Learning factory design: a competency-oriented approach integrating three design levels

Developing competencies of employees on all hierarchy levels is a crucial prerequisite to enable fast problem solving and adaption to changing market conditions. Action-oriented learning approaches in learning factories show promising results, though a systematic approach for the design of learning factory courses and systems is missing. This article presents such a systematic approach for the competency-oriented development of learning factories integrating the conceptual design levels ‘learning factory’, ‘teaching module’ and ‘learning situation’. The presented approach enables an effective competency development in learning factories by addressing problems of intuitively designed learning systems. As a result learning factories, teaching modules and single teaching–learning situations meeting industries’ requirements can be realised with less effort and an increased success in applied competencies in real situations.