Supporting the Digital Transformation: A Low-Threshold Approach for Manufacturing Related Higher Education and Employee Training

The technologies of digital transformation, such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT), artificial intelligence or predictive maintenance enable significant efficiency gains in industry and are becoming increasingly important as a competitive factor. However, their successful implementation and creative, future application requires the broad acceptance and knowledge of non-IT-related groups, such as production management students, engineers or skilled workers, which is still lacking today. This paper presents a low-threshold training concept bringing IoT-technologies and applications into manufacturing related higher education and employee training. The concept addresses the relevant topics starting from IoT-basics to predictive maintenance using mobile low-cost hardware and infrastructure.