In 2011, ESB Business School was a founding member of the ‘Initiative on European Learning Factories’, launched at Darmstadt Technical University. The aim of this international collaboration is to achieve excellence in research and teaching on current topics in the fields of manufacturing technology, production organisation and digitalisation. In 2017, the network was opened up to research institutes worldwide. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vera Hummel served as President of the IALF for two years, even whilst heading the new NXT Sustainability and Technology Faculty.
The International Association of Learning Factories (IALF) currently comprises a total of 32 research institutes from leading universities worldwide, including Graz University of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Darmstadt University of Technology, Braunschweig University of Technology, Ruhr University Bochum, the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg), the University of Patras (Greece), McMaster University (Canada), Purdue University (USA), SIMTech Singapore, Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and the University of Technology Sydney (Australia).
Within the IALF, the partners carry out joint research and training projects. For example, the Master’s module ‘Digitalisation in Development and Production: The Case of Three Learning Factories’ is offered annually to Master’s students at the NXT Faculty of Sustainability and Technology, Ruhr University Bochum and the Technical University of Darmstadt. In September 2020, ten working groups were formed to drive forward topic-specific collaboration among the members.
The NXT Faculty of Sustainability and Technology is active in the following working groups:
Cross Learning Product Production System (Working Group Leader Jan Schuhmacher),
Learning Factory Design (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vera Hummel),
Energy and Ressource Efficiency & Materials and Bio-Economy (Nada Ruzicic)
The aim of the IALF Working Groups is to jointly draft research proposals and publications, to exchange ideas and support one another in ongoing activities and projects, and to collaborate closely with partners from industry and academia.
Together with and on behalf of industry, the international community of learning factories is developing new approaches and solutions to the challenges of the future and integrating these into university courses.
Each year, a member of the IALF has the opportunity to host the Conference on Learning Factories (CLF). The 17th CLF is scheduled to take place at Tongji University in China in 2027.
