Qualification for Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

In this paper a nearly perfected concept of basic training in the field of "Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)" has been explained. With the help of detailed studies conducted in part by the Department of Technology and Education. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Dortmund the necessity of basic training at all levels for employees in Computer Integrated Manufacturing was verified. Then the new requirements for employees were indicated with respect to the "ability to act". Moreover, the didactic demands of the concept for basic subject-specific training were clearly stipulated. In summary, this concept has to include the invariant, indispensable, fundamental and exemplary contents and the basic options of CIM work organisation which are most important today and in the near future. Then a configuration was presented to meet these demands: the multimedia system of the CIM Learnil)g Factory, subsidised by the EC in the COMETT programme. The CIM Learning Factory consists of a well-operating "model factory", where activities like job management, production control, design, manufacturing, including loading, material transport and assembly as well as quality control and warehousing, are flexibly shown in functional models and are controlled by means of cross-linked computers (MPC); during the training the cross-linked computer structure is used like a language laboratory; two different "teachware packages", the first for the target group of designers and decision-makers, the second for skilled workers and plant management.