About Karlstad Lean Factory

Originally designed and built for Lean Production training of industrial professionals, it is also used in research, education of university students, and as a catalyst for production innovation. The equipment emulates both materials processing stations and assembly, and has adjustable processing times as well as realistic simulation of breakdown and repair intervals. It is mobile so as to facilitate on-site training. Our experience from KLF is that engagement from participants and transfer of skills and attitudes from the training environment to the workplace is superior compared to many other Lean Production simulators.

KLF Equipment

The equipment for the training laboratory has been developed in-house. It mainly consists of work stations that can mimic discrete manufacturing processes such as milling, turning, punching, bending, heat treatment, and so on. However, the equipment can simulate any discrete process (a process with discrete start and end times). Each station has a set-up panel to set up the processing times as well as disturbance intervals and repair times (MTBF and MTTR). The stations are equipped with stack lights to indicate the station’s status. As our standard product, we simulate manufacturing and assembly of children’s chairs. However, it is possible to change the product if a company or organization prefers to simulate their “own” product or process. The equipment is mobile in order to facilitate on-site training (by popular demand from regional industry). More information about KLF is available in a recent Open Access publication .

Training of industrial professionals

We offer a number of standard training packages starting from basic Lean Production training. We can also offer company-tailored training, or why not train together with other actors (suppliers or customers alike) in your supply network? As mentioned, since the KLF equipment is mobile, we can provide on-site training, either completely on-site or partly on-site. We would be happy to discuss various options in order to design training content and a simulation scenario that best suits your organization’s needs. For more information, please contact the university’s unit for professional development, Uppdrags AB professional services .

Testbed for innovative production solutions

Companies can use KLF to test innovative solutions for their production, alternatively production solutions for new products. This means that we sit down with the company (or companies) and discuss how KLF can be used to simulate the production. Together with the company, we test for instance new layouts or production planning routines and look at both the value stream and environmental aspects (E-VSM). Likewise, it is possible to test innovative production solutions from a supply network perspective. Read more on this project here (in Swedish).

Education of university students

In order to supply industry with students that are trained in Lean production, we use KLF in our course modules. Relatively many university students lack industrial experience. Although they are used to working with various analogies during their education, we find that desktop Lean Production games are too abstract for many students. Using KLF they get a much better impression of scenarios that can occur on a shop floor, and it also stimulates their learning.

Research facility

We also use KLF as a research facility. Some of the research questions that we try to address include:

• How do we increase training transfer (from the KLF simulator to the workplace)? In this respect, we do not only mean training transfer of Lean Production skills, but also skills related to inclusion of all in improvement activities.
• Does Lean Production training result in an attitude change and does it lead to self-learning organisations and innovation networks?
• Is it possible to measure a company’s maturity with respect to Lean Production and innovation in a relatively simple way so as to provide in particular SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) with a “simple” tool that they can use to assess their development on a regular basis?

There is a variety of research topics that are related to these questions. For instance, how to assess learning outcomes from Lean Production training on individual and organizational level, studies of different “best practices” when training university students, blue-collar factory workers, white-collar factory workers, or company management. Other topics of interest include environmental impact and how this can be simulated in a Lean production game.

Acknowledgements

Karlstad Lean Factory® has been established with funding from the European Regional Development Fund (through The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth), from Region Värmland (Sweden), as well as from Karlstad University.