Evolution of Pick-by-Light Concepts for Assembly Workstations to improve the Efficiency in Industry 4.0

The digitization and optimization of processes in the industry 4.0, especially in the context of assembly, is becoming more and more important. To improve the link between digital information and production technology is an essential step in the digitization effort, specifically for assembly. In this context, the connection of the real and virtual world is relevant for the system to be able to react to changes in the real world and vice versa. This paper presents and discusses three sequentially developed concepts for an assembly workstation. First, we developed a pick-by-light concept with paper guidance, and then we digitized the paper guidance and displayed it using an overhead projection on the work surface. Based on these concepts, we developed a tangible interface that allows the user to interact with the virtual system using physical objects. Applying an iterative development process, we were able to continuously improve our concepts. The three concepts were each evaluated individually and compared with each other. The results provide an insight into the improvement of the efficiency in processing times, picking times and picking errors.