Using the IIM LEAD factory to identify countermeasures for the demographic challenge

Companies in different industries are all facing the same challenge: demographic change. When designing workstations for elderly workers, it is necessary to take into account age-related changes in physical and sensory skills as well as in cognitive or mental capabilities. Although extensive data regarding age-related changes are available in the literature, there is a lack of knowledge on how to prepare for an ageing workforce in many companies. Further, age-related declines are mostly not taken into account in workstation design, hence being a reason for physical overload and sick leave. Thus the identification, assessment, and reduction of physical stress takes on a high priority and is the basis for deriving adequate measures given an ageing population. Although the impact of ageing on workplace design is already being researched, there is hardly any research work known that takes into account learning factories as a potential research resource. The aim of this paper is (1) to discuss the influences of demographic change on assembly work, (2) to discuss how learning factories can contribute to solutions and (3) to specify possible contributions of our learning factory within this field. The concepts described are and will be developed and applied in the LEAD factory of the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management at Graz University of Technology.