We are experiencing an increase in human-robot interactions and the use of collaborative robots (cobots) in industrial work systems. To make full use of cobots, it is essential to understand emerging challenges and opportunities. In this paper, we analyse three successful industrial case studies of cobots’ implementation. We highlight the top three challenges and opportunities, from the empirical evidence, relate them to current available literature on the topic, and use them to identify key design factor to consider when designing industrial work system with human-robot collaborations.