Educational simulation-based toolbox for the industry 4.0 teaching lab

Abstract

In the very present moment, every fiber of the worldwide manufacturing fabric is under threat since we are in the midst of a perfect storm. This storm is the Industry 4.0 revolution that is and will be disrupting the long-establish industrial practices. The core feature that makes this industrial revolution so pervasive is the fact that it stems from a combination of nine technologies. If introduced individually, their impact is meager but when connected in the appropriate manner, their full potential is untapped. Yet, not all that comes with this new scenario are advantages, it also comes by hand with an in-crease of the complexity in managing and designing industrial facilities since all these newcomer technologies must be intertwined in the proper way. Therefore, stronger emphasis must be placed on how these technologies are taught in the university environment as, more than often, university gradu-ates are the ones that bring new praxes into their labor world. Problem-based learning (PBL) mainly relies on using complex real-world problem to drive students learning and boost the knowledge transfer. When PBL is coupled with discrete event simulation (DES), synergies are created, and students are able not only tackle real-world problems but also to experiments within an immeasurable number of scenarios. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate and propose a practical application case which can be used Politecnico di Mi-lano’s Industrial technologies course based on simulation technologies to in-crease students’ engagement and better prepare them for the real-world. To reach such a goal, first, a literature review was undergone following a struc-tured methodology. Second, relying upon I4.0 lab as a real system in which the case study is built upon, a five-steps methodology was used to create the application case study.