Specifications for a Digital Training Toolbox for Industry 4.0

Abstract

The development in the past decade of Industry 4.0 technologies has brought many new opportunities to manufacturers. The increased digitization of manufacturing operations has led to new modes of production and product development. This digitization has also increased the quantity of sensorial data which is easily available and which can be used to support real-time decision making. That said, with the oppor–tunities come as well a number of challenges. Principally amongst these is a skills gap within the workforce. Without the required knowledge organisations will find it difficult and complex not only to employ these technologies, but also to develop the new manufacturing paradigms of tomorrow. Hence an innovative and effective training methodology is required to address this skills and knowledge gap. As part of the development of this methodology, this paper presents the finding of a study carried out to analyse the knowledge and skills gap, preferred learning methods and styles of trainers, current and past students in engineering Higher Education Institutions. This requirements analysis has led to the specifications for a Digital Training Toolbox, which can be utilised to support the implementation of Inudstry 4.0 technologies and organisational concepts.