Alexander Mertens, Sebastian Pütz, Philipp Brauner, Florian Sascha Brillowski, Nadine Buczak, Hannah Dammers, Marc van Dyck, Iris Kong, Peter Königs, Frauke Carole Kortomeikel, Niklas Rodemann, Anne Kathrin Schaar, Linda Steuer-Dankert, Shari Wlecke, Thomas Gries, Carmen Leicht-Scholten, Saskia K. Nagel, Frank Thomas Piller, Günther Schuh, Martina Ziefle, Verena Nitsch
- Digital Shadows as the aggregation, linkage and abstraction of data relating to physical objects are a central vision for the future of production. However, the majority of current research takes a technocentric approach, in which the human actors in production play a minor role. Here, the authors present an alternative anthropocentric perspective that highlights the potential and main challenges of extending the concept of Digital Shadows to humans. Following future research methodology, three prospections that illustrate use cases for Human Digital Shadows across organizational and hierarchical levels are developed: human-robot collaboration for manual work, decision support and work organization, as well as human resource management. Potentials and challenges are identified using separate SWOT analyses for the three prospections and common themes are emphasized in a concluding discussion.