Human Digital Shadow: Data-Based Modeling of Users and Usage in the Internet of Production

Digital Shadows as the aggregation, linkage and abstraction of data relating to physical objects are a central vision for realizing the internet of production. However, the majority of current research focuses on a technocentric view, in which the human actors in production play a minor role. Therefore, the authors present an alternative anthropocentric perspective that highlights the potentials and 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.