Extending the Learning Factory Through Virtual Reality

The Learning Factory approach has offered authentic solutions to mimic industrial products and processes in higher education, industrial upskilling and primary education. However, the potential can be increased by adopting a virtual layer through the so-called virtually extended learning factories in simulation, augmented reality, and virtual reality.These dynamics have generated promising results, but the relation between the setup’s visuals, sound, haptics, and adaptability remains to be investigated. This paper aims to demonstrate the correlation between attention paid to a given object in a virtual reality simulation to critically evaluate selected functionalities that we consider crucial for a potential, later application of the knowledge. We assess the attention through eye-tracking within the virtual reality environment, which extends a physical learning factory into the virtual space. The Learning Factory-context pertains to enhancing operational efficiency, where participants are tasked with executing a sequence of procedures on a simulated Festo plant. The objective is to augment the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The paper demonstrates how the virtual reality environment provides a flexible user interface and scenario that can potentially enhance the understanding of industrial procedures within a learning factory. Hence, leveraging virtual reality is a way to impart key operations management terminologies like overall equipment effectiveness, single-minute exchange of dies, and takt/cycle time while emphasizing their practical applications. However, this comes with a technological entry barrier, which reduces the potential for learners unfamiliar with virtual reality technologies.