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Learning Factories
Eberhard Abele Joachim Metternich
•

Michael Tisch

Learning Factories
Concepts, Guidelines, Best-Practice Examples

123
Eberhard Abele
Institute of Production Management,
Technology and Machine Tools
Technical University of Darmstadt
Darmstadt, Germany
Michael Tisch
Institute of Production Management,
Technology and Machine Tools
Technical University of Darmstadt
Darmstadt, Germany

Joachim Metternich
Institute of Production Management,
Technology and Machine Tools
Technical University of Darmstadt
Darmstadt, Germany

ISBN 978-3-319-92260-7 ISBN 978-3-319-92261-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92261-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018951698

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
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or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
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the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

Today’s Major Educational Challenges in the World

Economic growth and global welfare are challenged by a lack of well educated and
suitably qualified workforce. The three major challenges encountered are:
• Insufficient availability of skilled and qualified workforces and engineers,
• A mismatch between qualification of the available workforce and the changes in
industrial demands,
• Declining awareness of the importance of effective technical education over all
hierarchical levels.
Production-related competencies and skills are and will remain an important
compound of countries’ economic development and growth as well as industries’
long-term competitiveness. Good qualifications are also the decisive factor for
prosperity and advancement on a personal level. Solutions must be quickly found
for approaching the mismatch of institutional qualification programs and actual
market requirements. On the one hand, the future workforce must be qualified for
current employment opportunities, while on the other hand, today’s generation
needs to be enabled to keep up with competences required in the future.
Universities are often not fully aware of the challenges their students face in
working life. Knowledge in basic engineering fields, like mechanics and thermo-
dynamics, is still necessary but must be enhanced by process-oriented domains.
In order to be optimally prepared for a career in industry, students
• have to understand the complexity of the systems and processes in a real
workshop,
• must develop adopt the capability to improve the value stream with up-to-date
methods,

v
vi Preface

• need to know the applications of digitization in the context of production and its
improvement and be able to plan such systems, and
• have to develop more social and personal competencies like teambuilding and
leadership.
Learning factories offer a promising environment to address the challenges
mentioned above in education and training and also in research on process-oriented
improvement in production. While numerous learning factories have been built in
industry and academia in the last decade, a comprehensive scientific overview
of the topic is still missing.
This book intends to close this gap by reviewing the current state of research and
practice on the subject of learning factories. In addition, it gives the reader an
overview of existing learning factories, their hardware, their didactic, and their
operating concept.
We are convinced that learning factories can play an important role in the
excellence of future generations of engineers and production employees.

Darmstadt, Germany Eberhard Abele

Joachim Metternich
Michael Tisch
About This Book

“Learning Factories” according to Encyclopedia CIRP, see Abele, E. (2016).

Learning Factory. CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering.
“A Learning Factory in a narrow sense is a learning environment specified by
• processes that are authentic, include multiple stations, and comprise technical
as well as organizational aspects,
• a setting that is changeable and resembles a real value chain,
• a physical product being manufactured, and
• a didactical concept that comprises formal, informal and non-formal learning,
enabled by own actions of the trainees in an on-site learning approach.
Depending on the purpose of the Learning Factory, learning takes place through
teaching, training and/or research. Consequently, learning outcomes may be
competency development and/or innovation. An operating model ensuring the
sustained operation of the Learning Factory is desirable.
In a broader sense, learning environments meeting the definition above but with
• a setting that resembles a virtual instead of a physical value chain, or
• a service product instead of a physical product, or
• a didactical concept based on remote learning instead of on-site learning
can also be considered as Learning Factories.”

vii
Contents

1 Challenges for Future Production/Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 New Technologies, Digitalization, and Networking . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Dynamic Product Life Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 Limited Natural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5 Knowledge Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.6 Risk of Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.7 Demographic Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.8 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 Competencies for Future Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1 Competencies, Qualification, and Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.1 Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.1.2 Qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.3 Competence/Competency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2 Learning Goals and Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3 Addressed Competencies in Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Relevant Competencies for Industrie 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.5 A Domain-Specific Competency Model for Lean 4.0 . . . . . . . . 43
2.6 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3 Learning in Production, Learning for Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1 Definition of Basic Terms and Notions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.2 Historical Development of Work-Related Learning . . . . . . . . . 63
3.3 Forms of Work-Related Learning for Production . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.4 Types of Perceived Learning Concepts in Production . . . . . . . . 68

ix
x Contents

3.5 Need for Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

3.6 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4 Historical Development, Terminology, and Definition
of Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.1 Historical Development of the Learning Factory Concepts . . . . 81
4.2 Terminology of Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.3 Definition of Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.4 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5 The Variety of Learning Factory Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.1 Learning Factory Morphology: Dimension 1
“Operational Model” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.1.1 Economic or Financial Sustainability
of the Learning Factory Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.1.2 Contentual or Thematic Sustainability
of the Learning Factory Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.1.3 Personal Sustainability of the Learning
Factory Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.2 Learning Factory Morphology: Dimension 2
“Targets and Purpose” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.3 Learning Factory Morphology: Dimension 3 “Process” . . . . . . 108
5.4 Learning Factory Morphology: Dimension 4 “Setting” . . . . . . . 110
5.5 Learning Factory Morphology: Dimension 5 “Product” . . . . . . 113
5.6 Learning Factory Morphology: Dimension 6 “Didactics” . . . . . 116
5.7 Learning Factory Morphology: Dimension 7
“Learning Factory Metrics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.8 Learning Factory Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.9 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6 The Life Cycle of Learning Factories for Competency
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.1 Learning Factory Planning and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.1.1 Overview Planning and Design Approaches . . . . . . . 128
6.1.2 The Darmstadt Approach to Competency-Oriented
Planning and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
6.2 Learning Factory Built-up, Sales, and Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.2.1 Design and Built-up of Customer-Individual
Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Contents xi

6.2.2 Built-up of Standardized Turnkey Learning

Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
6.2.3 Offer of Learning Factory Trainings for Industrial
Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.3 Learning Factory Operation, Evaluation, and Improvement . . . 158
6.3.1 Training Management for Learning Factories in
Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
6.3.2 Quality System for Learning Factories Based on a
Maturity Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.3.3 Evaluation of the Success of Learning Factories . . . . 164
6.4 Remodeling Learning Factory Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
6.5 Wrap-Up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
7 Overview on Existing Learning Factory Application Scenarios . . . . 199
7.1 Learning Factories in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
7.1.1 Active Learning in Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . 216
7.1.2 Action-Oriented Learning in Learning Factories . . . . 218
7.1.3 Experiential Learning and Learning Factories . . . . . . 219
7.1.4 Game-Based Learning in Learning Factories
and Gamification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
7.1.5 Problem-Based Learning in Learning Factories . . . . . 226
7.1.6 Project-Based Learning in Learning Factories . . . . . . 227
7.1.7 Research-Based Learning in Learning Factories . . . . 228
7.1.8 Best Practice Examples for Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.1.9 Example: Learning Factories for Industrie 4.0
Vocational Education in Baden-Württemberg . . . . . . 232
7.2 Learning Factories in Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
7.2.1 Competency Development in Course of Trainings
in Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
7.2.2 Best Practice Examples for Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
7.2.3 Success Factors of Learning Factories for
Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
7.2.4 Learning Factory Trainings as a Part of Change
Management Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
7.2.5 Technology and Innovation Transfer in Course
of Learning Factory Trainings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
7.3 Learning Factories in Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
7.4 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
xii Contents

8 Overview on the Content of Existing Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . 263

8.1 Learning Factories for Lean Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
8.2 Learning Factories for Industrie 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
8.3 Learning Factories for Resource and Energy Efficiency . . . . . . 270
8.4 Learning Factories for Industrial Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
8.5 Learning Factories for Product Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
8.6 Other Topics Addressed in Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
8.6.1 Learning Factories for Additive Manufacturing . . . . . 276
8.6.2 Learning Factories for Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
8.6.3 Changeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
8.6.4 Complete Product Creation Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
8.6.5 Global Production Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
8.6.6 Intralogistics and Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
8.6.7 Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8.6.8 Workers Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8.7 Learning Factories for Specific Industry Branches
or Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
8.8 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
9 Overview on Potentials and Limitations of Existing
Learning Factory Concept Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
9.1 Potentials of Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
9.2 Limitations of Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
9.3 Learning Factory Concept Variations of Learning Factories
in the Narrow Sense—Advantages and Disadvantages . . . . . . . 295
9.3.1 The Learning Factory Core Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
9.3.2 Model Scale Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
9.3.3 Physical Mobile Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
9.3.4 Low-Cost Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
9.3.5 Digitally and Virtually Supported Learning
Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
9.3.6 Producing Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
9.4 Learning Factory Concept Variations of Learning Factories
in the Broader Sense—Advantages and Disadvantages . . . . . . . 305
9.4.1 Digital, Virtual, and Hybrid Learning Factories . . . . 306
9.4.2 Teaching Factories and Remotely Accessible
Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
9.5 Wrap-up of This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
10 Projects and Groups Related to Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
10.1 Initiative on European Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
10.2 Conferences on Learning Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Contents xiii

10.3 Netzwerk Innovativer Lernfabriken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

10.4 CIRP Collaborative Working Group on Learning
Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
10.5 International Association of Learning Factories (IALF) . . . . . . 331
10.6 Wrap-up This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
11 Best Practice Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
11.1 Best Practice Example 1: AutFab at the Faculty
of Electrical Engineering of the University of Applied
Sciences Darmstadt, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
11.1.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
11.1.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
11.1.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
11.2 Best Practice Example 2: Demonstration Factory at WZL,
RWTH Aachen, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
11.2.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
11.2.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
11.2.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
11.3 Best Practice Example 3: Die Lernfabrik at IWF,
TU Braunschweig, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
11.3.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
11.3.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
11.3.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
11.4 Best Practice Example 4: E|Drive-Center at FAPS,
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg,
Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
11.4.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
11.4.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
11.4.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
11.5 Best Practice Example 5: ESB Logistics Learning
Factory at ESB Business School at Reutlingen
University, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
11.5.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
11.5.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
11.5.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
11.5.4 Outlook and Future Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
11.6 Best Practice Example 6: ETA-Factory at PTW, TU
Darmstadt, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
11.6.1 Starting Phase and Research in the ETA-Factory . . . 355
11.6.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
11.6.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
11.7 Best Practice Example 7: Festo Didactic Learning
Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
xiv Contents

11.7.1 History and Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

11.7.2 Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
11.7.3 Customers and Operation Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
11.7.4 Didactical Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
11.8 Best Practice Example 8: Festo Learning Factory
in Scharnhausen, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
11.8.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
11.8.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
11.8.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
11.9 Best Practice Example 9: IFactory at the Intelligent
Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Center, University
of Windsor, Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
11.9.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
11.9.2 Learning Environment and Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
11.9.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
11.10 Best Practice Example 10: IFA-Learning Factory at IFA,
Leibniz University Hannover, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
11.10.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
11.10.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
11.10.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
11.11 Best Practice Example 11: Integrated Learning Factory
at LPE & LPS, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany . . . . . . . . . 374
11.11.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
11.11.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
11.11.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
11.12 Best Practice Example 12: LEAN-Factory for a
Pharmaceutical Company in Berlin, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
11.12.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
11.12.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
11.12.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
11.13 Best Practice Example 13: Learning and Innovation Factory
at IMW, IFT, and IKT, TU Wien, Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 381
11.13.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 381
11.13.2 Learning Environment and Products of the
Learning & Innovation Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 382
11.13.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 382
11.14 Best Practice Example 14: Learning Factory AIE at IFF,
University of Stuttgart, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 383
11.15 Best Practice Example 15: Learning Factory for Electronics
Production at FAPS, Friedrich-Alexander University
Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 388
11.15.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 389
Contents xv

11.15.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

11.15.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
11.15.4 Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
11.15.5 Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
11.16 Best Practice Example 16: Learning Factory for Innovation,
Manufacturing and Cooperation at the Faculty of Industrial
and Process Engineering of Heilbronn University of Applied
Sciences, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
11.16.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
11.16.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
11.16.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
11.17 Best Practice Example 17: Learning Factory for Global
Production at Wbk, KIT Karlsruhe, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
11.17.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
11.17.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
11.17.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
11.18 Best Practice Example 18: “Lernfabrik für schlanke
Produktion”, Learning Factory for Lean Production at iwb,
TU München, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
11.18.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
11.18.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
11.18.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
11.19 Best Practice Example 19: “Lernfabrik für vernetzte
Produktion” at Fraunhofer IGCV, Augsburg, Germany . . . . . . 403
11.19.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
11.19.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
11.19.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
11.20 Best Practice Example 20: LMS Factory at the Laboratory for
Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS), University
Patras, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
11.20.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
11.20.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
11.20.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
11.21 Best Practice Example 21: LPS Learning Factory at LPS,
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
11.21.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
11.21.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
11.21.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
11.22 Best Practice Example 22: MAN Learning Factory at MAN
Diesel & Turbo SE in Berlin, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
11.22.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
11.22.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
11.22.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
xvi Contents

11.23 Best Practice Example 23: MPS Lernplattform at Daimler

AG in Sindelfingen, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
11.23.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
11.23.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
11.23.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
11.24 Best Practice Example 24: MTA SZTAKI Learning Factory
at the Research Laboratory on Engineering and Management
Intelligence, MTA SZTAKI in Györ, Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
11.24.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
11.24.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
11.24.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
11.25 Best Practice Example 25: Pilot Factory Industrie 4.0
at IMW, IFT, and IKT, TU Wien, Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 427
11.25.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 427
11.25.2 Learning Environment and Products TU Wien
Pilot Factory Industrie 4.0 (PF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 428
11.25.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 428
11.26 Best Practice Example 26: Process Learning Factory CiP
at PTW, TU Darmstadt, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
11.26.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
11.26.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
11.26.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
11.27 Best Practice Example 27: Smart Factory at the Research
Laboratory on Engineering & Management, MTA SZTAKI
in Budapest, Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
11.27.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
11.27.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
11.27.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
11.28 Best Practice Example 28: Smart Factory at DFKI,
TU Kaiserslautern, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 438
11.28.1 The Aim of SmartFactoryKL Is to Pave the Way
for the Intelligent Factory of Tomorrow . . . . . . . . .. 439
11.28.2 SmartFactoryKL is Industrie 4.0 You Can
Touch—And Take Part In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 440
11.28.3 A Plant that Writes History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 441
11.29 Best Practice Example 29: Smart Mini-Factory at IEA,
Free University of Bolzano, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
11.29.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
11.29.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
11.29.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Contents xvii

11.30 Best Practice Example 30: Teaching Factory: An Emerging

Paradigm for Manufacturing Education. LMS, University
of Patras, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
11.30.1 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
11.30.2 Learning Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
11.30.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
11.31 Best Practice Example 31: VPS Center of the Production
Academy at BMW in Munich, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
11.31.1 Starting Phase and Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
11.31.2 Learning Environment and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
11.31.3 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
12 Conclusion and Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
About the Authors

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eberhard Abele was born in 1953 and

studied mechanical engineering at the Technische
Hochschule Stuttgart, Germany, where he received his
diploma in 1977. Afterward, he was a research assistant
and department manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for
Production Technology and Automation, Stuttgart,
(IPA). From 1983 to 1999, he held a leading position in
the automotive supply industry as main department
manager of manufacturing technology and factory
manager with stations in Spain and France. The focus of
his industrial activities was on automation, increase
in productivity, and speeding up production. Since
July 2000 he is leading the Institute of Production
Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW)
and contributed to more than 200 publications in the field
of manufacturing organization, machine tool technol-
ogy, and manufacturing processes.
The Process Learning Factory (CIP), which he ini-
tiated, has shown a novel path in the long-term qualifi-
cation of university graduates and employees from
companies in teaching, but also in further education in
the field of production technology and lean manage-
ment. He led the initiative Produktionsforschung 2020
for the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
(BMBF). He is the founder of the Initiative on European
Learning Factories and chairman of the magazine
Werkstatt und Betrieb of the Carl Hanser publisher.

xix
 xx About the Authors

He initiated the research project eta-Fabrik (learning

factory for energy efficiency) with 35 partners with a
total project sum of 16 million euros.
Since 2012 the PTW is managed together with
Prof. Metternich.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Metternich studied industrial

engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt
and received his doctorate in 2001. After his time as
assistant of the CEO of TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen
GmbH, he headed a production group at Bosch Diesel
s.r.o. in the Czech Republic. He then took over the
responsibility for the worldwide lean production system
of Knorr-Bremse SfS GmbH, a manufacturer of braking
systems for rail vehicles. Since 2012 he has been one
of the two directors of the Institute of Production
Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW).

Dr.-Ing. Michael Tisch studied industrial engineering

with a technical specialization in mechanical engi-
neering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Until
July 2018 he worked as chief engineer at the Institute of
Production Management, Technology and Machine
Tools at the Technical University of Darmstadt. In his
research, he deals with the competency-oriented learn-
ing factory design in the field of lean.

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