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The purpose of this paper is to identify how industrial robotics fits into lean manufacturing systems. This paper presents results from case studies where Swedish and Japanese manufacturing industries have been compared in order to identify differences on how advanced manufacturing technologies and industrial robotics are utilized.

The research has been conducted via case studies where researchers from academia have worked together with industrial companies. During the case studies, the results of interviews, observations and data collection in the form of performance measures and historical production data have been analyzed.

This paper highlights some of the differences between how Swedish and Japanese companies work with industrial robotics. It also proposes some key areas where development could lead to better integration of industrial robotics into lean manufacturing systems.

This research has been performed with the intention of identifying how manufacturing industries could increase their competitiveness through industrial robot automation. The companies involved in the research project have received feedback on their automation solutions. The overall goal is to create a guideline for how to design industrial robotic work cells that can easily be integrated into lean manufacturing systems. This research area is important in order to increase competitiveness in industry. It is thus of value for both industry and the scientific community.

The present paper aims to demonstrate the potential of integration between industrial robotics and Lean Manufacturing (LM) approach to increase the efficiency of an assembly line.

Based on a case study performed in an Italian company, this paper reports a comparative analysis of the results produced on a line balancing study involving a semi-automated production line, aided by an industrial robot.

The results suggest the possibility of implementing industrial robotics in line balancing studies highlighting efficiency gains and idle reduction. Further, it also addresses some concepts directly related to industry 4.0, such as collaborative robotics, artificial intelligence, and lean automation.

Line balancing studies may include advanced robotics in order to extend traditional lean practices toward Digital LM.

This study adds contributions to the operational excellence literature, demonstrating the symbiosis between industrial robotics and LM practices.

We investigate product innovation by a cohort of entrants who use technology that eventually suffers disruption. We concentrate on two types of entrants – those with and those without relevant prior experience in the disrupted technology. Using the industrial robotics industry as the context of our study, we explore product innovation using disrupted technology during two time periods: the first prior to sales takeoff of the disruptive products and the second subsequent to takeoff. We find that the two types of entrants did not differ in product innovation prior to takeoff, but firms with prior experience in the disrupted technology manufactured more innovative products subsequent to the sales takeoff of disruptive products. Our research underscores that the boundary conditions of the utility of prior experience is more nuanced than that which literature suggests – it affects product innovation only in the post-sales takeoff period when the demand uncertainties are relatively low. Our findings also suggest that the boundary conditions of Christensen’s thesis are narrower than predicted by prior literature.

The purpose of this study is to identify and understand key strategies relating to the staffing, employee experience and employer branding of an inventive startup in robotics training and consumer robotics manufacturing space, keeping in mind the constraints and challenges faced by the company right from the beginning to date.

A case-based method approach has been used. The Founder-Chief executive officer was interviewed multiple times. Interviews were transcribed for further analysis. Data was also sourced from the company website, news and digital media reports.

Human resource strategies used by the company in venturing out in this niche market were explored and linked to the concepts of staffing, employee experience and employer branding. This case can be used for teaching the human resource challenges of a growing start-up.

With the help of this case, readers may be able to appreciate the practice of critical concepts of staffing and employee experience in a growing startup.

The premise of a budding start-up in a niche industry, such as robotics training in educational institutions and manufacturing of small-scale consumer robotics, adds to the novelty of the case.