Production is becoming increasingly complex and the industry has a great need for development as a result of the demands on digitalisation, sustainability and competence increasing. At the same time, there is research results that contribute to faster development, but far too few with the skills to drive the implementation. The purpose of the competence development project Virtual Factory has been to minimize this gap.

Within the Virtual Factory, training packages has been developed together with the industry and its professionals. The focus in this project is to increase the knowlege and use of virtual tools in industry.

Together with industry, 6 courses were developed on a total of 24 higher education credits within the Virtual Factory, where the co-developed courses had a great impact from the industry; shorter courses, low course pace and a high degree of practical knowledge.

Courses in the Virtual Factory

• Integrated Virtual Commissioning, 4 credits
• Opportunities and Benefits of Simulation as Decision Support, 4 credits
• Business Intelligence - data-driven organizations, 3 credits
• Industrial human-robot collaboration through virtual tools, 6 credits
• Optimization methods make the industry, 4hp
• Technical leadership for future industrial processes, 3 credits

Comments from course participants

“The strength of the course has been the design. The video recordings made it possiblie for me to go back and listen again when I was unsure. The questions (quiz) after each area were very good, they made me stop and reflect. Smooth communication via zoom. Good with in-depth opportunities in the form of reading tips ”.
Course: Opportunities and Benefits of Simulation as Decision Support.

“Integrated virtual deployment is an excellent course for future system builders and for those who do not have experience of working with most software together in a simulation study. You can use the content of the course for both new installation and modification of existing robot cells. The teacher is an excellent mentor! I use virtual commissioning to simulate more efficient solutions for our existing robot cells instead of doing the work on site at the machine. Doing most of an efficiency work offline and fail-safe them before it is put into operation creates value for the client of the job. ”
Course: Integrated Virtual Deployment.

Next step

The Virtual Factory is just the beginning of the University's investment in co-developed industrial courses for professionals. The next step in this journey is WISER: Digital Transformation and Industrial Excellence, which is also a competence development project where the University, together with the business community, develops educational packages for the business community's digital transformation.

The experiences and results from the Virtual Factory have further strengthened the knowledge of the industry's and professionals' needs both in the form of priority competence development areas for the industry, such as Applied AI, Big Data Analytic, Simulation and Optimization, Leadership and Organizational Development in change, etc., but also based on course structure, pedagogical and practical applicability.

With WISER: Digital Transformation and Industrial Excellence, we develop even more industry-adapted courses that strengthen companies and their employees to meet future developments.