With the establishment of the mini-factory lab, the Free
University of Bolzano clearly follows the requirements and
demands from the economy and enterprises. They expect from
an engineering education not only theoretical knowledge but
also practical experience, if only for case study exercises or
simulation games. A laboratory for testing, training, and
seminars was installed with the focus on the design of a
changeable and flexible production and assembly. For this
reason, the laboratory is based on elements for the manual
assembly and automated elements, like robot stations, to
simulate small-series assembly situations as well as semi-automated assembly of larger quantities of different products
or product variants. The chosen and introduced physical
enablers of changeability and flexibility are explained in
section 3. The aim of the mini-factory lab is to provide
students and practitioners, by means of a realistic design of a
production, the concepts of changeability in a manufacturing
and assembly environment.