A Contribution to the Learning Factory Architecture Implementations for Engineering Education

Learning Factory could be considered as an instrument for effective learning and training of advanced manufacturing concepts, through true connection between universities and companies. A supporting infrastructure, i.e. an implementation architecture, should be designed in such way to strengthen this objectives. This paper presents a contribution to the Learning Factory architecture implementation, considering different implementation infrastructures: physical stationary infrastructure, physical mobile infrastructure, internet-based infrastructure and blended infrastructure. A Learning Factory implementation framework is presented considering three dimensions: education paradigm, implementation infrastructure, and the learning object. Additionally, two types of the Learning Factory architectures, the physical stationary and internet-based implementation infrastructures, designed and implemented in an ongoing course on industrial engineering are presented as well.