Concept and case study for teaching and learning industrial digitalization

The industry faces growing needs of high qualified professionals for the ongoing digitalization of the industrial value chain. The major triggers for the industry to go for digitalization are, among other reasons, the expected higher competitiveness through lower production costs, improved efficiency, shorten time-to-market as well as the needs for mass customization and personalization (extreme customization) of production. The digitalization affects multiple areas simultaneously: technical, social and economic. Coping with the associated difficulties of the digitalization requires professional staff being prepared to face the challenges. This paper describes a novel learning and teaching concept “T-CHAT” that allows engineering students to acquire interdisciplinary knowledge and skills as well as a multidisciplinary view for being able to run industrial digitalization projects successfully.