A Teaching Factory Knowledge Exchange Network

6 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2021

See all articles by Harry Bikas

Harry Bikas

University of Patras - Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation

Pierre E. C. Johansson

Volvo Group Trucks Operations

Rosa Di Falco

Prima Industries SpA

John Stavridis

Prima Industries SpA

Esko Niemi

Aalto University

Zigor Azpilgain

Mondragon University - Faculty of Engineering

Luca Fumagalli

Polytechnic University of Milan - Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering

Bastian Thiede

Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology (IWF), Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering, Technische Universität Braunschweig

Panagiotis Stavropoulos

Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, University of Patras, Patras, 26504, Greece

Date Written: June 3, 2021

Abstract

Skills and competences required by the labor market evolve at a high rate. In addition, manufacturing enterprises face a number of technical and non-technical challenges in their daily business, and most of them are relatively slow as it regards innovation adoption. Academia needs to be able to closely follow industrial needs, to generate the right kind of professionals. In addition, academia owns a lot of high-value specialized industrial equipment, which is not shared and subsequently often underutilized. Over and above, COVID-19 has significantly impacted the educational institutes' operation. All aforementioned facts point to one specific need; an effective remote collaboration paradigm aiming at knowledge exchange. The Teaching Factory paradigm provides a real-life environment for students to develop their skills and competences, through directly involving them with real-life industrial challenges. Through the use of modern digital technologies and tools, and in combination with the relevant educational approach, a two-way online knowledge communication between academia and industry is formed, aiming to mutually benefit both stakeholders. This work focuses on presenting a framework for successfully extending the established Teaching Factory paradigm on a network level, taking advantage of the unique characteristics of all aforementioned actors and connecting them together to the ecosystem benefit, forming a Teaching Factory Knowledge Exchange Network. The educational approach and required ICT infrastructure for the facilitation of knowledge exchange are presented. The proposed framework and tools applicability are validated in two heterogeneous pilot applications, using different modalities of the proposed framework, involving a collaborative academic teaching scheme via virtually interconnected classrooms and labs, as well as a collaboratively solving an industrial challenge linked with digital work instructions in manual assembly.

Keywords: Teaching Factory Network, Collaborative teaching, Interconnected classrooms, COVID-19

Suggested Citation

Bikas, Harry and Johansson, Pierre E. C. and Di Falco, Rosa and Stavridis, John and Niemi, Esko and Azpilgain, Zigor and Fumagalli, Luca and Thiede, Bastian and Stavropoulos, Panagiotis, A Teaching Factory Knowledge Exchange Network (June 3, 2021). Proceedings of the Conference on Learning Factories (CLF) 2021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3859260 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3859260

Harry Bikas (Contact Author)

University of Patras - Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation ( email )

Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics
Patras, 26504
Greece

Pierre E. C. Johansson

Volvo Group Trucks Operations ( email )

Gothenburg, 40508
Sweden

Rosa Di Falco

Prima Industries SpA ( email )

Via Torino Pianezza 36
Collegno
Turin, 10093
Italy

John Stavridis

Prima Industries SpA ( email )

Via Torino Pianezza 36
Collegno
Turin, 10093
Italy

Esko Niemi

Aalto University ( email )

P.O. Box 21210
Helsinki, 00101
Finland

Zigor Azpilgain

Mondragon University - Faculty of Engineering ( email )

Spain

Luca Fumagalli

Polytechnic University of Milan - Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering ( email )

Via Lambruschini 4C - building 26/A
Milano, 20156
Italy

Bastian Thiede

Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology (IWF), Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering, Technische Universität Braunschweig ( email )

Langer Kamp 19b
Braunschweig, Lower Saxony 38106
Germany

Panagiotis Stavropoulos

Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, University of Patras, Patras, 26504, Greece ( email )

Greece

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