Digitalization of Learning Infrastructure in the Automotive Industry

Mega Trends like E-Mobility, Internet of Things, Zero-Badge Production as well as alternative mobility solutions as car sharing are shaking up the automotive industry. The manufacturing process has to adapt to technological changes as well as to social trends. Hence, the production is undergoing fundamental changes and is increasingly demanding for adaptivity. New machines, prototypes and new ways of human-machine interaction are consequently finding their way to the shop floor, allowing more complex and flexible manufacturing. This increasing complexity of production calls for a skilled workforce. To enable production workers to strive in this new work environment training is ever more relevant. The workforce needs to be flexible and agile to account for the new adaptive production processes. Technical knowledge regarding current mobility trends as well practical knowledge in the context of operating new machines has to be acquired continuously to keep up with the fast-paced environment. The organizational learning infrastructure is hereby determining the possible knowledge generation and transfer within the shop floor. In this context digital learning has to offer great potential to adjust the corporate learning infrastructure to account for the current challenges. Although digital learning receives evermore attention, digital learning for production work is widely underrepresented in current research. The objective of this paper is therefore to add on the understanding of digital learning in the industrial setting. For this reason, the current work setting of production workers in the automotive industry is explored and potential success factors of a digital learning infrastructure are assessed with the aid of workshops, multi-perspectives interviews and a subsequent questionnairebased survey. The qualitative findings suggest huge potentials of digital media regarding formal and informal learning in the work place, whereas the first quantitative results suggest causal relationships between the quality of learning and the digitalization of learning.This paper subsequently elaborates on the qualitative and quantitative results regarding a framework of digital learning in production work and the importance of organizational factors determining the success of individual digital solutions. It is a first contribution in actively shaping a digital learning infrastructure in the automotive sector to enable continuous knowledge management in production.