Learning Factory 2.0 – Integrated View of Product Development and Production

Abstract

Learning factories are the result of a didactical concept used in the engineering education at university. They are set into a realistic production area which is used to teach theoretical methods.Existing learning factories are mainly focusing on one subject. Interdisciplinary approaches integrating different points of view are rather rare. This paper introduces a new concept for an interdisciplinary learning factory that includes the areas of product development and production. This new learning factory is focuses on the improvement of the cooperation between these departments and imparts the theoretical concepts of simultaneous engineering and organisational learning. The learning factory was developed at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in a cooperation of the Chair for Product Development and the Chair of Production Systems. The new learning factory will be integrated in a superior concept for a student project over a longer time span, which is explained in the second part of this paper.Finally,this contribution describes a prospect on the future extension of the LPS Learning Factory to a learning company and the integration of the learning factory concept into two regional development projects.