Engineering Education in Changeable and Reconfigurable Manufacturing: Using Problem-Based Learning in a Learning Factory Environment

In today’s manufacturing environment, the development and implementation of changeable and reconfigurable manufacturing systems is essential in order to manage and capitalize on increasing market volatility, product variety, customization, and smaller batch sizes. Teaching future engineers the skills and competences needed for this requires application of new and innovative learning approaches. Therefore, this paper presents an example of how blended and problem-based learning in a learning factory can be applied for an engineering course in changeable and reconfigurable manufacturing, in order to educate engineers that comply with requirements in the modern manufacturing environment.