Teaching smart production: An insight into the learning factory for cyber-physical production systems (LVP)

Increasing global competition among producing companies necessitates a further specialization and continuous enhancement of products, manufacturing processes and business models. The current advances in these areas are highly influenced by the digitization, which might not only change the work environment within a factory but might also change entire value-added chains. Therefore, producing companies express their demand for learning environments, which address ongoing developments regarding digitization and Industry 4.0. This paper presents the concept for the learning factory for cyber-physical production systems (LVP). Based on a production scenario, which includes manufacturing as well as assembly, the learning environment demonstrates how recent technologies can be used to cope with high numbers of product variants and small lot sizes. The technologies utilized within the LVP include interactive assistance systems for workers, real-time business intelligence and si mulation tools for single processes and for the overall material flow. The learning factory shows the technical implementation of these technologies as well as their impact on the organization of the production system. By attending one of the interactive training sessions, participants can experience the various advantages of intelligent production systems.