This study focuses on managers’ perceptions of organisational capabilities for strategy formulation related to industrial digitalisation. A qualitative case study based on ten interviews in two manufacturing companies explores managers’ perceptions of industrial digitalisation. A dynamic capability framework, consisting of the organisational capabilities sensing, seizing, and transforming opportunities, is applied to recognise and analyse nuances in managers’ interpretation of prevailing organisational capabilities. Findings reveal that the studied companies have a limited maturity concerning knowledge, skills, and resources for industrial digitalisation which is needed in order to formulate a digital strategy. An additional core capability was discerned, i.e., ’seeking’. Seeking includes actions for articulating, appropriating, and involving in the very early phases of understanding and formulating a digital strategy. This article contributes to the existing dynamic capability framework by adding the core capability seeking illustrated in an elaborated and holistic ’dynamic capability loop’. The loop frames industrial digitalisation as a continuous process closely integrated with strategy formulation.  

The manufacturing industry is currently under extreme pressure to transform their organizations and competencies to reap the benefits of industry 4.0. The main driver for industry 4.0 is digitalization with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, digital platforms, etc. Industrial applications and research studies have shown promising results, but they rarely involve a human-centric perspective. Given this, we argue there is a lack of knowledge on how disruptive technologies take part in human decision-making and learning practices, and to what extent disruptive technologies may support both employees and organizations to “learn”. In recent research the importance and need of including a human-centric perspective in industry 4.0 is raised including a human learning and decision-making approach. Hence, disruptive technologies, by themselves, no longer consider to solve the actual problems.

Considering the richness of this topic, we propose an industrial work-integrated-learning research agenda to illuminate a human-centric perspective in Industry 4.0. This work-in-progress literature review aims to provide a research agenda on what and how application areas are covered in earlier research. Furthermore, the review identifies obstacles and opportunities that may affect manufacturing to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0. As part of the research, several inter-disciplinary areas are identified, in which industrial work-integrated-learning should be considered to enhance the design, implementation, and use of Industry 4.0 technologies. In conclusion, this study proposes a research agenda aimed at furthering research on how industrial digitalization can approach human and artificial intelligence through industrial work-integrated-learning for a future digitalized manufacturing.

In a work practice of constant implementation of new manufacturing processes, competence development becomes crucial for practitioners within engineering fields such as production systems, additive manufacturing, industry 4.0 and machine learning. Industrial work is transforming and practitioners constantly need to learn both integrated in work practice and through flexible education.Given this, the purpose of this study is to analyse how participants engage in a unique initiative where courses targeting competence development for manufacturing industry have been co-constructed between one university and a network of companies. The longitudinal initiative (2013-ongoing) focus industry knowledge needs and e-learning design aiming for industrial work integrated learning. Over time a course format of five-week flexible e-learning courses of 2.5 ECTS, on master level, has evolved, and 30 courses within e.g. robotics, additive manufacturing and industrial digitalization, have been designed.

The uniqueness lies in the opportunities continuously taken for co-construction of course design throughout and this has brought about a combination of different practices for collaboration between academia and industry. Course participants perspectives are specifically explored through focus group studies and a questionnaire survey. Between 2014 and spring 2019 a total of 367 participants took part in focus group sessions at the end of each course instance. The questionnaire was distributed in spring 2019 to 638 individuals and the response rate was 12% (77 respondents) of which 56 had completed one or more courses. While the response rate of the questionnaire is low, results confirm the findings from the focus group studies and indicates new aspects for further study.

Outcomes from the focus groups show that practitioners feel that their own motives for learning are key for course participation. This is corroborated by the questionnaire results where 79% say they apply for the courses with ambition to study built on their own desire. The flexible e-learning format including virtual laboratories, web-conferencing and practical cases, is essential when combining full time work with competence development. This coupled with 89% of the questionnaire respondents finding the course content useful in relation to their own work, indicates the uniqueness of the initiative. Challenges persisting are the university's lack of capacity to swiftly respond to companies' skills needs and the nurture and development of the growing network that requires continued coordination. However, participants perspectives reveal the potential of how to empower co-construction of knowledge for industrial work integrated learning.

Time is central to many debates about hybrid work - the impact on speed and productivity, commute times, and synchronisation of work. However, we argue that time is often over-simplified in extant hybrid work literature and tends to ignore many temporal concepts that capture the inherently complex, multifaceted, subtle, and socially embedded nature of time.

To address this issue, we conducted studies of five hybrid work teams across two large organisations. The paper contributes to current research on hybrid work by (i) illustrating the various temporal concepts that may be considered in the design of hybrid work environments, as well as the impact of considering or not considering them; (ii) illustrating how these temporal concepts in a physical space can be augmented in the digital space, rather than assuming the digital space should simply represent the physical; and (iii) providing a framework for the consideration of time–aware hybrid work. We hope to spark scientific interest in studying the temporal nuances of hybrid work but also the temporal aspects of design in other areas.

This thesis is inter-disciplinary and proceed from the ongoing challenges of the increased digitalization, automation and robotization that impact the manufacturing industry's emergent need of high-qualified practitioners. Digitalization also challenges universities to open up to external collaboration and to design blended e-learning targeting industry knowledge needs. The studies take up on such challenges and explore inter-organizational collaborations and forms of knowledge construction to strengthen engineering competences integrated inwork in a way that enables manufacturing companies to remain effective and to be prepared for future industrial transformations. The objective is to explore how mutual construction of knowledge emerge through learning activities between multiple actors in a joint industry-university collaborative e-learning practice. The empirical setting is a new type of collaborative course concept developed within the project ProdEx. The project comprise a network of industries and one university in a longitudinal design and implementation process of blended and work-integrated e-learning. This initiative was explored with a collaborative action research approach integrated with five studies, from four perspectives, the industry managers, the practitioners, the research teachers and the course unit. Negotiated knotworking, from cultural-historical activity theory, became a central theoretical concept and a working tool to examine how managers, practitioners and research teachers together negotiated production technology knowledge content and e-learning design towards future workplace transformations. This concept was used to further understand how co-construction of knowledge was developing over time into a richer concept. The results contributes to a wider understanding of how co-construction of knowledge in an e-learning design practice was developing into stronger relations between actors and into more stable courses. Real learning cases and digital labs support theory-practical intertwining of mutual learning of active participation between practitioners and ix research teachers. Initial e-learning technology failures and pedagogical mistakes in the courses were easier to overcome, than issues concerning continuous company support for course participation. Matching industry competence needs with university research fields is continuously challenging. Practitioners' aiming for personal continuous competence development on university level created critical and high-qualitative performances and valuable engagement throughout the process of co-construction of knowledge. The knowledge co-construction became a two-way development, pushing research teachers to active involve and consider practitioners' industry experiences concerning learning content, pedagogical strategies and e-learning forms. While earlier research has discussed the problems of crossing boundaries between industry and university, overall findings show that industry and university actors are crossing boundaries when they mutually co-construct knowledge in an elearningpractice. Co-construction of knowledge entail mutual trust, sideways and interactive learning in a collaborative context. The main contribution suggested in the thesis is that co-constructing expertise entail three levels of activities among actors; to have insight into the purposes and practices of others (relational expertise), the capacity to transform the problems of a practice and together build common knowledge (distributed expertise), and finally the capacity of mutually co-construct knowledge acted upon in practice towards work-integrated transformations (co-constructing expertise).

The manufacturing industry constantly strive to develop the competencies of their expert production engineers in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Research shows that the absorptive capacity of a firm is central in order to reach such a goal. The absorptive capacity of a firm is their ability to recognize the value of new external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends, and thereby exploit the conditions for innovation. In this paper we explore the rationales of organizations in the manufacturing industry for taking part in technology-enhanced competence development projects in collaboration with universities. Through interviews with key informants in 15 manufacturing industries we study the capabilities that organizations’ need for participation in e-learning initiatives. We present a framework for technology enhanced learning readiness comprised of awareness, e-learning maturity, dynamic capability and co-creativity.

This paper addresses two overall challenges that concern university research teachers' professional identities when they make design plans for blended e-learning courses targeting practitioners' competence needs. Research teachers' are challenged by finding applicable learning material that matches practitioners' experiences and workplace knowledge demands. They are also challenged when they need to digitise engineering learning content such as virtual labs, and machine-related cases such as turning and milling aligning to workplace needs. Design plans used for campus education is argued to be insufficient meeting these challenges. Consequently, researchers' professional identities become vulnerable when they cross boundaries between university and industry practices. Results show that even if researchers are not trained for educational e-learning design they identify concepts for digitising cases and labs. By applying a work-integrated learning strategy, the courses integrate practical and theoretical tasks and cases collected from the manufacturing industry workplaces and thereby support competence development. © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Blended e-learning permeates flexibility and school is no longer the only place for learning, rather through e-learning courses new ways of building competences throughout life and integrated in the workplace can be accomplished. Technological artifacts, the material itself do not create learning,rather, social and pedagogical aspects from a participatory perspective in e-learning courses is needed to balance the impact of technology. Challenges to reach balance between material and social is in this paper illustrated as a sociomaterial learning practice through a work-integrated e-learning (e-WIL) project between a university and collaborating manufacturing industries. This learning practice comprise design of e-learning courses, target industry knowledge needs to reach for being a competent employee. Teachers' and course participants' activities show various challenges of work integrated e-learning. Early results from focus group sessions and observations are categorized as knowing-how to design and use digital learning technology, knowing-what knowledge to be learnt for work practice and knowing-when to use new knowledge in work practice.

The manufacturing industry is constantly facing hard times employing key expertise to deploy a digital transformation of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies and applications (Lasi et al., 2014). Challenges of increased industrial digitalization pressure the industry to expand professionals’ future knowledge to be capable of new production systems, virtual manufacturing, and digital services. This requires new types of knowledge applicable to transformative work practices and for future adaptation (Ford, 2015). Becoming a competent expert for an entire working life tends to be harder for today’s professionals because of digital disruptions (Belski et al., 2016; Susskind & Susskind, 2015), and therefore they continuously need to seek new knowledge and learning as integrated part of work combined with new theoretical knowledge through academic studies in higher education. Competence development through university-industry collaboration (UIC), is a vehicle for asserting high-technological change and innovative capacities (Ankrah & Tabba, 2015; Sjöö & Hellström, 2019). Specifically, university tailormade courses that enhance the co-construction of knowledge and develop professionals’ learning and skills to augment the industrial business demands in the context of Industry 4.0 (Abelha et al., 2020). However, there seems to be a dual situation with the industry effectiveness pressure on the one hand, and the blended competence development opportunities offered by the university, on the other. This situation raises challenges with the different stakeholders’ perspectives of inter-organizational collaboration that presumes productive development. Colliding interests and conflicts on different systemic levels may occur, and inter-organizational collaborations may not per se cause benefits and learning, but rather needs to be analyzed through their inner contradictions a s power for change. Contradictions, however, are systemic, embedded in history, developing over time, and cannot be studied directly. Hence, in this study contradictions on various levels are explored, as a power for change (Engeström & Sannino, 2010;2011). Included contradictions are those manifested by the professionals in UIC and intra-organizational situations within the industry organizations. Also, contradictions concerning the professionals’ own motivation for learning related to the industry competence demands and the management’s lack of, or support for such learning initiatives. Hence, the analytical lens is the industry professionals’ knowledge construction that emerges in a work-integrated e-learning (e-WIL) practice of UIC to sustain resilient interorganizational collaboration through UIC (Hattinger & Eriksson, 2020). The study is conducted within a competence development program of short academic courses targeting industry professionals’ knowledge needs, to strengthen individual learning and co-construction of knowledge with the prospect of generating organizational transformations, i.e., the professionals’ knowledge generation in a trajectory growing from participants’ discursive manifestation of contradictions, actionable solutions towards tra nsformations. Such knowledge generation tends to be temporary, riddled with problems and conflicts, therefore, it is argued to identify systemic contradictions to be used as energizing forces and triggers for development and change (Engeström & Sannino, 20 10; 2011). With the perspectives of professionals’ motives, interactions, and experiences, the aim is to grasp inner tensions between different perspectives to reach the kernel of potential future expansive transformations, i.e., the professionals’ views concerning the industry objectives, the learning trajectory of engineering subjects, and the e -learning course design. 

Given this, the first research question asked is: What kinds of discursive manifestations of contradictions do industry professionals experience as inner learning motives of competence development for organizational purposes?To further the understanding of how professionals assert knowledge to generate actionable solutions, the second question asked is: How are these manifestations negotiated, and turned into actionable solutions and potentially expansive transformations? 

MethodThe questions investigate the professionals’ experiences of their course participation and knowledge construction on a micro-level using the cultural-historical activity theory, CHAT, (Engeström & Sannino, 2010). Engeström and Sannino (2011) have developed a methodological framework that analyzes contradictions through their discursive manifestations. Contradictions do not speak for themselves, rather they become recognized through people’s articulation of tensions and dilemmas. It is through their discursive manifestations during conversations and actions that they are made visible (Engeström & Sannino, 2011).Data from a longitudinal e-WIL project was collected for three years and consisted of twelve focus group sessions comprising a total of 119 professionals in 15 industry companies. The professionals participated in e -learning courses designed with pedagogy that stimulate work-integrated learning covering knowledge needs such as industrial automation and machine security in robotics, negotiation skills, and machining. A comprehensive analysis of the discursive manifestation of contradictions implies a transition into actionable (possible) solutions toward expansive transformations. The three steps analysis became a powerful approach for grasping learning insights between professionals and understanding the effects of e-learning design and co-construction of knowledge on a systemic level. 

Results and contributionDiscursive manifestations of contractions occurred on different levels, concerning the dual situation of the industry effectiveness pressure on the one hand, and the e-WIL course opportunity offered by the university, on the other. The most critical conflict was the lack of industry companies’ maturity to support professionals’ time and performance related to individual professional career paths that will trigger future expansive transformations. However, the professionals described actionable solutions to many of the defined dilemmas, concerning practical e-learning design problems, which were easy to overcome. With the concepts of manifestations of contradictions, actionable solutions, and expansive transformations, we have increased our understanding of knowledge and problem-solving processes emerging in UIC networks with many different stakeholders. The article contributes to a developed approach for analyzing discursive manifestations of contradictions toward expansive transformations in workplace practices. It also contributes to empirical findings of inter-organizational collaborations through an innovative work-integrated e-learning context. 

Competence development and continuous lifelong learning are increasing due to skill transformations in the surrounding world which have an impact on workplaces. Upskilling, down-skilling, re-skilling, and the need of totally new skills are intensified that changes the conditions for a sustainable work practice. Old academic degrees need to be updated and for those lacking one, employees are required to build up academic credits. A constant knowledge and skills development of employees are therefore vital for the changed work conditions, meaning for both the organization and for the individual lifelong learning. In such situation, the university can play asignificant role for educating and supporting the working life with higher education in forms that are adjusted to organizational competence needs. With contract education - CE, the Swedish universities can educate staff for competence development on all educational levels, even those without an earlier academic degree. However, only organizations (including private companies and public authorities) can commission a service from a higher education institution. Individuals are not allowed to buy a course place, which is regulated through the jurisdiction of Uppdragsförordningen 2002:760. Despite the many possibilities with CE to collaborate with the surrounding society, it put pressures on the university toorganize, support and create new routines for the teaching and administrativepersonnel for the contract educational process of customer dialogue, needs inventory, course design, implementation, and follow-up on initiatives.

Given such background, a collaborative development project between six universities in Sweden was conducted between November 2017 until January 2021. Overall aim was to increase the knowledge of CE by developing a collaborative model forcompetence development. The project was designed to enhance the knowledge informs of models, methods, and documentation in three development areas for CE; 1) organization and work processes, 2) customer dialogue, needs inventory and course design, and 3) incentives and collaboration skills. Both the conditions of the university’s internal abilities, restrictions, and structures (i.e., area 1) as well as the incentives and capabilities for external organizations (customers) involved in the activities (i.e., area 2), have been in focus. Area 3 concerned the teacher’s abilities to grant collaborative qualifications by teaching and engaging with external partners.

In an initial case study of area 1 and 2, and we asked: What are the university conditions for organizing contract education, and how is the educational process directing and supporting the working life knowledge requirement?

The second study focused on area 3 and we asked: How does the university grant collaboration skills and qualifications for teachers and leaders involved in contract education?

Study one summarized eight universities responses showing that four universities have a centralized organization for running CE of which two universities have a university enterprise for CE. The other four universities are decentralized organized. It is not clear which organization is most beneficial. However, it seems that central functions are essential for a long-term external collaboration with key customers. The variation of administrative support is large, and there are also many universities lacking a full-fledge support organization for developing sustainable internal routines as well as external collaborations. When it comes to the educational process of routines for CE, most universities in the study show a very similar process, concerning the steps of curricula development, contract development, calculation, and student admission etc. However, there are various efficiency between the universities built on volume and experience of CE, which effect the time from initialization to evaluation of a CE course. The second and small document and interview study (six interviews) was targeting the teacher’s incitement, skills, and their ability to grant contract education work as accreditation in their professional academic career. This study shows that universities generally lack support for skills acquisition regarding “collaboration” skills both for professional development and further qualification. It also shows that the six included universities in the project, have diverse documentation and work practices for collaboration skills accreditation. However, this study and the project itself have pushed, the included universities to start up evaluation of their documents and routines around accreditation.

A summary report for the whole project including a competence development model and methods and as well as findings from the two studies, raises the overarching need to develop the external collaboration university – working life, as well as knowledge about the university conditions for planning, developing, and running contract education as one successful competence model for lifelong learning. Contract education is therefore argued to support work-integrated and lifelong learning through collaborative forms between university and the working life.

The manufacturing industry is continuously facing global competition and customer demands which impose the need to knowledge development to manage changes and long-term business goals. Continuous and lifelong learning is often seen as processes that support competence development and learning integrated within work. In this paper we focus on processes of learning within the manufacturing industry and how learning initiatives as technology mediated courses (TMC) can support learning from the workplace learning needs. Is learning initiatives integrated in work considered as means for strategic business goals? Can TMC be an important learning tool for support of knowledge creation? The study is performed through interviews with production managers and human resource managers with eight manufacturing industries in the western part of Sweden. Through the study we try to understand what knowledge the industry needs to evolve and achieve effective production. We also study the readiness for technology mediated learning. Early results show that the industries have interest in learning initiatives such as TMC and are willing to co-produce knowledge together with universities. We present a matrix model that interlinks business goals and the industries current use of technology mediated learning tools. However, the experience of using tools such as web conference systems and learning management systems for learning initiatives is diversified.

In the era of Industry 4.0, emergent digital technologies generate profound transformations in the industry toward developing intelligent manufacturing. The technologies included in Industry 4.0 are expected to bring new perspectives to the industry on how manufacturing can integrate new solutions to get maximum output with minimum resource utilization (Kamble et al., 2018). Industry 4.0 technologies create a great impact on production systems and processes, however, affect organizational structures and working life conditions by disrupting employees’ everyday practices and knowledge, in which competence and learning, human interaction, and organizational structures are key. Hence, new digital solutions need to be integrated with work and learning to generate more holistic and sustainable businesses (Carlsson et al., 2021).

The core Industry 4.0 technologies are built on cyber-physical systems (CPS), cloud computing, and the Internet of things (IoT) (Kagermann et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2018). In recent years, an array of additional technologies has been developed further, such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), cyber security, robotics, and automation. Industry 4.0 aims to create a potential for faster delivery times, more efficient and automated processes, higher quality, and customized products (Zheng et al., 2021). Hence, the ongoing transformation through the technological shift of production in combination with market demands pushes the industry and its production process.

Recent research has substantially contributed to an increased understanding of the technological aspects of Industry 4.0. However, the utilization of technologies is only a part of the complex puzzle making up Industry 4.0 (Kagermann et al., 2013; Zheng et al., 2021). The impact Industry 4.0 technologies and application s have on the industrial context also changes and disrupts existing and traditional work practices (Taylor et al., 2020), management and leadership (Saucedo-Martínez et al., 2018), learning and skills (Tvenge & Martinsen, 2018), and education (Das et al., 2020). This research has shown a growing interest in human-centric aspects of Industry 4.0 (Nahavandi, 2019), i.e., the transformative effects Industry 4.0 has on humans, workplace design, organizational routines, skills, learning, etc. However, these aspects are scarcely considered in-depth. Given this, and from a holistic point of view, there is a need to understand intelligent manufacturing practice from a human-centric perspective, where issues of work practices and learning are integrated, herein refe rred to as industrial work-integrated learning. I-WIL is a research area that particularly pays attention to knowledge production and learning capabilities related to use and development when technology and humans co -exist in industrial work settings (Shahlaei & Lundh Snis, 2022). Even if Industry 4.0 still is relevant for continuous development, a complementary Industry 5.0 has arisen to provide efficiency and productivity as the sole goals to reinforce a sustainable, human-centric, and resilient manufacturing industry (Breque et al., 2021; Nahavandi, 2019).

Given this situation, the research question addressed here is: How does state-of-the-art research of Industry 4.0 technologies and applications consider human-centric aspects? A systematic literature review was conducted aiming to identify a future research agenda that emphasizes human-centric aspects of intelligent manufacturing, that will contribute to the field of manufacturing research and practices. This question was based on very few systematic literature reviews, considering Industry 4.0 research incorporating human -centric aspects for developing intelligent manufacturing (Kamble et al., 2018; Zheng et al., 2021). The literature review study was structured by the design of Xiao and Watson’s (2019) methodology consisting of the steps 1) Initial corpus creation, 2) Finalizing corpus, and 3) Analyzing corpus, and we also used a bibliometric approach throughout the search process (Glänzel & Schoepflin, 1999). The keyword selection was categorized into three groups of search terms, “industry 4.0”, “manufacturing”, and “artificial intelligence”, see figure 1. (Not included here)

Articles were collected from the meta -databases EBSCOhost, Scopus, Eric, and the database AIS, to quantify the presence of human-centric or human-involved AI approaches in recent manufacturing research. A total of 999 scientific articles were collected and clustered based on a list of application areas to investigate if there is a difference between various areas in which artificial intelligence is used. The application areas are decision -making, digital twin, flexible automation, platformization, predictive maintenance, predictive quality, process optimization, production planning, and quality assessment.Throughout the review process, only articles that included both AI and human -centric aspects were screened and categorized. The final corpus included 386 articles of which only 93 articles were identified as human -centric. These articles were categorized into three themes: 1) organizational change, 2) competence and learning, and 3) human-automation interaction. Theme 1 articles related mostly to the application areas of flexible automation (11), production planning (9), and predictive maintenance (5). Theme 2 concerned the application areas of production planning and quality assessment (7), and process optimization (7).

Finally, theme 3 mainly focused on flexible automation (10), digital twin (3), and platformization (3). The rest of the corpus only consisted of one or two articles in related application areas. To conclude, only a few articles were found that reinforce human -centric themes for Industry 4.0 implementations. The literature review identified obstacles and opportu nities that affect manufacturing organizations to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0. Hence, I-WIL is proposed as a research area to inform a new research agenda that captures human and technological integration of Industry 4.0 and to further illuminate human-centric aspects and themes for future sustainable intelligent manufacturing. 

This paper reports on a design process of e-learning courses for competence development of experienced employees in the manufacturing industry. Through a cross- organizational collaborative action design research project the aim was to design e-learning courses at university level to support work-integrated learning. Two design- and learning cycles were evaluated over two years. The first cycle identified challenges that were applied to a pilot course in Industrial automation. From evaluation of this course we derived design principles applied to two further courses in Machining and Negotiation skills. The results from our empirical data suggest general principles as competence mapping work, collaborative manufacturing e-WIL cases and interactive learning technologies for design of e-WIL courses as boundary crossing activities to reach transformative learning integrated in the manufacturing industry.

This paper reports on a design process of e-learning courses for competence development of experienced employees in the manufacturing industry. Through a crossorganizational collaborative action design research project the aim was to design e-learning courses at university level to support work-integrated learning. Two designand learning cycles were evaluated over two years. The first cycle identified challenges that were applied to a pilot course in Industrial automation. From evaluation of this course we derived design principles applied to two further courses in Machining and Negotiation skills. The results from our empirical data suggest general principles as competence mapping work, collaborative manufacturing e-WIL cases and interactive learning technologies for design of e-WIL courses as boundary crossing activities to reach transformative learning integrated in the manufacturing industry.

The focus in this study is on knowledge transformation in the workplace following substantial competence initiatives through blended e-learning at the university level. Competence development on academic level is a key factor for industries in times of increased digitalization of manufacturing work. To develop competitive manufacturing requires employees with expert knowledge, which professional organisations need to strengthening. Even if individual employees' motivation for learning is essential, management need to put efforts on competence development and encourage education that, combine theory and practice in forms of work integrated learning. Blended e-learning courses on university level has been successful for supporting such competence development needs, which here is described as work-integrated e-learning, e-WIL. In this study, we explore practitioners' knowledge transformation after their participation in blended e-WIL courses that are designed with industry target content aiming for workplace transformations. Specifically, we focus on the learning efforts versus the management strategies after e-learning initiatives that have an effect on workplace transformations.

The industry target courses in the case study, are designed in collaboration between an industry-union-university venture of a Norwegian industry network, the Addiscounion and a Swedish university. Six courses are included comprising three knowledge subjects; Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Engineering Tools, and Robotics and Automation. Addisco was the facilitator for engaging industry university collaboration, and stimulated co-creation between industry companies. Data was collected through a longitudinal action research project, comprising six focus group sessions with 113 industry participants during 2015 and 2018. We analysed the company management support of knowledge transformation through the course participants' manifestations of experiences in focus groups, conducted after each course intervention. Overall results show that most participants experience a low management support of knowledge transformation as an engine for workplace transformation, after conducting e-WIL courses. Stimulation of individual motivation and new skills gained were not promoted within the workplace structures. There seem to be a lack of individual competence plans, time for studies, business models and routines, networking and recognition of the individuals' knowledge transformation. Rather, participants claimed their individual responsibilities, and motivation that drives them to further competence development. We therefore argue for stronger management awareness and designed learning models, to develop company strategies that fully appreciate the benefits and new knowledge that industry participants bring back into the workplace after course participation.

Blended e-learning in higher education targeting company knowledge needs, can support continuous competence development for practitioners in the manufacturing industry. However, university education is traditionally not designed for workplace knowledge needs that strengthen practitioners' learning in everyday work, i.e. work-integrated learning.

Designing for such learning efforts is even more challenging when the pedagogical strategy is to stimulate practitioners own work experiences as a valuable knowledge source in construction with other peers or teachers. The aim is to explore how engineering practitioners and research teachers mutually co-construct knowledge. In particular, three types of case-based methodologies are examined within a range of industry targeted e-learning courses. The study is part of alongitudinal joint industry-university project. Eleven courses were analyzed through focus group sessions with 110 practitioners from 15 different companies. Results show that 1) Virtual digital cases stimulate high technology learning, but show low collaboration with peers, 2) On-line collaborative negotiation cases stimulate both web conferencing and high interactivity, and 3) Real workplace cases do not stimulate e-learning, but motivate strong work-integrated learning and knowledge expansion.

University e-learning education aims to support lifelong learning for practitioners in the manufacturing industry and strengthen their competence development integrated in work practice. However, traditional higher education courses are usually designed for individuals on campus and do not support work practitioners working full time. Hence, they are not usually designed for time independence, flexibility or collaborative learning. Traditionally, campus courses do not include practitioners’ knowledge from their work experiences as a valuable source to be negotiated in knowledge construction with other peers and teachers. However, to integrate practitioners’ workplace experiences, as a valuable knowledge source, is a demanding process when designing e-learning courses that includes pedagogical strategies, case-based methodologies and choices of learning technologies. The aim of this study was to explore how engineering practitioners and research teachers mutually co-construct knowledge in a case-based methodology, specifically within the subject Negotiation Skills. Studies took part within a longitudinal and joint industry-university competence development project between a network of manufacturing industries and one university in the Western part of Sweden. The courses comprise 2.5 European Credits (ECTS) and include cases as a Harvard Case designed with a predefined role-play negotiation game, video production and essay. The case methodology was developing during three design cycles (2014-2015), as a part of the whole course design inspired by an Action Design Research (ADR) approach. Analysis from three focus group session discussions from the three courses including 34 practitioners, and through observations of web-conferencing show that that practitioners’strengthened their knowledge of handling negotiations within work practice. There were problems of using web-conferencing, producing own videos and fulfil written essays stringently, however these problems decreased throughout the three design cycles of the course, due to explicated instructions and a higher practitioner involvement. Generally, results show that practitioners; 1) strengthened their knowledge on how cultural differences affected negotiations, 2) improved their decision making skills in problematic business situations, and 3) developed personal skills on how to visualize conflict situations through reflections on their own actions and communications within practical work situations. The e-learning technology failures also decreased.

This article departure from the effects that interorganizational collaboration brings for the participating partners, specifically from design-related activities of e-learning courses and co-production. There search focus is on critical factors for interorganizational collaborative e-learning and coproduction between university and industry. We describe the process of a six-year longitudinal collaborative action research project including six cases and three phases, initialization, implementationand dissemination. The analysis is conducted from a multi-stakeholder perspective; managers, teachers,and practitioners. Overall aim is to reach for a sustainable collaborative competence e-learning model(CCeM) that will increase industrial employees' competences. Main contribution is that co-production of knowledge entails three levels of activities among actors; to have insight into the purposes and practicesof others, the capacity to transform the problems of a practice and together build common knowledge and finally the capacity of mutually co-produce knowledge acted upon in practice towards transformations in the workplace.

This article arises from consideration of the effects of inter-organizational collaboration on participating partners, specifically from design-related activities and co-production of e-learning courses. The research focus is on critical factors for inter-organizational collaborative e-learning and co-production between university and industry. We describe the process of a six-year longitudinal collaborative action research project comprising six cases and three phases-initialization, implementation, and dissemination. The analysis is conducted from a multi-stakeholder perspective: managers, teachers, and practitioners. The overall aim is development of a sustainable collaborative competence e-learning model that will increase industrial employees' competencies. This work's main contribution is the finding that co-production of knowledge entails three levels of activities among actors: insight into the purposes and practices of others, capacity to transform the problems of a practice and build common knowledge together, and finally, the capacity to mutually co-produce knowledge acted upon for transformation in the workplace.

Competence development on academic level is a key factor for industries in times of increased digitalization of manufacturing work. To develop competitive manufacturing requires employees with expert knowledge. Even if individual employees’ motivation for learning is essential, management need to put efforts on competence development and encourage education that, combine theory and practice in forms of work-integrated learning. Blended e-learning courses on university level has been successful for supporting such competence development needs, which here is described as work-integrated e-learning, e-WIL. In this study, we explore practitioners’ knowledge transformation after their participation in blended e-WIL courses that are designed with industry target content aiming for workplace transformation. Specifically, we focus on the learning efforts versus the management strategies after e-learning initiatives that have an effect on workplace transformations. The industry target courses are designed in collaboration between an industry-union-university venture of a Norwegian industry network, the Addisco union and a Swedish university. Six courses are included comprising three course subjects; Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Engineering Tools, and Robotics and Automation. Addisco was the facilitator for engaging industry-university collaboration, and stimulated co-creation between industry companies. Data was collected through a longitudinal action research project, comprising six focus group sessions with 113 industry participants during 2015 and 2018. We analysed the company management support of knowledge transformation through the course participants’ experiences after the course interventions. Overall results show that most participants experience a low management support of knowledge transformation as an engine for workplace transformation, after conducting e-WIL courses. Stimulation of individual motivation and new skills gained were not promoted within the workplace structures. There seem to be a lack of individual competence plans, time for studies, business models and routines, networking and recognition of the individuals’ knowledge transformation. Rather, participants claimed individual responsibilities, and motivation that drives them to competence development. We therefore argue for stronger management awareness and to develop company strategies that fully appreciate the added values and new knowledge that industry participants bring back after course participation.

The manufacturing industry constantly strive to develop the competencies of their expert production engineers in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Research shows that the absorptive capacity of a firm is central in order to reach such a goal. The absorptive capacity is the firm´s ability to recognize the value of new external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends, and thereby exploit the conditions for innovation. In this paper the concept of absorptive capacity is used as a lens for analyzing managerial rationales for engaging in technology enhanced competence development projects. Through interviews with key informants in 15 manufacturing firms we study the capabilities and readiness that organizations need for participation in e-learning initiatives. We present a framework of readiness for technology enhanced competence development comprised of the following interrelated constructs; awareness, e-learning maturity, dynamic capability and co-creativity. Results show a broad variation of levels within the constructs among the firms. Notable is the low level of e-learning maturity and dynamic capability. We argue that e-learning maturity is dependent on all four constructs.

In this paper we aim to understand management’s perceptions of knowledge and competence development to inform the design of technology enhanced learning activities integrated in the workplace. Work-integrated learning can be viewed with the university lens on studies of formal education integrated in the workplace setting, but here we rather emphasize the conditions of the workplace as implications for design of successful e-learning initiatives. We conducted interviews with 15 manufacturing industries in Sweden and used qualitative content analysis approach to interpret the text data. Results show that companies describe a rich variation of work-integrated learning activities, but the step towards external collaboration with academia for co-production of knowledge is marginal. Also, broad-minded work for innovations is limited. This imply the need for well-planned design of richer collaborative acitivites between academia and organizations through use of media technology to encourage competence development.

Distance Education (DE) is not a new phenomenon butinformation technology has increased the use and accessibility to education anywhere and anytime. In Sweden, it is possible to study online courses on university level, using locally placed learning centres (LC). Focus of the study was to get a better understanding of what role locally learning environment, has on students performance. 14 interviews were conducted on Arvika LC, with both students and LC staff. The result show that a LC promote socialisation, technical and administrative support. Communication on organisationaland pedagogical levels between LC, universities and students are though not satisfactory. Thus, we argue for the importance of learning centres as mediators to facilitate a locally constructed learning context.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the increasing role of real-time analytics (RTA) data are currently transforming industry and shop floor work. Manufacturing industry needs to adapt accordingly and implement systems solutions for rich data analysis to achieve increased business value. However, a data-driven implementation of RTA applications, often launched as “Plug&Play” solutions, often lacks both insights into shop floor work and the alignment to user perspectives. This paper focuses both on the technical implementation and the deployment of RTA applications from a design-in-use perspective and therefore we argue for congruence between a data-driven and a user-driven approach. The main findings reveal how configuration and implementation of RTA applications interplay with users’ work operations that further extends current IIoT layered models by aligning architectural levels with user and business levels. The main contribution is presented as lessons learned to inform sustainable and innovative implementation for increased business value for data-driven industry.

Organizations are inspired by the massive social media use in the private domain and try to filter interactions and knowledge sharing in socialmedia also for professional purposes. Even if the interest in social media isstrong in the private domain, the use is far less widespread in organizations. The trajectory of traditional information spread through web platforms into use of new and open social media platforms stresses organization's and professionals to enrich user-generated content and take part in and enhance social networking. This study explore how social media is used in organizations and how professionals´ practice is challenged by use of social media of reaching out, sharing knowledge and interaction with target groups. Through illustration of two research cases; municipality-citizens' interactions and university-industry collaborations, three affordances of social media practice are emerging; incentives, perceptions and openness, where social media is constituted as the boundary object

This small-scale interview study explore engineering expert teachers’ experiences and ideas of e-learning within engineering education. The aim is to capture teachers`experiences entering educational situations that forces them towards new modes of teaching as well as towards a closer collaboration with the industry engineering professional practice. The study addresses challenges crucial for engineering teachers to master when designing e-learning courses that manufacturing industry needs. In the paper we highlight how teachers’perspectives effect the design of work-integrated e-learning courses. In particular we investigate how teacher express their ideas regarding the transition of campus courses into work-integrated e-learning courses as a new teaching situation. Findings show that teachers are content experts in the engineering knowledge field but lack experiences and support for design of e-learning courses.

This small-scale interview study explore engineering expert teachers' experiences and ideas of e-learning within engineering education. The aim is to capture teachers`teachersèxperiences entering educational situations that forces them towards new modes of teaching as well as towards a closer collaboration with the industry engineering professional practice. The study addresses challenges crucial for engineering teachers to master when designing e-learning courses that manufacturing industry needs. In the paper we highlight how teachers' perspectives effect the design of work-integrated e-learning courses. In particular we investigate how teacher express their ideas regarding the transition of campus courses into work-integrated e-learning courses as a new teaching situation. Findings show that teachers are content experts in the engineering knowledge field but lack experiences and support for design of e-learning courses.

Quality is one of the most important contributors to products’ success in the market and essential input for design and manufacturing. Historically, quality definitions evolved over time but with significant domain-specific differences. One example of these emerging differences is the human-centric, subjective approach to quality. Current Quality 4.0 models, in most cases, are derivatives from the Total Quality Management (TQM) way, solely based on hopes for Data-Driven approaches to solving problems, with the lack of a human-centric operator approach. Industry 4.0 and its associated digital technologies promise to change this notion and make formerly subjective quality dimensions measurable on a scale as input for design and manufacturing. This leads to an opportunity to bridge the current gap and streamline the Quality and Operator in a holistic, data-informed, and digital technology-enabled way. This paper introduces a Quality 4.0 transformation as a vision for the future of Human – Machine symbiosis in the context of Operator 5.0 for intelligent manufacturing systems. We discuss what needs to be added to Quality 4.0 to achieve the requirements set for Operator 5.0 This work suggests how to enrich smart manufacturing systems from a human-centric perspective with Operator 5.0 making own, informed decisions based on data, experience, and tacit knowledge.

The aerospace industry is expected to grow substantially during the next two decades. As a result more suppliers aim for entering into this industry. Demands on safety and quality in this sector are particularly high, where SME´s must upgrade from the generic group of quality standards, the ISO9000 family, to AS9100, the aerospace standard. In this research we focus on the meaning of learning processes for successful implementation of quality standards in a workplace context at a manufacturing company. By using Blooms Revised Taxonomy of learning, we can understand, evaluate and design actions for continuous improvement which can be supported by an IT-based tool for self-assessment supporting organisational learning and implementation of the Quality Management System.

In this article we analyze three manufacturing organizations' manifested expressions of different workplace initiatives related to industry 4.0. Key representatives in these organizations raise their concerns regarding changed content and forms of work as an answer to increased automation and digitalization. The wave of industry 4.0 includes smarter industrial solutions such as internet-based networks so that organizations can use connectivity of machines that can tie product development and continuous data productionwith the factory environment in new ways. Hence, the industrial work environment is under restructuring and industrial companies' work conditions are being transformed. In this article we ask the question: How do industry practitioners that currently are engaged in the transformation processes related to industry 4.0 initiatives perceive their work? Based on interviews with key representatives of three global manufacturing companies we will discuss 73 implications for industrial work-integrated learning (I-WIL) that takes into account the companies' transformative need to rethink their industrial operations and learning mindsets. We found that the introduction of disruptive digital technologies drastically changes the companies' operations. Leaders' management needs to be synchronized with practitioners' new work situations and their learning opportunities.

Working in the knowledge sector means dealing with increasing amounts of information, technology and people. Organizations as well as individuals in communities need to constantly maintain large repositories and networks of people, including colleagues, clients, experts, acquaintances and friends. This situation leads to complexity where person’s cognitive capability is insufficient when dealing with huge repositories of information and interaction. Viewing it as an individual problem has resulted in applications that highlight the need for structure and organization. We here define these applications in different levels where the first level is the office application generation, referring to “desktops” metaphors. The next generation, groupware applications, offers structure and process support for collaboration, but is still a rather limited “forum” metaphor. Our main argument is that current application generations and design metaphors are too limited when supporting the sharing of thoughts and associations in different community networks. We believe that a large portion of this problem is not related to information itself, but rather to processes of information categorization, navigation and interaction within and between communities. In our results we advocate the need for a new application generation and a new design metaphor, i.e. brainware applications based on “neural” metaphors. The result is a review of three application generations based on different design metaphors. We discuss several implications for a new design metaphor and suggest a design draft that supports boundary objects as means of knowledge sharing within and between communities.

This study addresses work-integrated learning from a workplace learning perspective.Two companies within the manufacturing industry (turbo machinery and aerospace) together with a multi-disciplinary research group explore the opportunities and challenges related to applications of artificial intelligence and human intelligence and how such applications can integrate and support learning at the workplace.The manufacturing industry is currently under extreme pressure to transform their organizations and competencies to reap the benefits of industry 4.0. The main driverf or industry 4.0 is digitalization with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, machine learning, cyber-physical systems, digital platforms, etc. Many significant studies have highlighted the importance of human competence and learning in connection to industry 4.0 in general and disruptive technologies and its transformative consequences in particular. What impact have such technologies on employees and their workplace?

There is a lack of knowledge on how artificial intelligent systems actually take part in practices of human decision making and learning and to what extent disruptive technology may support both employees and organizations to “learn”. The design  and use of three real-world cases of artificial intelligence applications (as instances of industry 4.0 initiatives) will form the basis of how to support human decision making and scale up for strategic action and learning. Following a work-integratedapproach the overall research question has been formulated together with the two industry partners: How can artificial and human intelligence and learning, interact tobring manufacturing companies into Industry 4.0? An action-oriented research approach with in-depth qualitative and quantitative methods will be used in order to make sense and learn about new applications and data set related to a digitalized production.The contribution of this study will be three lessons learned along with a generic model for learning and organizing in the context of industry 4.0 initiatives. Tentative findings concern how artificial and human intelligence can be smartly integrated into the human work organization, i.e. the workplace. Many iterations of integrating the two intelligences are required. We will discuss a preliminary process-model called “Super8”, in which AI systems must allow for providing feedback on progress as well as being able to incorporate high-level human input in the learning process. The   practical implication of the study will be industrialized in the collaborating 

Industrial work is under restructuring due to digitalization and automation. Technological leaps have led to paradigm shifts, and today with increased digitalization many companies are facing Industry 4.0 through disruptive technologies (Lasi et al, 2014). Through smarter industrial solutions such as Internet of Things (IoT), interconnected machines enable continuous data production and interaction with their environment in new ways Kagerman et al., 2013). Not only through robots, but also through all types of digital devices - which require some form of information interpretation as well as human operation and interaction. The human role in such "technology-talking" work situation will affect the workers way of decision-making and business operations. New work situations include handling continuous information flows and use of various digital technologies as their main production tool. Information judgment, decision-making authority, work incentives and the provision of knowledge creation will form work-training models in the industry 4.0 companies' operations. Hence, increased digitalization push competence development of workers and employees, and to be organized as an integrated combination of engineering knowledge and practical skills (Billet, 2001; Illeris, 2003). New professional competences and skills are needed to master digitalized transformation, which put pressure on manufacturing companies to plan for future transformative professions (Susskind & Susskind, 2015).In what way will digitalization in general and IoT in particular change industrial work and its conditions for competence development and learning? This question is asked and contextualised in two industrial cases, which represent different instances of production lines that is now undergoing industry 4.0. The findings are based on empirical data collections through interviews, observations as well as field- and meeting notes. Early results show that the advancements of digital technologies need to go hand in hand with competence development approaches. The findings show how industry 4.0 initiatives are perceived and adopted by various stakeholder groups. Interviewed managers are stressing the increased need of digitalized data and immediate decision support. As new work conditions based on software-oriented and data-driven initiatives emerge, new learning logics are needed. From these various "pictures" of Industry 4.0 initiatives we contribute with a discussion about prerequisites and implications for competence and learning for industry 4.0 transformations.

The use of ICT in higher education is becoming increasingly widespread. InSweden, it is possible to study courses on university level in a distributedlearning context, using locally placed learning centres (LC). The aim of this paperis to identify implications in order to manage and improve the conditions fordistributed learning in higher education. Our conceptualisations of distributedlearning are faced in the real work environment at four different learning centresin Sweden. A case study with 11 interviews was conducted. The results showthat a LC promotes socialisation as well as technical and administrative support.Communication on organisational and pedagogical levels between LC, universitiesand students are however not satisfactory. Thus, we argue for the importance oflearning centres as mediators to facilitate a locally constructed learning context.We suggest a management strategy for improving such context

Industry 4.0 is believed to introduce new smart digital tools which transform manufacturing processes but affect production personnel’s work practice. Operators and maintenance personnel running the everyday operations need to learn and handle new routines and systems while maintaining production efficiency. Operators today are challenged when they must handle unexpected stops caused by machine failures and the following error recovery process of automated production systems. With complex digital tools and integrated production systems the error recovery process becomes complex because there is no one-size-fits-all solution and a lack of intelligent and automated restart systems. Even if there are defined routines for industrial work and structures for managing digital technologies, it is not adapted to the individuals’ cognitive processes neither to their workplace learning. Altogether it puts high pressure on operators’ knowledge and skills of restarting machines and systems caused by errors. The aim is to explore operators and maintenance personnel cognition and skills and how their roles vary in relevant aspects of situational awareness and workplace learning. In an on-going case we studied two industrial companies that produce similar components but are working differently with production and maintenance. Through nine interviews we investigate the differences between the companies, their current work practices, and future changes. With application of a situation awarenessmodel, we capture cognition and learning including task/system factors, perception and decision making, and individual factors. Perspectives of workplace learning and knowledge sharing between personnel and relations to the systems use are applied. Results indicate that rule-based behaviours are key for both operators and maintenance personnel. These behaviours are supported by the systems and routines, but complicated errors make the systems and routines prove inadequate. In conclusion, to design appropriate digital support tools both operators and maintenance personnel behaviour need to be supported, however they need to be supported differently since their function behaviours such as routines, system use and communication vary. In addition, future skills and competences needed forsupporting complex system tasks include knowledge of computational models and simulation, knowledge of the machines and how they interrelate with systems, and logic reasoning and robotic programming of automated production systems.

This paper concerns online tutoring in higher education. Observation studies of online tutoring sessions in two masters level engineering courses were conducted where teachers on campus tutored students located at different manufacturing plants doing their masters project. The tutoring regarded problems surrounding the construction of advanced 3D-models for manufacturing and required the shared view of the 3D-models as well as synchronous voice communication, e-mail and image sharing using a flora of different services. While advanced screen sharing applications like WebEX and TeamViewer were central in the tutoring sessions, the research presented here focus on the tools that supplemented the use of the screen sharing applications. Addressing issues such as the need to record historical data to be able for teachers to follow the progression of the project, sharing media files between participants and discussing the results, we here present a system to support online tutoring in higher education.

Social media is used by the majority of Swedish municipalities. However, the highly interactive features of social media are often not taken advantage of. The study aims to get a better understanding of why social media is not used to its full potential in the municipality. Findings from an interview study with communicators in three Swedish municipalities reveal that the motivation for using social media is often difficult to turn into action. Tensions emerging in the use of social media result in hesitation, uncertainty and a slowing down of work practice. The processes of managing the tensions are characterized by boundary crossing between different communities, such as municipal communicators, elected officials and citizens, with social media itself as an equally important actor. The processes of boundary crossing by the municipal communicators are discussed in terms of learning processes and new emerging competences that might redefine the role of the municipal communicator and hence perhaps the public servant in general. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2016.

As industrial digitalization progresses and the use and application of digital technology in industrial production increases, it is tempting to view technology as the answer and solution to all the challenges that arise in production. However, does relying solely on the power of digital technological systems do justice to the complexity of today’s shop floor? We argue that despite the fact that digital technologies have the capacity to process a considerable amount of data which outperforms human computing abilities, it is crucial to apply a more holistic view and widen the scope of analysis above and beyond the immediate application of digital technologies. Thus, this study aims to explore industrial shop floor practices to increase understanding of the planning and coordination patterns. To get a thorough understanding of how planning and coordination work today and to find new opportunities, a case study approach was adopted. Data was collected in one small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprise through shop floor observations and interviews with six employees during 2022-2023. Further, we applied a coordination framework, including coordination mechanisms, for data analysis. The results show that the three coordination mechanisms Objects and Representations, Roles, and Routines are abundantly present in the case study. Moreover, two additional coordinating mechanisms were identified, Digital Technology and Context, which include a contribution to the earlier coordination framework. We argue to put the challenges that operators face into the limelight, by involving them in the planning and coordination loop. 

Med allt högre krav på ett hållbart samhälle ökar behoven av en snabb och innovativ produktion med högteknologiska lösningar och ökad kompetens för att möta framtidens digitala transformation. Industrin står därmed inför stora behov av kompetens och tillgång till akademisk spjutspetsutbildning i flexibla former. Kraven på en effektiv produktion efterfrågar nya kunskaper inom områdena, produktionsteknik, digital produktion (I4.0), elektrifiering men även hållbart ledarskap. Det gäller både tekniska djupkunskaper och hur organisationen kan tar tillvara interdisciplinära kunskaper för att möjliggöra tekniklösningar för en hållbar industri. Studier visar dock en diskrepans mellan företagens förmåga att definiera kompetensbehov och akademins svårigheter att möta rätt nivå och innehåll. I Västsvenska handelskammarens rapport framgår det generellt att utbildningssystemet inte är anpassat för yrkesverksamma i näringslivet. Matchningsproblematiken mellan industri-akademi är mångfacetterad och det finns skillnader avseende definition av ämnesinnehåll, flexibla kursformer, organisationskultur, etc. Forskning visar att arbetsplatser efterfrågar både procedurkunskap (veta hur) för rutinbaserade och repetitiva uppgifter och konceptuell kunskap (veta att), som bygger på djupförståelse.

Studiens syfte är att synliggöra industrins perspektiv på kompetensmatchning och den utgår ifrån en behovsinventering genomförd under 2021, i projektet ExSus, Hållbar och digitaliserad produktion, vid Högskolan Väst. 15 teknikchefer inom större SMF-företag intervjuades (konsult- och tillverkningsindustri) om kompetensbehov och utmaningar med digitalisering och hållbar produktion. Resultaten är mångfacetterade och visar behov av specifik och omedelbar kunskap, medan andra efterfrågar generellt lärande om Industri 4.0 (maskinlärande, sakernas internet, sensorteknik mm). Vidare finns det behov av AI (Artificiell Intelligens), fast man upplever problem med applicering. Allt fler efterfrågar kunskap utifrån ett organisations- och ledningsperspektiv, för generell förståelse, samt användning och nytta med teknologiutvecklingen, exempelvis överbryggningsutbildningar inom AI, maskinlärande och hållbar produktion i praktiken. Några efterlyser tydligare kommunikation och större samordning mellan utbildningsaktörer. Högskolan Västs nya projekt ExSus och tidigare kompetensutvecklingsprojekt, t ex ProdEx visar dock lyckade satsningar. Sammantaget finns det fortfarande ett glapp mellan akademins excellens och företagens behov av djupkunskap utifrån ett flexibelt och arbetsintegrerat lärande. Detta talar för kontinuerlig kompetensmatchning för att skapa synergier, tvärvetenskaplighet och ökad samproduktion mellan industri och akademi

This study evaluates an augmented reality (AR) prototype aimed at enhancing user guidance in industrial procedures, focusing on tool change tasks. The variability in experience and skills among operators and maintenance technicians in handling machine-related requirements poses challenges to smooth operations. To address this, an AR guidance system was developed for a head-mounted display device, utilizing image, object, and gesture recognition to minimize user interaction and enhance system adaptiveness, ultimately reducing cognitive load. A user study employing video observations and questionnaires was conducted to evaluate the AR system’s impact on usability and cognitive load. Results indicate that the prototype effectively facilitated tool change tasks, providing a user-friendly experience with reduced cognitive load. The integration of image, object, and gesture recognition contributed to streamlined user guidance, minimizing the need for constant user interventions. Notably, participants experienced a fluid user experience with high usability and a moderate cognitive load, emphasizing the system’s potential in managing complex tasks. The study also highlighted the applicability of AR technology in fields beyond tool changes, such as troubleshooting, and identified a preference for an apprenticeship-style training approach among participants.