Learning Factories - Featuring New Concepts, Guidelines, Worldwide Best-Practice Examples

This book presents the state of the art of learning factories. It outlines the motivations, historic background, and the didactic foundations of learning factories. Definitions of the term learning factory and an updated morphological model are provided as well as a detailed overview of existing learning factory approaches in industry and academia, showing the broad range of different applications and varying contents in all continents. International learning factory best-practice examples are presented in detailed and structured manner. The state of the art of learning factories curricula design and their use to enhance learning and research as well as potentials and limitations are presented. Further research priorities and innovative learning factory concepts to overcome current barriers are offered. While today numerous learning factories have been built in industry (big automotive companies, pharma companies, etc.) and academia in the last decades, a comprehensive handbook for the scientific community and practitioners alike is still missing. The book addresses therefore both researchers in production-related areas that want to conduct industry-relevant research and education, as well as managers and engineers in industry, who are searching for an effective way to train their employees. In addition to this, the learning factory concept is also regarded as an innovative learning concept in the field of didactics.


Prof. Dr.-Ing. Prof. E.h. Eberhard Abele, born 1953, studied mechanical engineering. Research fellow and head of the department 'industrial automation' at the Fraunhofer Institute IPA in Stuttgart. From 1986 to 1999, he worked in the automotive supply industry as head of manufacturing technology and technical director for factories in Spain and France. The focus of his industrial activities was on production management of highly automated factories and systematical productivity improvement. Since 2000 until 2021 he was head of the Institute PTW, which today is managed by Prof. Metternich and Prof. Weigold. Prof. Abele contributed to more than 200 publications in the field of manufacturing organisation, machine tool technology and manufacturing processes. The Process Learning Factory (CIP), which he initiated in 2008, and the Learning factory for energy efficiency (ETA-Factory, opened in 2013) have shown a novel path in the long-term qualification of university graduates and employees from companies. He is a founding member of the International Alliance of Learning Factories (IALF). Fellow in the Scientific Society for Production Engineering (WGP), CIRP, acatech. Member of the supervisory board of EIT -Manufacturing, Festo-Didactic, Zahoransky AG and Datron AG.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Metternich studied industrial engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt and received his doctorate in 2001. After his time as assistant of the CEO of TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, he headed a production group at Bosch Diesel s.r.o. in the Czech Republic. He then took over the responsibility for the worldwide lean production system of Knorr-Bremse SfS GmbH, a manufacturer of systems for rail vehicles. Since 2012 he is directors of the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW).  His research interests include lean manufacturing and its digital upgrading, and the use of learning factories for competence development in manufacturing. He is the author and co-author of more than 200 articles and book chapters. He is also a member and past president of the International Association of Learning Factories (IALF) and the Scientific Society for Production Engineering (WGP).

Dr.-Ing. Michael Tisch studied industrial engineering with a technical specialisation in mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Until July 2018 he worked as chief engineer at the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools at the Technical University of Darmstadt. In his research and in his doctoral thesis (2018) he dealt with the design of learning factories for lean production. Since 2018 he has been at MTU Maintenance Hannover GmbH, currently as a senior manager of a repair department for engine parts.

Dr.-Ing. Antonio Kreß studied industrial engineering with a technical specialisation in mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Until June 2023 he worked as a research associate and post-doc at the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools at the Technical University of Darmstadt. In his research and in his doctoral thesis (2022) he dealt with the configuration of learning factories. Since 2023 he has been at Schunk Holding GmbH, currently as a senior manager for global operations.