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Learning factories present a promising environment for education, training and research, especially in manufacturing related areas which are a main driver for wealth creation in any nation. While numerous learning factories have been built in industry and academia in the last decades, a comprehensive scientific overview of the topic is still missing. This paper intends to close this gap establishing the state of the art of learning factories. The motivations, historic background, and the didactic foundations of learning factories are outlined. Definitions of the term learning factory and the corresponding morphological model are provided. An overview of existing learning factory approaches in industry and academia is provided, showing the broad range of different applications and varying contents. The state of the art of learning factories curricula design and their use to enhance learning and research as well as potentials and limitations are presented. Conclusions and an outlook on further research priorities are offered.
Induced by a societal decision to phase out conventional energy production - the so-called Energiewende (energy transition) - the rise of distributed generation acts as a game changer within the German energy market. The share of electricity produced from renewable resources increased to 31,6% in 2015 (UBA, 2016) with a targeted share of renewable resources in the electricity mix of 55%-60% in 2035 (RAP, 2015), opening perspectives for new products and services. Moreover, the rapidly increasing degree of digitization enables innovative and disruptive business models in niches at the grid's edge that might be the winners of the future. It also stimulates the market entry of newcomers and competitors from other sectors, such as IT or telecommunication, challenging the incumbent utilities. For example, virtual and decentral market places for energy are emerging; a trend that is likely to speed up considerably by blockchain technology, if the regulatory environment is adjusted accordingly. Consequently, the energy business is turned upside down, with customers now being at the wheel. For instance, more than one-third of the renewable production capacities are owned by private persons (Trendsearch, 2013). Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to examine private energy consumer and prosumer segments and their needs to derive business models for the various decentralized energy technologies and services. Subsequently, success factors for dealing with the changing market environment and consequences of the potentially disruptive developments for the market structure are evaluated.