Vision of the research group

The CiP research group strives to be the leading application-oriented research and transfer center for improvements in holistic production systems.

Research topics

The research activities are divided into the following four main areas and are currently dealing with the above-mentioned topics:

earning factories and competence development for production

• Mixed reality in learning factories
• Work-integrated learning for the introduction of artificial intelligence in production
• Competence development for circular economy
• Planning and development of learning factories

Shopfloor management and problem solving

• Design of customized analogue and digital shop floor management systems
• System-oriented design of data-based problem-solving processes

Data science and artificial intelligence in production

• Anomaly detection and predictive maintenance based on machine data
• Reliability monitoring and quantification of the predictive reliability of machine learning models (Uncertainty Estimation)
• Assimilation of existing machine learning models to learn new target data distributions (Domain Adaptation)
• Comprehensibility of the results of machine learning methods (Explainable AI)

Value stream management

• Value stream design 4.0
• Digital value stream twin
• Data analytics for value stream analysis and design
• Sustainability, resilience, and circularity in value stream management
• Digital factory planning

Our development

We live the lean philosophy, take a critical look at lean methods, seek exchange with lean thinkers and are enthusiastic when we manage to get the lean spark to fly. In our experience, however, this rarely happens through books, lectures or training in frontal teaching.

How do we arrive at this statement?

At the Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW) at the Technical University of Darmstadt, we asked ourselves what our graduates lack when they work in production-related areas after graduation. We received the answer from a survey of 50 HR managers. The deficiencies are…

• … too little knowledge of lean methods
• … lack of knowledge about production systems (structure + mode of action)
• … no idea of ideal processes and no enthusiasm for the continuous improvement process

So the lean spark hadn't been ignited. The observation continues in consulting projects in which we support companies in their lean transformation:

• Employees lack the practical skills to implement lean methods
• In training courses, employees often receive purely theoretical knowledge that they cannot put into practice because they lack practical relevance

So we have identified the need for improved education and training, in which not knowledge, but skills are imparted to employees in production.

Your contact persons

Over 15 years of process learning factory CiP – a successful concept