PLCs Control Assistance Systems in the Digital Factory

Unforeseen events are increasingly challenging manufacturing companies. Being resilient during crises is becoming a key competence. Serious games (SG) can help make resilience-building processes more transparent. This article derives specific requirements for SG from different phases of resilience and shows how these can be implemented in game mechanics in order to effectively support the training of resilience.

Manufacturing firms in developing countries face challenges in closing productivity gaps while adopting Industry 4.0 technologies. Learning factories are one helpful approach to countering these challenges. One such example is the learning factory Fábrica do Futuroin São Paulo, Brazil, which has engaged students, supported competence development, and collaborated with industry in applied research, functioning as a hub for advanced manufacturing initiatives.

Conveying the complexity and multifaceted nature of the energy transition to a broad audience is a challenge. This article demonstrates how interactive serious games on a multitouch table can help make connections tangible and comprehensible. The games and the table were used in various conversational contexts. These are presented here in three case vignettes based on participant observation of the different applications, as well as situated and shared reflection. The vignettes demonstrate how interaction can trigger epistemic processes, enable shifts in perspective, and foster collective thinking, all of which are necessary for shaping the future of society as a whole.

To succeed in their digital transformation, manufacturing companies need engineers with in-depth knowledge of key technologies and concepts, and a profound understanding of the transition from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0. This article describes the concept of a learning factory that is continuously subjected to a digital transformation, thereby creating an environment for the development of transformation competencies. The concept of digital transformation is based on digital worker assistance systems and multi-agent systems for production control. These enable the incremental integration of existing resources into the digitalized factory. The learning factory is not presented to students as a completed solution. Instead, it is continuously developed further as part of student projects. This way, it contributes directly to the qualification of personnel for the implementation of Industry 4.0.