11^th Conference on Learning Factories - Online
July 1^st - 2^nd 2021

Concluding Notes

The 11th international Conference on Learning Factories 2021 took place from the 1st to the 2nd of July 2021 online and was organized and hosted by the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management of Graz University of Technology. More than 140 participants from 26 different countries - amongst others Brazil, Canada, Singapore, Portugal and South Africa - attended. On the first conference day, the opening with presentations of the Conference Chair Prof. Christian Ramsauer, Rector of TU Graz Harald Kainz and Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Business Economics Franz Haas was the first point on the agenda.

After that, Laurence McHauser (Partner at McKinsey & Company) performed a very insightful keynote on “Weapons for Training”. Based on this presentation, Gerald Hofer (CEO at KNAPP AG), Kai Brüggemann (Managing Director at ÖBB Technische Services GmbH), André Walter (Chairman of the Board of Management of Airbus Operations GmbH and Head of Plant Hamburg), Laurence McHauser and Prof. Christian Ramsauer debated in the panel discussion with the title “Learning Digital Transformation” about how learning factories are able to promote the digital transformation in industrial companies.

At the General Assembly of the International Association of Learning Factories (IALF) new members were welcomed, projects discussed and working groups were presented to the audience. Above of that, Prof. Christian Ramsauer was voted as the new president of the IALF for the next two years, taking over from Prof. Joachim Metternich (TU Darmstadt).

The second conference day started with a keynote on „Rethinking Supply Chains – Industry 4.0 & Circular Economy“ of Prof. Thomas Gries. After that, Prof. Wilfried Sihn (TU Wien) and Prof. Eberhard Abele (TU Darmstadt) were honored as the initiators of the IALF and the CLF including a speech of Prof. Jürgen Kluge.

During the two conference days 90 interesting presentations in the tracks “Teaching and Training in Learning Factories”, “Digital Technologies in Learning Factories” and “Mixed Reality and Learning Factory concepts” took place. Throughout, 15 paper sessions and 3 poster sessions, there was time for insightful discussions. In between the agenda points, participants were encouraged to network with the software Wonder. Moreover, guided tours of the learning factories of TU Graz and the Knapp Service Factory were presented.

According to the feedback of the participants, the conference was overall a great success. We therefore want to thank all contributors and attendees. We wish the organizing team of CLF 2022 from Simtech (Singapore) all the best for the organization and are looking forward to next year´s conference.
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