Singing robots and paper signs: Discovering digital opportunities on industrial assembly lines

Last week I visited one of Toyota’s production facilities.

Despite being a technologically advanced facility, hardly any of its 4,000 workers (per shift!) were focused on a screen.

And yet, information was being entered, updated, and communicated everywhere.

Paper lined the walls, tracking progress–with incredible detail–toward business goals.

Automatic guided vehicles sang jaunty melodies that broadcast their position any time they were in motion.

Paper manifests were attached to each vehicle as it glided along the assembly line–necessary because each one had different specifications, which workers had to comprehend and respond to.

Looking at this fast-paced, signal-rich environment, it seemed like a misnomer that factory technicians aren’t considered “information workers.”

As spatial computing technologies become more convenient and cheaper, and new form factors like Humane’s Ai Pin continue to emerge, it’s clear that the divide between information technology and industrial automation is going to dissolve.

What will it take for the paper in this factory to be replaced by something else? And how can we anticipate what that “something else" might be?

I’m convinced we’re in the midst of a gradual migration away from designing for screens and into designing for spaces.

As product designers in tech, making that transition will require learning new ways to effectively uncover opportunities in industrial spaces like this.