Extension of the Lead Factory to Address Industry 5.0

Abstract

Manufacturing companies face challenges such as high energy prices, need for digitalization and high productivity. The Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management at Graz University of Technology opened the LEAD Factory in 2014 in order to support industry and research purposes but also to teach and train students. Besides being used within university courses and trainings, also multiple student projects were realized in the learning factory over the years. To provide the workforce of the future with industrial standards and to keep up to date with the manufacturing industry, the LEAD Factory is spatially as well as technologically extended. A paradigm shift towards Industry 5.0 and intelligent manufacturing concepts holds the necessity to redevelop the current state of the factory. This paper gives an overview about the extension and increased digitization of the learning factory. New machinery and corresponding software extend the current assembly process by an additional manufacturing line with a precise quality assurance solution. Another focus area of the extension is sustainability. Adaptations of the existing energy monitoring system are made to bring the energy consumption of the factory into context. Further sustainability related projects plan to estimate the carbon footprint based on environmental impacts of the factory.

Keywords: Learning Factory, Industry 5.0, Technological Upgrade, Sustainability, Human-Centered Production