Beyond playful learning – Serious games for the human-centric digital transformation of production and a design process model

The digital transformation of production (“Industry 4.0”) has the potential to enormously accelerate and improve the efficiency of manufacturing processes and value chains. But it also entails recruiting new employees, as well as re- and upskilling current employees of diverse ages groups for new and increasingly more complex tasks to manage increasingly more complex information. In this article we present an overview and meta perspective on serious games as a human-centric methodology. We discuss how these can contribute to 1) learning how operators react to complex situations and how they deal with incomplete, uncertain, or fuzzy information, 2) understanding how operators of production systems and production networks can be supported by human-centric industrial user interfaces, and 3) enable operators to act appropriately in complex and dynamic cyber-physical production systems. We present an actionable adaptable iterative process model for designing serious games and exemplify this model using a supply chain and quality management serious game. Further, we present empirical studies that illustrate the application of the model and suggest the utility of serious games as a learning environment, to evaluate industrial user interfaces, and to investigate human behavior in complex production environments. As such, we propose serious games as a versatile methodology to facilitate transitioning from Industry 4.0 (data-driven and interconnected) to Industry 5.0 (humane work and sustainability).