Use of laboratory scenarios as a strategy to develop smart factories for Industry 4.0

The intense pressures in the industrial environment and the academic field to adopt technological tools and concepts like product lifecycle management, digital factories, automation, the internet of things, process innovation, and bridges between real and virtual worlds have resulted in necessary new process innovations. All these are encompassed in the term “Industry 4.0.” The evolution of teaching methods toward flipped classrooms, software advancements to support engineering topics, online studies, new skill requirements in Industry, and easy, affordable access to education have pushed universities to find novel ways to meet current conditions and prepare for future challenges. The need to link academic knowledge with Industry led us in our research project to create a methodology for the development and implementation of virtual and hybrid scenarios by using highly integrated, digital manufacturing tools as a teaching platform to explain topics like the automation of programmable logic controllers, robotics, manufacturing, and 3D virtual commissioning. The methodology was implemented successfully in a manufacturing system integration laboratory at Tecnologico de Monterrey by using virtual and hybrid commissioning scenarios as a strategy to develop smart factories.