Both literature and manufacturing companies state that simulators for providing training in lean production to industrialemployees must be similar to the work environment. This motivated the design of Karlstad Lean Factory, which is a trainingenvironment that realistically resembles an industrial environment. It is a full-scale training facility that incorporates acombination of materials processing and assembly. Parameters such as processing times, breakdown intervals and repair typescan be set. Examples of basic and more advanced training scenarios are given. Experiences from training groups of industrialemployees are described; inhomogeneity of these groups requires some specific attention.
Simulation for training lean manufacturing ranges from simple paper-based or LEGO®-based games to larger scale simulation environments, for instance push car assembly. Whilst such simulations may be suitable for educating students, they are often less suitable for training industry workers. The latter group is more diverse and is more used to intuitive learning than to formal instruction. Thus, it is important that a training environment for this group more realistically represents the work environment; otherwise training transfer will be limited. For this reason, a lean training environment that includes materials processing stations as well as assembly areas was created. The stations exhibit some realistic behaviour such as stochastic breakdowns. Based on a comparison between factory workers and university students, hypotheses for testing in future work are proposed.
Simulation for training lean manufacturing ranges from simple paperbasedor LEGO®-based games to larger scale simulation environments, forinstance push car assembly. Whilst such simulations may be suitable for educatingstudents, they are often less suitable for training industry workers. The latter groupis more diverse and is more used to intuitive learning than to formal instruction.Thus, it is important that the training environment for this group more realisticallyrepresents the work environment; otherwise training transfer will be limited. Forthis reason, a lean training environment that includes materials processing stationsas well as assembly areas was created. The stations exhibit some realisticbehaviour such as stochastic breakdowns.