Extensiveness of manufacturing and organizational processes: An empirical study on workers employed in the European SMEs

To enhance the competitiveness and the turnover of businesses in the fast-paced world of today means adopting the emerging Automation & Robotics (A&R) equipment that, in turn, require the upskilling and training of employees to enable effective implementation of the business processes. This poses a significant challenge to manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which often lack the funds and human resources to invest in staff training, and translates into a distinct need to provide comprehensive A&R upskilling and training programs in the form of smart learning solutions designed to enable SME personnel to pursue their training goals in a flexible, customizable and easy-to-access way. The paper sheds light on the perceived upskilling requirements of SME workers and the broad scope of A&R systems training materials developed by the innovative methodology of ARIALE smart learning system.