The digitization of production and an increasing degree of automation are reshaping work conditions in composite manufacturing. In particular, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face major challenges, as they rely on their employees’ extensive experience and a high degree of flexibility in production through a vast amount of manual work. For this reason, conventional inflexible automation solutions are often perceived as cost drivers with limited
added value. In order to still enable SMEs to automate their production, the introduction of partially automated cost-effective production cells such as laser assistance systems (LAS) represents a viable strategy. These solutions support manual manufacturing to minimize the impact of human error, resulting in high-quality, ergonomic workspaces with high flexibility.
Thus, the development and introduction of LAS must focus not only on economic efficiency
but also on acceptance and subjective perception by human workers. Within the frame of this
paper, a comparative user study is presented, analysing the efficiency and usability of industrial
LAS in manual composite preforming. The study is conducted at a composite shop floor
scenario with an industrial automotive mould. Besides production efficiency and accuracy, the
perceived usability, subjective effectiveness and efficiency are measured applying the System
Usability Scale (SUS) and the After-Scenario Questionnaire (ASQ). Finally, the results are