Abstract
As the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak proved, pandemics affect not only health, mobility and social life of individuals, but have a strong impact also at systemic level of manufacturing industry. Many companies were forced to lockdown, many closed facilities voluntarily. The companies that continued or reopened their manufacturing needed to rapidly reorganize their operational processes to ensure the safety of their workers. For many companies it was a huge challenge to continue working efficiently, while maintaining all safety and distancing measures to minimize the risk of infections. To avoid interruptions in production and the supply chain and the related impact on the economy, it is essential to ensure that manufacturing facilities can operate also in case of such disruptive situations. Reduce the need for person-to-person contact on the shop floor was one key factor for resilience to continue manufacturing in such periods. The aim of the research is therefore to propose models for contactless shop floor interaction of workers in manufacturing enterprises. The findings in this research propose a combination of collaborative robotics, sensorial/physical/cognitive worker assistance systems, simulation, real-time connectivity and monitoring, vertical data integration as well as digital production planning and control.