welding and have the potential to shape a third generation of KES. While operational activities can benefit from visual digital support, administrative and managerial tasks primarily require better access to relevant information and a better understanding of the practice. Our contribution offers valuable insights for the further development of KES in industrial manufacturing processes and show potential for the targeted use of innovative technologies in welding. It also adds to the CSCW body of literature on KES, by contributing an empirical study on a domain not well explored in the field.

In our study, we practically evaluated a chatbot for normative knowledge in the context of welding.

Abstract With the remarkable structural changes that many sectors of the industry are currently experiencing with the advent and introduction of new digital technologies and the push that they are receiving from assorted agendas concerning industrial developments – as those connected with digital transformation and the so-called Industry 5.0 – it sensible to think that different aspects concerning cooperative work will be subject to changes, especially when it comes to issues associated with the use and appropriation of digital technologies. In this contribution, we address the concept of awareness and how it has been impacted by the continuous process of digitalisation and digital transformation within the industry under a practice-centred computing perspective. The study is based on an in-depth interview study featuring 19 participants across 11 different-sized manufacturing companies from the metalworking industry and other related sectors. The data was transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. Subsequently, we discuss how not only awareness, but also motivation and leadership in production systems have been continuously impacted by these structural changes, at times in a negative way. We elaborate on our findings and reflect upon how existing CSCW notions, as coordination mechanisms, common information spaces and articulation spaces can be used to inform the design of new technologies that could enhance awareness and mitigate potentially negative impacts. In particular, we extend the notion of articulation spaces to include the role of a group mediator, which has been found relevant to support cooperation in industrial settings undergoing digital transformation.

Across the years, production systems have recurrently turned to new digital technologies in the search for enhanced productivity and competitiveness. More recently, a prelude to a Fourth Industrial Revolution has been heard, announcing Industry 4.0 as the future of production and manufacture. It has been claimed that cyber-physical production systems would bring drastic changes in the way that people go about engaging in work. It is therefore sensible to think that the way that cooperation is accomplished within production contexts will be also affected. Based on an in-depth interview study featuring 21 participants from different companies, we go on to discuss which challenges have been emerging from recent digitalisation of production work in regard to the way that workers cooperate in accomplishing their productive activities. Our results suggest that there are associated group effects - e.g., group polarisation, hidden profiles, and exclusion - that pose relevant challenges for cooperation within these settings. In this contribution, we go on to present and discuss these results and to propose articulation spaces, which conceptually bring together aspects of coordination mechanisms and common information spaces, as a potential solution for some of those challenges.