A human-centric methodology for the co-evolution of operators’ skills, digital tools and user interfaces to support the Operator 4.0

•Human-centric methodology for Operator 4.0: defines a methodology for the co-evolution of operators’ skills, digital tools, and user interfaces, enhancing human integration in smart factories.•Dynamic and adaptive user interfaces: proposes a methodology to choose the interfaces that support human work contextually, providing specific content when needed and preserving human wellbeing.•Application of circular economy principles: focuses on human-centric digital tools and services to boost circular economy practices throughout manufacturing value chains.•Validated in real-world use case: methodology applied and validated in a manufacturing company operating in warehousing and logistics, demonstrating practical relevance and effectiveness. The concept of Operator 4.0 has been recently defined to evolve the modern industrial scenarios by defining a knowledge sharing process from/to operators and industrial systems, creating personalized skills, and introducing digital tools towards socially sustainable factories. In this context, dynamic and adaptive user interfaces can make humans part of the intelligent factory system, supporting human work contextually and providing specific contents when needed, preserving the human wellbeing. This paper defines a human-centric methodology for the symbiotic co-evolution of operators’ skills, assistive digital tools and user interfaces, developed within the Horizon Europe project titled “DaCapo - Digital assets and tools for Circular value chains and manufacturing products”. The project focuses on defining a new set of human-centric digital tools and services for the manufacturing industry capable of boosting the application of circular economy (CE) throughout the manufacturing value chains. The proposed methodology can link the specific needs of an industrial case to the definition of the most proper assistive digital tools and functionalities to drive the design of adaptive, proactive user interfaces for the Operator 4.0. The method has been applied and validated on one of the project use cases, involving a manufacturing company operating in warehousing and logistics.