Attention, interpreting, decision-making and acting in manual assembly

In a modern manufacturing environment, data and information are a vital part of the manufacturing process and in particular for supporting the value adding activities. Modern manufacturing information systems allow fast distribution of, and access to, data and information. However, the technical improvements of manufacturing information systems do not always create the benefits that were expected from them. This paper discusses this problem in the context of manual assembly tasks. Attention, interpretation and decision-making are important drivers for how well the assembly tasks are performed - the acting. In other words, the acting is governed by how and when the attention of the assembly operator is caught, how easily the information can be interpreted, and to what extent the information is useful for decision making. The aim with the work is to find and present why data and information provided on the shop floor often fails to prevent quality problems; not seldom this data and information actually causes the problems. This paper focuses on one of the core issues related to assembly data and information, namely “active attention” and how this is triggered. If active information seeking behaviour is not present on the assembly shop floor, then the probability for a quality problem increases.