Technologie: Training

Today’s in-house training faces the challenge an increasing demand for work expertise against the background of a continuing reduction of staff. This paper describes how companies can meet these challenges supported by a technology-enhanced approach. A central part of the solution is an intelligent-adaptive learning system that allows employees to create learning media while solving operational challenges and, at a later time to access these media, adapted to their individual needs. The article outlines the main human, technical and organizational requirements that an integration of such an adaptive digital learning and assistance system into a company faces.

Industrial work 4.0 challenges workers due to ambiguity, self-organization, and interconnec-tedness. To qualify workers to successfully cope with these challenges, this article introduces the software-based situational learning factory that is completed like a flight simulator. By playing these so called serious games that simulate situations on the shop floor of varying complexity, employees gain experiential knowledge and improve their IT-skills.

The technological and demographic change in the automotive industry leads to challenges for competence management. Increasing requirements with regard to professional and methodological competencies, combined with shortened innovation cycles, demand an increasing flexibility in employee trainings. The research project PLUG+LEARN aims at the development of reconfigurable solutions in competence development. Competencies along the automotive value chain are pooled in order to achieve a wide application of the results. This enables an effective cooperation between the actors of the PLUG+LEARN market place.

The difference between Open and Closed Innovation is that external partners can get actively involved in all stages of the value added process and are not limited to being mere idea generators. Whilst finding solutions for their own problems and needs, creative individuals or groups of individuals can play an active role in the development of innovative products featuring new functional and design elements. In addition, Open Innovation provides further benefits in the field of image building and innovation marketing.

The term Industry 4.0 has changed from a fashionable issue to a serious research and future-topic in industrial production. Research organisations work on sophisticated technologies and concepts to implement this fourth industrial revolution, research grants are provided generously and model factories get decorated. However, many companies still cannot understand the term industry 4.0 and the related consequences on their own business. Especially small and medium sized enterprises have not understood the benefits. For that reason the currently existing learning factory at the institute of industrial management and innovation research at Graz University of Technology is enlarged to an industry 4.0 learning factory. The concept behind is the object of this article.

Die zukünftige Verstädterung führt zu einem Wachstum der urbanen Strukturen und gleichzeitig zu einer Konzentration von potenziellen Konsumenten von Gütern sowie von potenziellen Arbeitskräften der Fabriken von morgen. Dem Trend von Industrie 4.0 sowie einer Urbanisierung folgend sind daher auch die Fabriken mit ihren Arbeitsmodellen einem Wandel unterworfen. Mit dem Beginn der vierten industriellen Revolution spielt der Mensch als Produktionsfaktor weiterhin eine zentrale Rolle, allerdings ändert sich seine Rolle im Wertschöpfungsprozess. Dabei zeichnet sich immer stärker ein künftiger Mangel an qualifizierten Fachkräften ab. Der vorliegende Beitrag geht daher auf verschiedene arbeitsorganisatorische Ansätze zur Steigerung der Attraktivität urbaner Fabriken ein, welche zur Bewältigung des Fachkräftemangels einen Beitrag leisten sollen.

The increasing digitalization of the working environment has significantly influenced the dynamics of almost all sectors. It is responsible for fundamental changes of surrounding conditions and poses new challenges to organizations. New knowledge and new competencies have to be accumulated in ever shorter intervals. The directed selection, utilization and development of relevant knowledge and required competencies have to be planned and realized systematically. Within a research project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), a self-assessment tool has been developed that is meant to support organizations in dealing with the critical success factors knowledge and competencies. The presentation of this tool is objective of the article at hand.

A closer look at the population pyramid shows the ongoing demographic change. The number of employees that are due to retire on account of their advanced age will increase significantly in the next years. Without further actions the knowledge and practical expertise of these experienced employees will no longer be available in the company. The preservation of the practical knowledge by the integration of digital media in an industrial production environment is subject of the article and is verified by the learning factory of the chair of production systems.

The sustainable implementation of efficient processes requires a corporate culture that ensures continuous optimization. In order to achieve this level of operational excellence employees’ capabilities must be developed with regard to the identification and active pursuit of improvements. For this purpose, lean management principles and tools have to be implemented at all hierarchy levels (lean thinking). In many instances, learning factories have proved to be an appropriate platform to support this process of transformation. For the first time in Germany, this concept has now been transferred to the process industry with its special requirements by realizing a learning factory within a pharmaceutical company. The procedure of planning and deploying this industry-specific learning environment with the identified success factors are discussed in this paper.

Demanding challenges arise through interactions of demographic development and change of modern working life in an industry 4.0., especially for enterprises of the production and logistics sector. While facing rapidly changing technologies and demographic homogenous personnel, they are requested to ensure that the required knowledge and the necessary competences are constantly recallable. A demographic-sensitive, operational competence management (ABEKO) plays a major role.