Product complexity and quality in assembly processes: state-of-art and challenges for Human-Robot Collaboration

Purpose - It is widely accepted in quality management that product complexity is a primary cause of defects. A primary goal of this work is to provide a comprehensive review of complexity assessment methods to highlight different approaches and their application purposes. Moreover, the spread of collaborative robotics in industrial environments has also led to the consideration of a new definition of assembly complexity. This article attempts to fill this gap, with the specific aim of understanding which of the available methods may be suitable for modelling “complexity” in human-robot collaboration (HRC). Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review of complexity assessment methods in manufacturing is carried out. From this analysis, three main approaches to complexity assessment emerged. A practical case is then introduced to test each of the three previous approaches and to highlight their strengths and weaknesses, with a special focus on their future adaptation to a collaborative assembly process. Findings - To date, none of complexity assessment methods is specifically able to face the problem of interaction between agents (i.e., humans and robots). Only system-centered approaches hypothesize a holistic view of complexity, including some variables that are also crucial in the assessment of human-robot collaboration. Originality/value – This article aims to extend the concept of industrial quality to HRC. In this framework, it cannot be ignored the fact that the dynamics of interaction between agents can equally influence both process and product quality.