Abstract
Data-driven Zero Defect Manufacturing (ZDM) system gathers and organizes data from different sources, integrating and analyzing the data using different tools, with the purpose to react on potential quality issues before they happen with adequate levels of data accuracy and precision. This paper discusses the role of humans in the data driven ZDM loop, considering the context of four manufacturing companies, from the EU H2020 project DAT4Zero which has also funded this study. These companies represent distinct manufacturing environments, each with specific industrial challenges and requirements, which were studied to map, analyze, and exemplify the potential role of humans in the data driven ZDM framework in real manufacturing environments.