Learning Factory
Extended qualification as a success factor for industry 4.0
The integration of IT in the production process that goes hand in hand with Industry 4.0 means massive changes in the work content and an expansion of the qualification profiles of skilled workers in the companies. Successful qualification for Industry 4.0 cannot be achieved solely through traditional training and further training formats such as face-to-face events. Rather, it is dependent on new application formats which address employees in a target group and, above all, needs-specific manner.
A hybrid simulation environment as a learning factory
The Learning Factory in the Centre for Industry 4.0 focuses on learner-oriented education and training in the context of digitalisation. User-oriented, real production and manufacturing scenarios are simulated, and a wide variety of processes in individual and series production are modelled. The integration of automation technology, logistics, robotics, CMS and operational application systems in a single simulation environment ensures a high degree of immersion for the user. Mobile and stationary cubes equipped with screens form essential physical components of the simulation environment, which are connected by a transport system typical for the industry. Their technical design allows in particular the configuration according to company-specific production characteristics or given entities from the plant. In addition, a large number of interfaces allows the simple integration of new hardware into the existing setup. This hybrid structure ensures that both fictitious production and value-added chains can be depicted in equal measure, as well as those that are located close to the real business operations.
Three components for the teaching and learning location of the future: virtuality, augmented reality, reality
The fast and low-effort linking of physically or virtually provided production objects allows the Centre for Industry 4.0 Potsdam to individually design production processes. This high degree of adaptability and reconfigurability, together with the available IIoT technologies and the custom-fit calibration options, make the Learning Factory a future-oriented teaching and learning location. Picking up on the basic principles of a subject-oriented understanding of learning, the pedagogical work focuses on the individual interests of the participants and their perspectives as subjects.