GUIDELINE

Shaping the Digital Transformation Within

Companies – Examples and Recommendations
for Action Regarding Basic and Further Training
Imprint

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Plattform Industrie 4.0
Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 3
10117 Berlin
Design and production
PRpetuum GmbH, Munich
Status
March 2017
Print
Druck- und Verlagshaus Zarbock
GmbH & Co. KG, Frankfurt
Illustrations
Bosch (Title, p. 2, 21, 22, 25, 45, 54, 56), Monkey Business –
Fotolia (p. 5), SolStock – iStock (p. 9), ABB (p. 10, 11), Festo
(p. 12, 13, 30, 32), Benteler (p. 14, 15), Phoenix Contact
(p. 17), Siemens (p. 18, 20), Münstermann (p. 27), Rawpixel.
com – Fotolia (p. 29), Goran Bogicevic – Shutterstock
(p. 33), Achenbach Buschhütten GmbH & Co. KG (p. 35),
Kuka (p. 36, 37), Software AG (p. 41), Eluschkom (p. 42, 44),
Daimler (p. 46), Syda Productions – Shutterstock (p. 48),
Airbus Operations (p. 50, 51), kupicoo – iStock (p. 59), This publication as well as further publications
science photo – Fotolia (p. 61), Boggy – Fotolia (p. 62) can be obtained from:
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs
and Energy (BMWi)
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Table of contents

Short version of the recommendations for action, working group 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Examples from companies: vocational education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

ABB – All for all instead of everyone for themselves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Festo – Learning factory: an integral part of production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

BENTELER – The concept “apprentice teaches apprentice” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Phoenix Contact –Dual-study trainees develop Table-Football Unit 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Siemens – The right methodology for the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Examples from companies: further training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Bosch – Good training for everyone at the company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Münstermann – Further training to order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

SAP – Individual qualification by cloud-based learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Project APPsist – Learning in the working process with an assistance system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Examples from companies: changes to how people work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Company map for Industrie 4.0 and Work 4.0 – seismograph and navigation system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

KUKA – Agile development for engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Software AG –The learning organisation is serving as a model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Elschukom – From state-owned collective to producer of high-tech wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Examples from companies: changing requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Daimler – Qualification moves closer to the workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Telekom – Educational chain to becoming a Cyber-Security Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Airbus Operations – On the path towards HR 4.0 in aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Long version of the recommendations for action, working group 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Members of the Industrie 4.0 Plattform’s working group ‘labour, vocational education and training’ |
authors and editorial team | supporters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2 S H O RT V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5

Short version of the

recommendations for
action, working group 5
The working group’s aim is to enable companies and employees to cope with
the requirements of digitisation. These recommendations are meant for them,
as well as the politically responsible stakeholders in the national government
and the federal states.
 S H O RT V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N D AT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5 3

AR
 ecommendations for action for
companies and employees
The changes brought about by Industrie 4.0 and digitisation petence development should be improved. This should be
are happening at different speeds and in varying intensity in transferred into new models for apprenticeships and further
different companies. Therefore, the working group believes vocational education and training, including aspects such as
that it is important to develop customised solutions, which training for mixed-age teams.
are drawn from and directed towards the practical situation
in the company, for each individual case. The working group therefore recommends that qualifi-
cation, apprenticeships, further vocational education and
training and competence development should always be
Analysing the change designed flexibly with reference to the applicable business
process to ensure that it keeps up with continuous change.
In practice, companies are increasingly looking for the best
possible steps which they can take to try out and develop
Industrie 4.0. In the current situation it is often still unclear How can (further) education and training and
what the new qualification requirements are and how they qualification be promoted in the company?
can be linked with the existing personnel, further education Promoting learning in the workplace
and training and organisational development. The working
group recommends using instruments which give a realistic The working group encourages businesses and employ-
and differentiated picture of the qualification demands. ees to work together to develop new learning and leader-
ship cultures in the company. This should lead to working
structures that facilitate learning and a culture of lifelong
Implementing training in the company learning which unlocks personal development potential,
employer attractiveness and competitive advantages.
The competence, professionalism and experience of skilled
employees will continue to be the foundation of their own Information and participation are essential to defuse peo-
successful vocational development and the competitive- ple’s fear of change. This is especially the task of the respon-
ness and innovative ability of their companies. sible stakeholders within the company. Co-determination
and a negotiating partnership between the management
The close link between theory and practice means that dual and the workforce are important elements to ensure that
vocational education will offer ideal conditions for students the working conditions are conducive to learning and that
and apprentices to gain useful practical qualifications at an the available offers for qualification are up to date.
early stage. The working group therefore suggests that the
existing possibilities for creating dual vocational training The working group encourages businesses to create a
courses should be exploited even more within the company. framework for more learning at the workplace, and thus for
in-service training. This way companies can make working
procedures more conducive to learning for employees of
Facilitating flexible and constant further all age groups and additionally increase the use of flexible
vocational training forms of learning integrated into the workplace.

In the development of vocational competence for a digit-

ised world of work, new forms and programmes in further Effective use of new media
vocational education and training and in-service learning
will become significantly more important. The use of digital media and associated education and train-
ing offers can provide effective support in the transition to
a learning culture which is appropriate for Industrie 4.0.
Coping with major changes
Before digital media such as learning games, simulations,
Companies and their employees face up to the increasing assistance systems or instruction films are used to a greater
and sometimes fundamental changes in the demands for extent, careful thought should be given to the teaching or
qualification and training and develop new solutions. The learning processes in which they can effectively be used, in
working group believes that the combination of working order to bring in-service training closer to reality and inte-
and learning, theory and practice, qualification and com- grate it better into the working processes.
4 S H O RT V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5

B Recommendations for political action

In the light of their own role, the companies and work More advice on further vocational education
councils involved in the working group expect the political and training for business companies
stakeholders to create a framework that will ensure con-
structive cooperation between all parties and facilitate the The working group suggests that the national government
acquisition of abilities, expertise and design knowledge for and the federal states should consider providing financial
Industrie 4.0. support for further education and training advice for busi-
nesses (especially SMEs) and employees.

Promoting media competence in schools The working group sees a significant need for research
projects and advanced training subsidies for the study of
The working group suggests that the national government teaching methods in further vocational education and
and the federal states should extend the promotion of media teaching strategies in the workplace, with similar
media competence in schools. offers for managerial staff.

Similarly, the school system should ensure that IT skills

such as programming are sufficiently promoted. Linking different areas of education and
training

Making vocational education more attractive Vocational education and training and higher education
institutions must be more strongly linked. The working
The national government and the federal states need to group suggests that revised and new curricula in all areas
strengthen the dual system. of vocational education and training should be increasingly
inter-disciplinary and based on real working processes.
The range of dual courses offered at universities and com-
panies should be increased to match the rising demand
for highly qualified experts, and the cooperation between Using test beds and competence centres for
higher education institutions and business companies training and qualification
should be encouraged.
In the Industrie 4.0 competence centres and “test beds”, the
working group believes that workplace design, vocational
education and training should play a significantly greater
role.
 FOREWORD 5

Foreword
6 FOREWORD

Since the early summer of 2015 the Industrie 4.0 platform’s The target for this comprehensive digital transformation
working group on labour, vocational education and training is greater flexibility, higher efficiency, lower costs and
has been intensively examining which new requirements reduced consumption of resources, primarily in classic
digitisation and Industrie 4.0 present to the workforce in industry sectors – mechanical and electrical engineering.
terms of professional competence, how qualification and Production driven by orders, in a versatile factory, sup-
education can be shaped to engage with Industrie 4.0, and ported by self-organising and adaptive logistics and intel-
which media channels, resources and forms of learning are ligent services of a new kind – these are some of the chal-
suitable for this task. These are issues of essential significance lenges that are being tackled as part of this.
– both with regard to successful technical and economic im-
plementation of Industrie 4.0 and also with regard to there This image of the future, shaped by technical opportunities
being a bright future for the various groups of employees. and abstract as well as exacting, currently finds itself con-
trasted with an extremely heterogeneous starting position
The working group consists of companies’ personnel in the companies: that position ranges from production
responsible for education and training activities and also – facilities that are already highly automated today, for prod-
with only a few exceptions – these companies’ works coun- ucts rich in variation; it includes new services supported by
cils. This is why the working group on labour, vocational IT, and it reaches right through to classic tightly-scheduled
education and training stands not only for a broadening of assembly operations involving a high proportion of manual
what have hitherto been rather technically-oriented top- labour. Similarly, there are great differences in the degree
ics addressed by the Industrie 4.0 platform, but also for a of digitisation and networking: some companies currently
new participation format. Through the works councils, the have intensive support by networked IT systems, ranging
workforce’s perspective is systematically integrated into from purchasing, via development and design, through
the working group’s discussions and results. This format of to production planning and production control; simulta-
participation has proved its merits in the working process. neously, others have only intermittent instances of use of
It clearly shows: The path towards sustainably responsible individual systems or programmes.
solutions draws its vitality from people’s willingness to help
in shaping it; it needs transparent and openly discussed Between these poles, it is essential to locate the areas for
solutions, , and an approach taken jointly by representatives action, in pursuing company qualification and education
of employees and employers, as well as politics and science. on the path towards Industrie 4.0. In this context, the quali-
fication-related requirements are every bit as diverse as the
In its discussions, the working group takes as its orientation target groups: digital transformation influences not solely
point the challenging image of the future that Industrie 4.0 the work of companies producing and manufacturing, but
represents and that was developed by the platform. Fully also equipment-suppliers and service-providers, suppliers
utilising cyber-physical systems’ potential in the future of software and hardware, specialists on systems and on
makes the following possible: networks, as well as providers of infrastructure. Similarly,
in the training itself, irrespective of whether it is vocational
• Processes and IT systems can be integrated horizontally education and training, a course of study or some form
as well as vertically, of tuition during the process of working, digitisation and
networking will serve both as the subject-matter of the
• products and production facilities alike can get smart knowledge imparted, as well as the tool and medium used
and gain decentral ‘intelligence’ by using embedded to perform that task.
systems,
That is why the examples, compiled in this brochure by the
• data, services and things can be interconnected by the orking group on labour, vocational education and training,
internet and highlight a formidable bandwidth of areas of activity and
current challenges being faced on the path towards qual-
• these interconnected elements can manage themselves. ification for Industrie 4.0. In total there is already a whole
range of exciting approaches today, attempting to make
• The foundation for this is digital engineering from vocational education and training easier to get through
beginning to end, drawing together the planning of the successfully, more adaptable, and more open. These spe-
factory, the products and the production. cific practical approaches to solutions can serve as points
 FOREWORD 7

Illustration 1: The force-field in which qualification for Industrie 4.0 operates

abstract/
general

Industrie 4.0
- Horizontal and vertical integration
- Embedded intelligent systems
- Production facilities networked via IoT
- Self-managing products
- Digital engineering from start to finish

"
& '
"
!
$%
Labour and
Areas for action

!)
education 4.0

(
specific/

#
differentiated
now future

of orientation for other firms; they prove to be useful and media, learning at the workplace, and new forms of learning
motivate companies to initiate activities of their own. all play a large and increasingly important role. This is not
However, the examples that this brochure puts into the a new insight but one that assumes a new dynamic under
spotlight do not mean that urgently necessary reorienta- the conditions presented by digiisation: It is not enough to
tion processes with regard to education and training come (try to) cover the demand for knowledge and skills solely by
into fruition ‘more or less by themselves’. Yet they are turning to those undergoing apprenticeships. In a digital-
unquestionably easier to put into reality if organisations ised world of work, there is a fundamental need to open up
are able to learn from one another and are able to adapt more (and increasingly diverse) opportunities for further
and further develop according to the given company’s own education and training of employees, spanning over all lev-
needs. A key finding of the working group is that “learn- els of vocational qualification. To a greater degree, this also
ing from one another” can be a highly-promising, tangible includes ways of learning while directly performing one’s
strategy, also – and especially – for small to medium-sized tasks and, more broadly, at the workplace.
firms, who have so far found it difficult to strengthen the
workforce’s qualifications for the digital transition. It is not enough – at least in the medium term – to direct
the focus onto one group of professionals or one functional
The examples from companies originate from actual area. Especially in the case of new business models or com-
practice of qualification activities, providing (among other prehensive networking activities, the changes go much
things) an insight both into education and training directed further. This is what drives the challenge of developing an
at digitisation topics (conducted SAP training operations all-encompassing product offering of vocational education
for production employees’ work), and also into offers of and training, one that covers all qualification stages and
services for works councils, aimed at shaping corporate enables all employees to obtain qualification and further
policy 4.0 and labour policy 4.0. As part of this, use of digital training.
8 FOREWORD

Illustration 2: The areas for action emerge from a firm’s starting position

Areas for action

A second group of examples examines the question of rate, management and human-resources culture conducive
which qualification-related and competence-related to learning. The path towards this is being mapped out now
requirements emerge from the changes that working life – and by no means solely by those formally responsible for
is undergoing, and how these can be pinpointed. Analyses training matters and by the works councils. If Industrie
of trends and competences are one possibility and are cur- 4.0 is to be put into effect successfully, the current topics
rently being conducted in many firms. Yet it must be kept of structuring education and training need to be closely
in mind that the digital transformation brings profound linked up with those of development of technology, organ-
ramifications for work processes and the structuring of isations and human resources. This is what is meant by
work. Questions also emerge regarding a reorganisation of the drawing up of new socio-technical systems. It is also
work and, associated with this, changes to patterns of tasks, clear that such a reorientation can only succeed if there
activities, areas of responsibility, qualifications and profes- is a whole new quality to how people are able to network
sional competences. and participate. This is far from being an easy task, but
it is an important process for drawing together different
aspirations and interests, as well as jointly releasing the
Illustration 3: Labour & Training 4.0 need to be struc- power to shape events. Security of employment, protection
tured on a systematic basis as a socio-technical system of personal data, transparency and openness in corporate
communication – in short: a reliable framework and trust;
these serve as important prerequisities to reach this clarifi-
cation process within companies. Then the task of politics
is to establish a suitable framework for shaping the work in
a way that is conducive to learning. A crucial insight from
Labour and corporate practice shows that such a framework is all the
education 4.0 more stable when constructed in a spirit of mutual respect
and partnership between management and the workforce.

With this in mind, we hope that you find this a stimulating

reading as you apply its lessons in your own company!

Dr. Constanze Kurz

The examples from the companies show: Industrie 4.0 can Konrad Klingenburg
be structured but does demand that those involved actively Dr. Irmhild Rogalla
structure it. This challenge calls for and requires a corpo-
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N 9

Examples from companies:

vocational education
10 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N

ABB – All for all instead of everyone for

themselves
“More and more customers are requesting different types adequate vocational education is increasingly demanding,
of miniature circuit breakers, including special types in complex teaching equipment and very good teaching per-
small batch sizes. To achieve the necessary production sonnel are needed. The model of collaborative vocational
flexibility economically and with the required process education will certainly be used even more frequently in
reliability, we designed our automatic production line future.”
ML2 to minimise the time and expense needed for retool-
ing”, says Frank Mühlon, manager of ABB Stotz-Kontakt. Vocational education in metalworking and electrical occu-
The production line has been fully operational at ABB pations has been reorganised as from 2000. The political
Stotz-Kontakt in Heidelberg since May 2016. The plant was powers, employer and employee representatives, business
developed and constructed by the company’s own plant companies and scientific community designed the reform
construction department using the latest Industrie 4.0 con- to enhance the competence areas which are also impor-
cepts. The high degree of automation enables this energy tant for Industrie 4.0: process orientation, self-directed
and automation technology company to produce up to action and IT skills. “The reform was thus far more inter-
8,000 variants of miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) in its disciplinary in character and contained a greater focus on
Heidelberg factory and to react flexibly to changes in the cross-cutting topics”, Braunert says in summary. “Around
market. MCBs are circuit breakers which protect people 2009 we started to use the existing leeway in the voca-
from injury in the event of a high electric load such as a tional education curricula to adapt the content to make
short circuit and prevent damage to the equipment which more allowances for our own specific needs. For example,
is protected by the MCB. The production plant in Heidel- vocational schools use products from another supplier
berg is linked with other ABB locations throughout the for programmable logic control systems (PLC). Within the
world for data analysis and quality assurance, which is an company we then teach the trainees using our own PLC
outstanding example of the possibilities of Industrie 4.0. system.” The young apprentices are also taught how to use
our proprietary software for the data analysis, remote diag-
“The production line is supported only by specialised nosis and on-line maintenance. In addition, ABB places
electricians and mechanical engineers who can carry out a major focus on robotics. From December 2016, the first
programming work themselves. On the whole, the com- training courses will be held on the new ABB robot YuMi,
petence required is significantly shifted towards software”, the world’s first really collaborative two-arm robot which
says Dr. Erhan Serbest, the manager of the production unit. can be used for tasks such as assembling small parts.

It was no accident that ABB chose that time to start adapt-

Vocational education for the production ing its vocational education programme. 2009 was the year
line ML2 when the predecessor of the ML2 production line, the ML1,
was taken into service. “The installation of the ML1 meant
Heidelberg is also the home of the largest vocational that we needed mechatronics specialists with a special
education centre of the German branch of ABB. At pres- focus on programming, so we trained them ourselves. We
ent there are a total of 598 young people who are gained experience with the first
working for their vocational qualifications there. production line, and trained
They include 258 dual education students from our apprentices on it. And we
the areas of electrical engineering, mechanical still benefit greatly from this
engineering, industrial engineering and business development with the ML2”,
management. There are also 340 apprentices in Braunert adds.
mechatronics, electronics, industrial mechanics,
production mechanics, toolmaking mechanics The ML1 was developed and
and commerce. “Our vocational education in built together with a partner.
Heidelberg is a collaborative system. Most stu- So the ABB Stotz-Kontakt
dents and apprentices are from ABB, but 80 peo- plant construction depart-
ple who are learning a trade or profession with us ment was “only” involved in
come from our 18 partner companies”, states Marcus the process. But the ML2 has been
Braunert, the manager of the ABB vocational educa- completely designed, developed,
tion centre, and he adds: “Industrie 4.0 means that planned and constructed by the
 11

Early adaptation and close interaction between

departments

Several factors played a decisive role in the first adaptation

company’s own plant construction department. Through- of ABB’s vocational education programme to the demands
out this phase, apprentices were also involved as a way of of Industrie 4.0. First of all, ABB was prudent in its reac-
preparing them for the challenges of such a complex sys- tions to changes, but reacted at an early stage. After the re-
tem right from the “word go”. Our vocational education organisation of the central apprenticeship schemes in the
centre is not an isolated unit, it is closely networked with metalworking and electrical sectors, the company initially
the other parts of the company, so the instructors also ben- waited to see what effect the changes would have. When the
efit significantly from the knowledge and experience that ML1 production line was installed, the company adapted its
are present within the company. teaching content and main focus areas to place greater em-
phasis on the specific needs of the factory. The close links
between the individual departments of ABB Stotz-Kontakt
Silent adaptation and the principle of striving mainly for internal solutions
(internal planning and construction of the plant) also had a
“As a result of our experience with the ML1 and the early positive effect on the education and training programmes.
adaptation of our collaborative vocational education sys- Throughout the company, comprehensive specialist exper-
tem, the transition to our Industrie 4.0 production line ML2 tise is brought together and shared with the instructors and
was almost silent”, concludes Dr. Serbest. “Our staff are also apprentices in the vocational education centre.
trained well enough in the software sector, so we can solve
programming problems ourselves. That makes us inde- “The example of the ML2 shows how important it is to
pendent of external providers.” have a comprehensive and sustainable approach in both
the concept design stage and the implementation stage of
Braunert adds that the close link between training and pro- such projects. We are currently working to consolidate this
duction greatly increases the employability of the young experience in an analysis tool ‘Work 4.0’. This should ena-
apprentices. “The newly qualified young people are usually ble the responsible persons to specify their requirements
recruited directly into high-tech positions, and directly for the conditions necessary for Work 4.0 in the context of
after their training they can already play a full role in the Industrie 4.0. If the aim is to implement innovation in pro-
work of the company.” duction, it is necessary from the outset to consider factors
such as the changing skill sets needed by the employees
“The example of the ML2 shows how production can be and to develop appropriate solutions. And to do this, the
economically achieved in a high-wage country if the right operational units and central departments such as Human
conditions are created and if continual investments are Resources and Research & Development must be brought
made in the qualifications of employees, apprentices and together around one table”, says Jan-Christoph Schüler,
dual education students”, explains Dr. Serbest. In accord- Country HR manager.
ance with this principle, ABB constantly works on the
development of its vocational education institutions and Braunert also regards the collaborative vocational educa-
on new further training concepts to keep its employees up tion system as a decisive factor: “We utilise the partner’s
to date in their knowledge of digitised production. resources and learn from him; this happens in both direc-
tions and is better than working in isolation.”

The ABB Group at a glance

ABB develops, manufactures and distributes energy and automation equipment for the power supply, industry, trans-
port and infrastructure sectors. ABB Stotz-Kontakt GmbH is based in Heidelberg, is part of the group of companies
and was founded in 1891. The ABB Group has a world-wide total of about 135,000 employees, including over 10,000
in Germany. The Group headquarters is in Zürich/Switzerland, but ABB operates in a total of about 100 countries. The
annual turnover lag in the 2015 financial year was around 35.5 billion dollars.
12 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N

Festo – Learning factory:

an integral part of production
The Festo Group is a leading world-wide supplier of auto- access to power, compressed air and network connections
mation technology and solution provider for technical on a pull-down system that runs across the ceiling. These
education. This is a firm that knows all about the chal- learning stations are kitted out with original components
lenges posed by Industrie 4.0. It knows that products are and software from production. The learning factory is thus
becoming ever more individualised, innovation cycles ever an integral part of the technology factory in Scharnhausen,
shorter, and production technology ever more complex. rather than an isolated training facility. Valves, valve clus-
“Inustrie 4.0 means that staff will need higher and higher ters, and electronics are produced and manufactured right
levels of qualification,” says Dr Reinhard Pittschellis, Head next to the learning stations.
of Development at Festo Didactic. “If an error occurs some-
where in the production process, trying to locate where “Having training facilities closeby is important,” one mem-
that error lies is becoming considerably more complex. ber of staff says. “We can undertake training whenever we
Today, there is a whole number of IT systems involved that need to, without having to take time out to travel some-
constantly have to be updated or replaced. Staff therefore where else. We can then directly apply the knowledge we
need to understand how the whole system fits together so have gained on the production floor.” The ability for staff
that they can take the necessary action.” to move from theory to practice straight away has proven
effects on learning. Retention levels are higher and a deep
For Festo, qualificationis important for two different rea- level of understanding is cultivated which is of vital impor-
sons: As manufacturers of automation technology, the tance for the complex processes involved in Industrie 4.0.
company needs staff with an expert understanding of tech- Pittschellis calls this the “vertical dimension of learning”:
nology and methodology so that they can provide custom- applying the knowledge gained in training to actual pro-
ers with state-of-the-art systems. At the same time, Festo is duction tasks straight away cultivates the ability of staff to
also a world market leader in initial and further technical think and act integrally. Staff not only learn how to execute
training. Education and training facilities that teach com- a certain task and how one part of the process affects the
plex subject matter need to offer innovative methods of next; they also gain an in-depth understanding of the pro-
learning that enable people to learn exactly what they need cess as a whole, which can be transferred to other areas.
to know and to do so quickly.
Another thing that’s special about the learning factory is that
it is largely operated by apprentices. Management and book-
Learning factory: an integral part of production ing tasks are undertaken by business and technical appren-
tices, who run the learning factory from the apprentices’ of-
The learning factory is a key means of training Festo staff fice as a small practice and advisory company. They book the
at the production site in Scharnhausen in the South-West training sessions, get hold of the right equipment, prepare
of Germany. The lab is spread across an area of 220 square the teaching modules, produce and update teaching media,
metres and is divided up into four different sections – and maintain facilities to keep them in good working order.
machining, assembly, multi-disciplinary skills and pro-
cesses – along with a media centre providing access to The learning factory is designed to mirror the various pro-
eLearning tools. It offers learning stations, all of which have cesses that are developed in the factory, so possible training

Festo at a glance
Festo is the world’s leading manufacturer and service-pro-
vider of automation technology. It is global market leader
for initial and further technical training. It was founded
in 1925 and currently employs 18,700 members of staff
at around 250 sites in 176 countries. Its headquarters
are located in Esslingen am Neckar in the South-West of
Germany. In 2015, the company’s turnover totalled €2.64
billion, of which just under 8 per cent was invested in
research and development.
 13

Insight from research – No. 1

Mechanical Engineering Industry

Association (VDMA)
topics are gathered in from management and production
once a year. Different module descriptions are developed Initial vocational training remains as it is
which include core learning objectives, number of partic-
ipants, names of the instructors, duration, different peri- In Germany as elsewhere, assessments differ regarding
ods in which the training module is being offered, and the the development of qualification within the context of
desired methodology to be used. The aim is to develop a Industrie 4.0. The forecasts regarding qualification needs
standardised catalogue of training sessions that can be are crucially influenced by the respective technological
continuously updated. The catalogue currently comprises vision within a particular company and, associated with
around 100 different training modules. this, the changes to business processes, to the organisa-
tion of work, its content and resources. In the surveys and
case studies of companies, undertaken by the Mechanical
It’s the people that are key Engineering Industry Association (VDMA), three possible
variations emerge: in the ‘Growing Gap’ scenario, the divi-
“We need to be aware that it’s the people that are key to a sion between highly-qualified personnel and those at a
company’s success, even in an age of digitised production. low level of qualification becomes more pronounced – a
This is why we are investing a great deal in our staff and are polarisation takes place. The second variant is called the
involving them in developing the training modules. Our ‘General Upgrade’ – this means the need to qualify all
staff have now taken part in over a hundred different train- employees. The third variant emphasises the growing sig-
ing sessions and are constantly developing new modules nificance of qualification of subject-specialist personnel.
in line with needs at the factory,” says Manfred Zahn, Head The study points to this as being the most point of con-
of Training. “The concept is appreciated by apprentices and nection between abstract and specific requirements.
well-seasoned colleagues alike. The type of training offered
at Festo mean that staff are motivated, are aware of what’s Accordingly, a need for change is indeed evident with
needed on the production floor, and develop just the skills regard to the structure of vocational basic and further
they need.” Even departments that have a finger in many training. However, this need is predominantly of an evo-
different areas within the factory, such as IT, development, lutionary nature and is to be mastered within the existing
supply chain, and sales attend training sessions in the system. A large-scale and substantial requirement to effect
learning lab and use it to try out new applications. changes is envisaged for further training. By contrast, for
initial training more than a half of the companies sur-
veyed expect no changes or minimal changes.
Dusting off a tried-and-tested instrument
for training Source: Mechanical Engineering Industry Association; VDMA (publisher):
Industrie 4.0 – Qualifizierung 2025 (Industrie 4.0 – Qualification 2025).
The learning factory is not a new invention; it is a tried- Frankfurt/Main. VDMA, 2016.
and-tested instrument for training that is already being
used by a number of different companies and universities,”
says Pittschellis. “By setting up the learning factory at
Scharnhausen and integrating it into a modern production
facility, we have been able to really boost the key advan-
tages of having a learning lab: eliminating the gap between
theory and practice and between training and application.”

Even the fact that the learning lab is directly next to the
production line generates a whole number of positive
effects on its own. It facilitates the exchange that takes
place between the various different disciplines, between
experienced staff and apprentices, as well as the transfer of
theory into practice.
14 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N

BENTELER – The concept “apprentice

teaches apprentice”
also reflected in BENTELER’s portfolio of vocational edu-
cation. This year, in addition, to mechanics, electronic tech-
nicians and mechatronics technicians, BENTELER is also
training two production technologists for the first time.
For the production technologist, process orientation and
an interdisciplinary approach are part of the fundamental
concept of their job and do not need to be integrated into
additional units. At BENTELER, the production technolo-
gists should analyse and optimise the production processes
and bring different areas closer together. So BENTELER
focuses on Industrie 4.0 even in its vocational education
programme and deals with future-oriented topics as early
as possible. To be successful in the long term, BENTELER
needs a powerful and efficient workforce consisting of
employees who can think like a business entrepreneur, act
With about 30,000 employees and 161 locations in 40 on their own initiative and react flexibly to changes.
countries, the BENTELER-Group stands for a high degree
of excellent material, production and technology in the BENTELER offers vocational education in Germany at a
areas of Automotive, Steel/Tube and Distribution. The total of 15 locations of its Automotive, Steel/Tube and Dis-
closely dovetailed company processes require BENTELER’s tribution divisions. Currently, a total of 750 young people
employees to display a high level of interdisciplinarity. The are being trained in the company in different apprentice­
employees must have a fundamental understanding of the ships and study courses. Paderborn is the company’s larg-
other divisions of the company in order to fulfil their own est location. That is where there are most apprentices –
roles. In its vocational education programme, BENTELER almost 500 young people. The main focus of the vocational
puts this interdisciplinary principle into practice from education is on technical occupations such as industrial
the outset, together with the concept “apprentice teaches mechanic or the recently added production technologist.
apprentice” which gives the apprentices responsibility There are also commercial and IT apprenticeships and
and appreciation from an early stage. The principle is that combined study courses where higher education studies
apprentices pass on the basic knowledge in their areas to are combined with intensive practical work in the com-
other apprentices. This approach is a complete success. By pany.
acting as instructors, the apprentices consolidate their own
knowledge in their core area, gain a better grasp of com- “We need interdisciplinary competence in all areas and all
pany processes, enter into discussions which transcend occupations”, says Koch. “We need specialists with a gener-
the boundaries of individual disciplines and feel valued alist knowledge and we need generalists who have a knowl-
because of the responsibility which they are assigned. edge of the processes. One example is our commercial staff
who work in sales and purchasing. They need to know our
products and understand the needs of the customer. They
Industrie 4.0 as a driving force and must at least have a basic understanding of the technical
an opportunity concepts. This also applies to our staff in the personnel
department who may need to form a very good impression
In close cooperation with its customers, BENTELER must of new colleagues.”
always be up to date in all areas of its work, and ideally
even better than up to date. “Our environment is con-
stantly changing. We see Industrie 4.0 as a driving force The concept “apprentice teaches apprentice”
and an opportunity in global competition. What does
this change demand from our employees? Flexibility and To achieve this interdisciplinarity, BENTELER contacted
interdisciplinary thinking. Teaching interdisciplinary com- a vocational school. The resulting agreement was that
petence is therefore our emphasis in the strategic devel- apprentices in commercial occupations have elective
opment of our vocational education system”, says Thomas subjects consisting of 80 teaching hours on the basics of
Koch, Head of vocational education at BENTELER. This is material, metalworking and electrical technology – sub-
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N 15

jects outside their specialist areas. The success of this initi-

ative quickly became apparent. Therefore, BENTELER also The BENTELER Group at a glance
included this approach in its own vocational education The BENTELER Group operates in the divisions Auto-
programme, building on what has already been learned. motive, Steel/Tube and Distribution. The company was
Here, the apprentices have an additional two-week practi- originally founded in 1876. Now, the international hold-
cal placement in metalworking and electrical settings. “Our ing company has its headquarter in Salzburg, Austria. The
motto is ‘apprentice teaches apprentice’. So the technical Group's 30,000 employees in 161 locations in 40 countries
apprentices teach each other the basics of their own spe- earned a total turnover of 7.59 billion EUR in the 2015
cialist areas, and the commercial and technical apprentices financial year.
also teach each other”, Koch says to explain BENTELER’s
proprietary concept. The Works Council has actively mon-
itored and supported this process. “There are many advan- Results and learning examples for other
tages of this approach. First of all, gaining an insight into companies
other areas gives the apprentices a better understanding
of the interaction between their own responsible areas For BENTELER, the desired effects have been achieved.
and the other departments and enables them to have an “Our young employees understand the processes better
overall impression of the processes. Secondly, their role as and are more equipped for their own tasks in our highly
‘teachers’ helps them to understand the core content of automated production system. Reservations were over-
their own specialist area more deeply. If you can explain it, come. The apprentices appreciate the challenge of acting
that means that you have really understood it”, concludes as instructors. They tackle their new tasks in a motivated
Koch. And thirdly, this dual role as a learner and instruc- and ambitious manner”, says Koch. Before the “apprentice
tor enhances the social competence of the apprentices. For teaches apprentice” concept was adopted, BENTELER had
young people, responsibility is a challenge which they are used external instructors to teach the basics. “The external
willing to accept because it also means that they are valued. instructors did not know our company well enough. And
And fourthly, the learning units which involve dialogue our own apprentices quickly achieved much better evalua-
between apprentices also enhance the long-term commu- tion grades from their colleagues”, says Koch, pointing out
nication between different divisions of the company. “Ear- the resounding success of the concept.
lier, the different groups tended to keep to themselves and
hardly spoke with the other groups”, Thomas Koch recalls. In the Purchasing department, Thomas Koch even reports
“Now there is lively contact between the groups, and they that the classical career structures have been revolutionised
meet on equal terms.” due to the change in the vocational education programme.
Two young people rose to become team leaders in a rela-
tively short time due to their interdisciplinary competence.

Courage to embrace what is new

Initially, reservations about the “apprentice teaches appren-

tice” concept were expressed within BENTELER. On the
one hand, the apprentices did not immediately believe that
they could fulfil their teaching role. On the other hand, the
instructors had their doubts about whether the plan would
work. “We just have to show some trust and let the young
people get on with it”, Koch says to encourage the people
who are responsible in other companies. He then sums up:
“Recruiting and developing our employees is the key to our
success”, thus underling that a combination of tried and
tested solutions and the courage to embrace what is new is
the right way to face the future.
16 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N

Phoenix Contact – Dual-study trainees

develop Table-Football Unit 4.0
The normal table-football unit in a bar has only one thing semi-spheres were white. To sort them later in a user-
in common with the one that dual-study trainees at Phoe- friendly way, they were coloured-in red, yellow, green and
nix Contact have built: you play on it in the old, established blue. The balls sintered in two halves were made to form
way – one person against another. one unit by a bayonet-mount, i. e. one section is inserted
into the other and they are turned in opposite directions.
Why approach an abstract topic from the viewpoint of play- However, in a test game these ball-halves broke apart. So
ing a game? What is the ‘thing’ referred to in the Internet of they were filled up with hot adhesive, fitted with an RFID
Things? “OK, consider the football in a table-football unit as tag, and glued shut. The second test was passed by the balls
this ‘thing’.” In essence, that was the instruction from Eugen and by the tags in the balls.
Heinrich, Head of the Study and Projects Group at Phoenix
Contact, on 11 March 2016. He was addressing around 30 The whole process took eleven hours – four hours of con-
trainees from the year-2015 intake on the dual-study pro- struction, two hours of preliminary heating, four hours of
gramme, who are currently working on the following train- cooling down and one hour of follow-up processing (pro-
eeships: information science; electrical engineering; busi- jecting beams at the balls, using glass spheres).
ness and engineering; business and information science;
and mechatronics engineering. The RFID tag makes each ball identifiable. The table-foot-
ball unit has a photoelectric barrier in both goals and an
This spontaneous idea of beaming today’s table-football RFID reader unit. This means that the course of the game
unit into tomorrow’s world quickly developed into an is recorded (the data is channeled into the background, to
ambitious initiative: the Table-Football Unit 4.0 was to be be stored in a database on the professional cloud. Each ball
operationally ready in three months, in time to mark the knows how long it was played, both per game and as an
opening of Phoenix Contact’s new training centre on 10 overall total (hours, minutes, seconds), by whom (Player 1,
June. A schedule was set-up and tasks were defined. The Player 2), and who scored how many goals with that ball.
students organised themselves into three teams.
Unlike a normal game of table-football, in ‘Kicker 4.0’-
kick-off does not come from the ball being introduced
Industrie 4.0 is about solving problems from the side; instead it is placed onto the centre-spot –
after it has been brought from inside a goal, using a lifting
This much was clear: if the ball was to be the ‘thing’, it device; from there, it comes into open play again.
needed to be identifiable. This is made possible by an RFID
Tag, a coded transponder – colloquially called a ‘radio-label’ What distinguishes Kicker 4.0 is firstly the ball and sec-
– with a code that a reader-unit recognises. The search for ondly ‘DAISy’ (Digital Automation Integrated System), a
table-football unit balls with pre-installed RFID tags in on­ sorting machine. The latter stores the balls and issues them
line shops was without success. The balls had to be manu- to the players, each of whom can steer at each ball and
factured in-house. select it in a targeted way, by means of a PC. Each player
can maintain their own set of statistics. The most success-
So take some polyamide powder, weld it to the right points ful players can also be shown – Max Meier, 105 games won,
by laser beam; This process is called lasersintering. These ratio of goals scored to goals conceded: 7-to-1.

Phoenix Contact at a glance

Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG is a company that provides components, systems and solutions for electrical engineering,
electronics and automation – in total more than 60,000 products. The family business, founded in 1923, employs 14,500 staff
worldwide and in 2015 it generated turnover of EUR 1.91 billion. Company headquarters is in Blomberg, in Germany’s Ost-
westfalen-Lippe region. The Phoenix Contact Group is comprised of twelve companies in Germany and more than 50 sales
companies throughout the world. According to its own information, the company is “familiar with the requirements that are
imposed by digitalisation, thanks to its experience gained in in-house mechanical-engineering operations, along the entire
product life-cycle.” Phoenix Contact is one of 25 core companies that form the top-level cluster called “Intelligent technical
systems – Ostwestfalen-Lippe” (it’s OWL), initiated by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
 17

Both playing screens also have two error-reports, shown

as soon as certain preconditions prompt them. The first
error-report appears if, during the game, the RFID reader
registers the presence of a ball other than the match-ball
currently in use. The report notifies the player that play
cannot continue until either the correct ball is registered
as being in play again or the ‘Stop’ button is pressed. The
other error-report appears if something passes through the
photoelectric barrier but the RFID reader does not register a
suitable input-signal.

In addition, the table-football unit can be operated using

This serves as an added-value for the player, the ‘Use Case’, a control-deck that has four keyboard-keys (‘Start’, ‘Stop’,
a system’s externally-visible behaviour from the user’s ‘Issue a new ball’, ‘Illumination_Switch-Cabinet’) and a grid
viewpoint. The registering of the data and the intelligent (‘Manual mode’).
data-management elevate traditional table-football into
the realm of 4.0.

From strip-format advertising through to

automatic stadium atmosphere

However, that does not say it all about the table-football

unit made by the Phoenix Contact’s dual-study trainees.
There is advertising placed onto strips; using magnets, the
mounting for the strips is attached on the plastic boards
surrounding the table-football unit’s interior; each strip
measures 100 x 33 millimeters. 32 strips were needed to
cover the pitch’s entire periphery. Equal to the task

One strip each was designed for each profession and each When the table-football unit was all set to play, shortly
dual-study course for which Phoenix Contact conducts a before the Training Centre was due to open, the last test –
traineeship. The photos used came from the picture data- the ‘full-operational rehearsal’ – was about to start when a
base in the intranet and were scaled into a 95 x 32 millime- plastic panel slid out of position. A great misfortune! A rush
ter format. of frantic activity – and the problem was able to be elimi-
nated in good time, “even if everyone was bathed in sweat”,
The floodlights consist of four spotlights with eight LEDs as Project Leader Norbert Wrede remarked. He noted that
each respectively. To create stadium atmosphere, Phoenix he had hardly ever experienced such a highly-motivated
Contact’s language-output element PSD-S AE V15/1 was project-team as the Kicker Team – “everyone was firmly
used. This stored 15 audio files, each able to be played indi- convinced that they’d do it.“
vidually. All sounds have special triggers, such as kick-off,
a referee’s-type ‘stop’ signal or a goal, and each provides Kicker 4.0 managed to reach the front-page of ‘Contact’, the
background audio suitable to the given situation. employee newspaper. However, the game is not yet suitable
for series production – “you would need very deep pock-
The two main menus only have the following points of dif- ets to make that happen”, says Eugen Heinrich. Neverthe-
ference: firstly, the game ends after a pre-set time period less, the toy is not sitting there gathering dust. “In 2017 the
(3 minutes and 20 minutes), and secondly after a certain Table-Football Unit 4.0 is at the Hannover fair on the ‘it’s
number of goals is scored (from 5 goals to 20 goals). Using OWL’ booth.” The idea is that, if the unit is not at a trade fair
the ‘Pause’ and ‘Stop’ buttons, the players can pause or end the apprentices and the dual-study trainees should be able to
the game. have a game with it.
18 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N

Siemens – The right methodology

for the future
Siemens is a leading international technology company The Industrie 4.0@SPE project
focusing on the fields of electrification, automation and
digitisation. The company has headquarters in Berlin and In order to develop the right vocational education, Siemens
Munich. set up a project called Industrie 4.0@SPE. The project
focused on analysing the changes taking place as part of
Owing to competition in the fields in which it works, the increasing digitisation of the world of work so that
Siemens constantly has to push towards shorter innova- vocational education content, teaching methods, and the
tion cycles, greater flexibility, and a more efficient use of knowledge and skills of instructors could be systematically
resources. Digitisation is a fundamental element of Sie- adapted to these needs.
mens’ corporate strategy. Given the fields in which the
company works, such as industrial automation, and given “The first thing we did was to think about what effects
the fact that it has around 300 production locations, Sie- Industrie 4.0 and digitisation has on us as a company. New
mens has already started to look intensively at trends like measures needed to be designed with the needs of our
Industrie 4.0. “The strategic focus of our work is on the company and Siemens vocational education in mind,” said
growth fields of electrification, automation, and digitisa- Kunz, describing the basic thoughts that the company had.
tion, so ensuring our vocational education is innovative “We started by building up a network that would allow us
and will prepare apprentices for the future is crucial to our to gather together information all about Industrie 4.0,” said
success,” says Christoph Kunz, Head of Portfolio Manage- Erik Engwer, Professional Training Instructor for Electri-
ment at Siemens Professional Education (SPE). “We need to cal Engineering and Head of Electrical Engineering at the
equip the next generation of Siemens employees with the Siemens Training Centre in Berlin. “This enabled us to gain
right skills at the right time.” With Siemens currently train- a picture of the future”. The project served to point up a
ing around 12,500 young people around the world (incl. range of key topics that needed to be covered in vocational
2,500 for a select list of external companies), this is a task education. These were: smart organisation and control for
that carries considerable responsibility. the entire value chain, flexible networking between peo-
ple, machines and products, comprehensive collection
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N 19

Insight from research – No. 2

Survey by Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)

Digital media are seldom used

Within companies‘ everyday vocational training work, digital media play a relatively minor role. This was the conclusion
of a representative survey among all respondent companies with at least one employee (with a good half of these being
companies that conduct formal vocational training), undertaken on behalf of the Federal Institute for Vocational Edu-
cation and Training (BIBB). Among the most important media formats used in training, the first four are classic formats:
tuition books and subject-specialist books; other written material; group work (face-to-face); and face-to-face tuition. It is
only after this that digital media come in – ‘subject-specialist software’ and ‘information offerings in the Internet’. A certain
role is still played by learning programmes (WBT or CBT); all other digital media are characterised as ‘fairly unimportant’
or indeed irrelevant.

Differences emerge between companies: in large firms, the classic media formats or learning formats respectively – pre-
senting a paper or a project, face-to-face tuition and group work – play a much greater role than in smaller firms.

It is primarily in the finance and insurance sectors that a lot of use is made of digital media, in addition to above-average
usage levels in (B2B) services close to companies. By contrast, such media are used to a below-average degree in training
for the manufacturing-technical sector and for craftspeople’s work.

Source: Gensicke, M. et al. Digitale Medien in Betrieben – heute und morgen. Eine repräsentative Bestandsanalyse (Digital Media in Companies – Today
and Tomorrow. A Representative Analysis of Current Status.) WDP 177. Bonn: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), 2016.

and analysis of data, combined with the aim of raising developed learning sequences. The learning sequences
efficiency and effectiveness and of unpicking the seams are designed to supplement existing vocational education
between the real and the virtual worlds. plans within the scope that is available under the compa-
ny’s vocational education regulations.
Building on the basis established in the project, a total of
25 digital skills were identified that are becoming more For Siemens, simply adapting the content of vocational
and more important as the process of digitising industry education was not enough. “Once the various topics have
becomes rooted ever more deeply (e. g. databases, security, been identified, the didactics and methodology used have
sensors). An analysis was then undertaken of 50 typical to be looked at accordingly,” says Kunz. The focus is placed
user cases in order to determine what processes, technol- on practical application of the training content in practice
ogies and roles are affected by the digitisation of industry. projects. Erik Engwer is proud of the ‘coffee machine pro-
For every one of the affected roles, the changes in needs in ject’ undertaken by his apprentices in Berlin: “There were
the 25 different areas in digitisation were identified. “Let’s just two conditions that we gave to the apprentices – the
take the role of Service Technician, for example,” says Kunz. project had to be presented in four weeks’ time, and an
“The analysis enabled us to see that that skills requirements individual production line had to be planned and created.”
in the areas of systemic thinking, network protocol, cloud Based on this, the apprentices decided to create a multi-
computing, and data analysis will increase enormously functional coffee machine with integrated sensors that
over the next few years.” Overall, Kunz sees a growing need use a Human Machine Interface (HMI) in order to select
to take an interdisciplinary approach, as well as seeing the the product. “The apprentices did everything themselves.
rising importance of IT skills. “The electrician of the future They started by brainstorming their particular idea. They
will only be 60 per cent electronics expert, but will be 20 then ordered some of the various elements they needed
per cent mechanic and 20 per cent IT expert,” says Kunz. and produced others themselves using 3D printing. The
This is why every member of staff at Siemens now receives apprentices undertook project management, documenta-
instruction in additive manufacturing and robotics as part tion processes and the final presentation in front of train-
of their vocational education. ing staff all by themselves”, says Engwer. The apprentices
demonstrated their dedication by even developing and
Training for the skills that will be needed in the future, programming an app which allows the coffee machine to
as pointed up by the analysis, are being covered by newly be controlled.
20 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N

The foundation stone has been laid Developing a clear idea of what’s needed

“We are right in the middle of a process,” says Kunz. “Before we start to create new education programmes,
“Adapting our vocational education to meet the needs of we first need to develop a clear idea of what the company
digitised production will definitely take some time still, actually needs,” says Christoph Kunz, Head of Portfolio
and we will need to keep reacting and responding to new Management at SPE and at other companies. He also said
developments as we go. But the foundation stone has been that it was important to consider what learning meth-
laid.” Siemens has identified 25 key digital skills and has ods should be used and how teaching staff could be best
analysed 50 typical applications of Industrie 4.0. Based equipped. Kunz added that vocational education 4.0 was
upon this, Siemens education experts have created a data- not the same as simply using new media and apps, saying
base which they have populated with around 20,000 entries that whilst the digitisation of learning was one element in
on digital skills. The experts have identified all of the rele- future-based vocational education programmes, it must be
vant changes to the skills that need to be taught in each of used with care and consideration. “In principle,” he said,
the Siemens Professional Education (SPE) training courses. “overhauling our vocational education can be seen as a
This work can now be used to further develop train- classic process of change: we have to get everyone on board
ing content. The education experts have also integrated – the apprentices and instructors alike – and the whole
amended learning methods, teaching material and training project needs to be supported by management, who have
for instructors and lecturers as part of the overall concept. to be clearly committed to these changes.”
The first learning sequences
to be developed – dealing
with topics such as 3D
printing, for example
– have already been
integrated into voca-
tional education
plans and been
used in practice.

Siemens at a glance
Siemens is a world-leading technology company focusing on electrification, automation and digitisation. The company has
headquarters in Berlin and Munich. Founded back in 1847, Siemens now employs 348,000 people across the world, of which
32,100 work in research and development. The company has a total of 114,000 members of staff in Germany. It has opera-
tions in more than 200 different countries and in 2015 recorded an annual turnover of €75.6 billion.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G 21

Examples from companies:

further training
22 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G

Bosch – Good training for everyone

at the company
have to meet new requirements in their work.” In the end,
the use of digital technology has made it possible to supply
the line in a much more flexible manner; instead of having
to hold fixed quantities of materials at the ready for each
machine, it is now possible to react quickly to the status
of production processes at all times. This is changing the
portfolio of tasks that staff have to undertake at the plant.
“Our staff need to use new technology”, says Lochbihler.
“In addition to this, their responsibility actually increases
because they have to take charge of the flexible filling of
the machines.” This applies especially to the plant man-
agers. They particularly have to step in and act whenever
there’s a standstill in or disruption to production. In cases
like these, mobile end devices that are networked together
enable global error location to be undertaken on identical
machines. The employee receives recommendations for
action via tablet and must evaluate each one. “In order to
master these tasks, staff need to apply network thinking
and to take responsibility for decision-making,” says Mr
Lochbihler. He said that it was important to train employ-
According to Dieter Lochbihler, Chairman of theme Works ees in this.
Council at Bosch Blaichach, the ever greater digitisation of
production has two sides to it. On the one hand, he says, At the Bosch plant in Blaichach, training modules are pro-
the changes are enormous; work and requirements are vided for all members of staff, irrespective of what their
being transformed at rapid speed, and new technology, particular role involves. These training modules are con-
such as tablets and smart watches, is being used in the stantly being further developed, are designed around the
factory halls, opening up new methods of production and needs of the particular group of staff to be trained, and can
making new forms of qualification a must. And on the be undertaken flexibly – ranging from short training vid-
other hand? eos on the basic principles of Industrie 4.0 or on how new
technical devices are used, to full-day seminars on how to
“On the other hand, Industrie 4.0 has to be explained to handle new systems or on specific methods for teamwork
staff in small steps,” he says. “What they need is systematic or management practices. The Works Council not only
training so that they are able to use and handle the new considers training important, but also communication. “It’s
technology and assistance systems.” Bosch is already doing about helping people to understand Industrie 4.0 and tak-
this. ing away any fears.” This involves using the monitors in the
staff rooms as well as the information boards on the pro-
Lochbihler says that just a year or two ago, there was duction floor. “We do not want to, and will not try to hold
much apprehension among the 3,400 staff at the factory in the digital transformation back,” says Lochbihler, “but if we
Blaichach. “Staff didn’t know what to expect and the only want to shape this transformation to get the very best out
thing they could see was that they were suddenly going to of it for our company, our staff need to be well-trained.”
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G 23

Tips for works councils – Dieter Lochbihler on using Industrie 4.0

About Dieter Lochbihler:

Dieter Lochbihler was born on 19 August 1968 in Gunzesried in Bavaria. After completing vocational educa-
tion as an electronics technician for energy, he later obtained the qualification of master craftsmen in electrical
engineering and became a training instructor. Mr Lochbihler has been a member the works council at Bosch
Blaichach since March 1994. He has had a seat on the general works council since May 2002 and has been
Chairman of the Works Council at Bosch Blaichach since 2003.

Is training on Industrie 4.0 essentially just the same as The change is going to be permanent – jobs will disappear,
any other kind of training? new ones will develop. Industrie 4.0 is not the portent of a
destructive revolution, but is an evolutionary process that
No; we have to take on new approaches here. Industrie 4.0
is taking place at rapid speed. It is a process that must be
is a much bigger number. We need to ensure we get every
discussed openly, with everyone, and be actively shaped bit
single person on board, which in our case means 3,300 dif-
by bit by the works councils and people in charge. We are
ferent people. We need to provide training for each and
making Industrie 4.0 something that can be experienced by
every person, no matter their job role, and to constantly
integrating the new technology into daily life. In our can-
develop the training we provide. Instruction might take
teen, for example, all of the plates are fitted with an RFID
the form of short training sessions at the production line
chip. When the plates pass over the counter, they are coded,
and videos on Industrie 4.0, or full-day seminars that look and the food can be paid for automatically, without the
at how to use new IT systems or at new methods for team- need to use cash. This shortens waiting times and makes
work or management practices. the lunch break longer! No one has lost their job and we
were actually able to extend the range of meals on offer.
Should the works council also take up the topic of
Industrie 4.0 itself? Will the strong hierarchy at the plant be compatible
Yes, definitely. Industrie 4.0 is ‘the’ topic of our future and with Industrie 4.0?
is turning the world of work on its head. It’s our job to play We need to redefine our management and cooperation
a part in shaping work conditions for our staff. structures and remain in dialogue with everyone involved.
The task of managing the plant is too important to be left
At some point, the employers and the works council will to management staff alone. Staff will be given the opportu-
meet to look at this issue for the first time. What is the nity to make decisions themselves. Nevertheless, the task of
most important decision that needs to be made in order to managing the company is, and will continue to be impor-
make a success of things? tant, but it needs to take place in an atmosphere of open-
The most important thing is to involve all members of ness and approachability.
staff in an open dialogue. We have a staff contact on each
side who is responsible for compiling and collating the key Can training on Industrie 4.0 be fun?
issues. Industrie 4.0 needs to be one of the primary areas of It has to be fun, otherwise we won’t be able to get the
focus in the work of the works council. There is a working processes actually implemented. You have to have get staff
group on Industrie 4.0 at our plant. But this is a topic that used to using them, bit by bit.
also needs to be discussed and coordinated by the more
superior bodies, as well as by the general works council. Young people are able to more readily embrace new
technology than the older generation. What can be done
It remains to be seen whether Industrie 4.0 actually to get them on board nonetheless?
creates more risks than opportunities, and whether it will
That’s an easy one to answer. One way is by ensuring
enhance work or will destroy jobs. How can employees’
mixed-age teams. It’s the mixture that’s important. The
fears of becoming the losers be assuaged?
younger members of staff who are very good at using the
This is a worry that’s been around for a while and we have equipment help the older ones who have greater experi-
been looking at it closely since the start of industrialisation. ence, so it’s beneficial for both sides.
24 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G

Training in the world of 4.0 – Siegfried Czock on initial and further training

About Siegfried Czock:

Siegfried Czock (psychology and business management degree) was born on September 11th 1958 in Afferde/Hamlin
in the North-West of Germany. He is married and has two children. Since 1987, Czock has held various positions in
the areas of personnel and training at Bosch. He is currently Head of Vocational Ecudation and Further Training for
the whole of Germany.

Is the kind of training designed to prepare staff for Industrie 4.0 is not only met with enthusiasm but also
Industrie 4.0 different from the vocational education different fears. How can fears among the employees be
and further training given in the past? assuaged?

Training on network-based production, or Industrie 4.0, Like with any process of change, Industrie 4.0 will call nor-
isn’t only about providing staff with technical knowledge mal routines into question and will replace them with pro-
and methodology. On top of IT skills, staff involved in this cesses that are new and unfamiliar. That’s why it’s impor-
kind of production also need process knowledge and excel- tant to start to address the questions and the concerns of
lent communicational skills. Networking changes normal staff early on. It’s crucial to take the fears of employees
work processes, so Industrie 4.0 should be seen as a process seriously and to integrate the process knowledge held by
of change that needs to be shaped together by everyone staff as the changes are made by enabling them to have
involved. That’s why it’s important to integrate the require- their say. So the process needs to be transparent and open.
ments for Industrie 4.0 into our corporate vocational edu- Staff and staff representatives should be involved from the
cation. very beginning. By coming alongside one another, it’s often
possible to move away from emotion-based fears towards
How should an employer respond if the works council informed judgements. The aim should be to turn man and
brings up this topic first? machine into a successful team.

The shift towards Industrie 4.0 is a great opportunity for Industrie 4.0 has a lot to do with open communication,
both sides. The process of change associated with this an exchange of knowledge, and teamwork. Will the
ought to be shaped by the employer and his employees strict hierarchy at the company be compatible with
together. So it’s not so important who approaches whom, Industrie 4.0?
but just that discussions like these happen as early as pos-
sible. And particularly when a company has in fact already Irrespective of the company hierarchy, the machines and
started to think about introducing Industrie 4.0 applica- products part of Industrie 4.0 will be connected and con-
tions in its work processes. tinuously exchange data with one another. Production spe-
cialists therefore often work in interdisciplinary projects.
At what point do you start to call the modernisation of This happens beyond the organisations’ boundaries, i. e. via
production and administration ‘Industrie 4.0’? networks. We therefore think that the management culture
in many companies will go on to develop and change. The
The core of Industrie 4.0 is the networking of facilities and question as to what kind of management structure is most
the new possibilities of expanded data gathering and eval- successful for a particular company depends on the kind of
uation for controlling production processes. It also fosters work being undertaken, and on the staff and the manage-
the development of new products and services. This tran- ment there.
sition from classic automation towards use of an Industrie
4.0 application is usually seamless.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G 25

Industrie 4.0 enables a company to be better placed.

Should the staff also share in these gains?

Organising how staff partake in their company’s success is

a general task undertaken by the social partners. The shift
towards Industrie 4.0 represents a gain for both sides. Not
only can they help simplify work processes, but they can
also play a part in raising competitiveness.

How can a company stir the interest of older members of

staff for Industrie 4.0; when are they already ‘past it?

Life-long learning is not a question of age. A key factor in

the success of the changes, however, is making these some-
thing that everyone can experience and partake of. The best
way is having staff be excited about the new technology
and having them recognise that the change in their work
or tasks will actually support them in their work.

Insight from research – No. 3

Federal Ministry of Labour

Ongoing vocational training – A must

The technological transition leaves nobody unaffected – not only the more highly qualified; two-thirds of workers at a
low qualification level also feel a need to constantly develop their own professional competences further. This is the result
of a study in 2015, in which more than 7,000 employees from almost 800 companies were surveyed about digitalisation’s
consequences for their work. In all, 78 per cent of the employees see the need to further develop their skills on an ongo-
ing basis. This is no surprise considering that, over the last five years, among 60 per cent of the less qualified and among
80 to 90 per cent of the more highly qualified, the primary factor generating changes in the technical equipment used at
their workplace has been information and communications technology. However, there are big differences between the
business sectors with regard to their use of digital technology. Manufacturing technology ranks among the front runners:
more than 80 per cent of the employees use computers, internet or a smartphone at their workplace.

Source: German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (publisher): Monitor („Digitalisierung am Arbeitsplatz. Aktuelle Ergebnisse einer Betriebs-
und Beschäftigtenbefragung“). Monitor (Digitalisation at the Workplace. Latest Results of a Survey among Companies and Employees). Berlin, 2016.
26 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G

Münstermann – Further training to order

Globalisation has radically changed vocational educa- ject planning. Supplier catalogues are increasingly used
tion and further training at Münstermann. And this has on-line. Digitised systems in the purchasing department
changed the culture in the company. permit automatic follow-up orders for material.

The introduction of new style further training at Münster-

mann followed a classical pattern: the change in the mar- Constant exchange of knowledge
ket environment changed the need for qualifications. One
example: when the first large order was received from the Training courses are held regularly, for example the annual
UK 20 years ago, communication with the new customer courses on health and safety at work and occasional
had to be in English, and regular training courses were held courses at the request of the employees on subjects rang-
from then on because not everyone at Münstermann was ing from materials to personal development. Training does
good enough at English. Now English lessons are held three not need to be solely vertical (subject-related), it can also
times a week with between eight and 18 employees who focus on other topics (horizontal). Further training is also
sacrifice their working hours (and can make up the time provided on the premises of customers or suppliers – and
beforehand or afterwards). Anyone who wants to can take in return, customers and suppliers send their employees to
part – from apprentices through to sales engineers. Münstermann.

The introduction to digitisation was also customer-driven. “To do justice to the various high demands of the custom-
Münstermann is not a mass production manufacturer, it ers, we ensure that we have a corporate culture in which all
develops special solutions together with its customers. If employees communicate with each other to exchange and
a customer has already introduced Industrie 4.0, Münster- develop their knowledge”, says Magdalena Münstermann,
mann reacts to that: In the past five years the number of who managed the company in the fifth generation together
employees in the measuring and control engineering sector with her husband. The company has now been taken over
has increased five-fold, i. e. it has risen from three to 18. by their son Frank, representing the sixth generation.

The Telgte-based family business is itself largely digitised. If Exchange of knowledge – this means not only an exchange
any faults arise on the customer’s premises, the machines between employees who work next door to each other,
and equipment are repaired by remote maintenance. Cus- it also includes an exchange of knowledge between the
tomers can follow the progress of current orders by web- administration, production, design and marketing depart-
cam. There are frequent world-wide web conferences with ments or between Purchasing and Sales. Communication
customers and suppliers, which saves everyone expensive takes place across departmental and subject-based bounda-
flights and a lot of time. ries. People are encouraged to express their own ideas.

But there is more. Error reports are submitted on-line. Not When a new order is due, after the kick-off meeting a
only current orders are visualised, this also applies to pro- meeting is then held every week which is attended by

Münstermann at a glance
From a smithy to a plant manufacturer: The family company Bernd Münstermann GmbH & Co. KG in Telgte near Münster
was founded in 1845 and is now in its in sixth generation. Since the turn of the millennium the company has developed
to become a globally operating industrial company. The 260 employees design and produce specially designed plant and
machinery with a special emphasis on drying systems and conveyor and dust extraction systems for industry. Münstermann
presents itself to the market as an all-round supplier of drying and heat treatment systems, including the associated con-
veyor and filter systems. In Germany, throughout Europe and sometimes even in Russia and Saudi-Arabia. The products are
usually customer-specific individual solutions. 60 to 80 per cent of the products are exported throughout the world.

The company is active in the German Plant and Machine Engineering Federation (VDMA) and belongs to the Metalwork-
ing Employers’ Federation in North Rhine Westphalia. The company does not have a works council, but it has an employee
representative board.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G 27

all participants to compile and update an Excel list (who

does what, by when?). On reason for this open dialogue is
that every employee has plenty of experience and special
knowledge, and if this is shared it will “lead to new ideas
and creative solutions”, says Magdalena Münstermann. “We
can only solve problems together if we know each other
and know about each other.” The knowledge that is neces-
sary today is contained in many heads, it cannot exist com-
pletely in one head.

And a high general level of knowledge makes fast decisions

possible; power-based knowledge makes them more difficult.
When apprentices successfully qualify, they are usually
The hierarchy at Münstermann is shallow and flexible. taken over as permanent employees; some obtain further
Supervisors and managers should provide a stimulus, moti- qualifications by in-service training, e. g. as qualified tech-
vate their staff, delegate responsibility and not just tasks; in nicians.
any conflict they make the decisions. When one project has
been completed and new project is not yet due, the former
project manager can become a regular member of another Arouse interest at an early stage
team.
To promote the interest of young people in the world
Staff fluctuation in the company is almost non-existent; the of work, Münstermann offers trainee placements. They
average age the staff is about 41. That is roughly average. take one to two weeks. Up to six pupils can get to know
the practicalities of work in the company at the same
time. They are integrated into a specialist working group
The company’s own metalworkers in training and involved in processing orders. Every two days they
change to another specialist group and get to know dif-
Each year, Münstermann trains six to eight metalworkers ferent employees, different working procedures and dif-
(specialised in design engineering) and technical product ferent orders. They also get to know the work of a prod-
designers. The latter also learn to use 3D printing. A spe- uct designer, although very few of them can operate the
cially installed 3D printer enables them to get to know necessary software. So that they can draw in spite of this,
the latest technology at an early stage. This even encour- apprentices have compiled a video which explains the
ages older employees to get to know this technology. “All operation of the design software by screen capture and
employees, both apprentices and others, must learn to contains exercises.
‘think in 4.0’”, says Magdalena Münstermann.
More than three dozen pupils go through this sort of prac-
In the selection of apprentices, the company does not apply tical session in the company each year. To ensure that this
the principle of selection by achievements, it accepts can- system is not limited to Münstermann, Magdalena Münster­
didates from all types of school, from special school pupils mann initiated the “Telgte model”; it promotes cooperation
through to candidates with the Abitur qualification which between schools and businesses (www.telgter-modell.de).
entitles them to enter higher education. The company also
offers candidates the opportunity of a dual course of study: Magdalena Münstermann believes that the company’s
they can study mechanical engineering at the University of culture is fundamentally transferable. But open communi-
Applied Sciences Münster-Steinfurt. Münstermann coop- cation, curiosity and enthusiasm cannot be enforced, they
erates with this university and with other higher education must be shown by example so that young people can expe-
institutions. rience them. By supervisors and by the management.

Every apprentice participates at least once in a four-week

practical placement abroad to promote inter-cultural com-
petence.
28 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G

SAP – Individual qualification by

cloud-based learning
Digital transformation is a challenge even for a success- in job adverts in the software development sector. In
ful global software company such as SAP. Especially the addition, a poll was carried out amongst the company’s
growth of cloud concepts leads to disruptive changes internal thought leaders on future technologies that are
in the business software market and creates a variety of relevant to SAP.
new requirements for business models, organisations and
employees. Starting from the structures that have devel- 2. The planning and implementation of further training:
oped up to now, SAP therefore uses the in-memory data- SAP uses the cloud-based learning platform “Success
base and development platform HANA to work on the Map Learning”, which is also part of the SAP product
migration of existing software solutions to the cloud and portfolio. This platform makes it possible to prepare
new cloud-based services – or to the areas of ‘Big Data’ and individual “Learning Roadmaps”. The Roadmaps may
the ‘Internet of Things’. include both general areas of competence such as lead-
ership and specific technical topics such as data science.
The global Early Talent manager of SAP SE, Markus Bell, The specific parts of the courses are assembled on the
says: “To fulfil these new requirements, we endeavour to modular principle from over 35,000 learning opportu-
attract people who are specialised in the latest technol- nities in annual development discussions with the rele-
ogy, and we recruit the best talents from the generation of vant manager. All employees can also access the learning
digital natives. Especially in established locations with an platform via mobile devices, view their own learning
organically developed age structure like Germany, however, history and come together in learning groups. Manag-
we ensure that all employees are offered a systematic fur- ers can recommend specific learning modules to their
ther training strategy which will continuously qualify them employees on the platform and view the learning pro-
for the new requirements.” gress of their team.

“We see a special demand in three core competence 3. Evaluation: Each course and instructor can be evaluated
areas”, says Markus Bell. The first competence area com- on the platform by the persons who have completed the
prises knowledge and skills in using new technology. This course. In addition, the further training programme is
includes knowledge in the use of central cloud technolo- also evaluated in the annual staff survey which is used as
gies or abilities in using Big Data. The second competence a basis to compile central indices for the development of
area focuses on questions related to modern project work the further training.
in a team: how can time and project management and
communication in the team be effectively organised? And Susanne Müller now works in the HR University in the
the third area is the knowledge of the SAP world. What is Walldorf headquarters of SAP. When she started with SAP,
the corporate strategy? What products are in the SAP port- she took part in the “HR Early Talent Program”, which was
folio? What security and compliance requirements apply? designed for selected new employees with less than two
years of work experience. Training courses using Success
Map Learning were an integral element of the support pro-
The learning platform Success Map Learning gramme.

SAP’s annual budget for further training underlines the

importance that in-service qualifications enjoy in the com-
pany – SAP now invests 140 million euros per year. SAP
sees itself as a company that is in a permanent learning SAP at a glance
process. Further training is therefore very strongly embed- The German IT company SAP is specialised in business
ded in the everyday work setting. Based on this, SAP has software and the world market leader in this area. The
developed a further training concept that consists of three relatively recent company (founded in 1972) is now repre-
central steps: sented by branches in 130 countries. Most of the approxi-
mately 77,000 employees are academics (80 per cent). The
1. Determining the qualification needs: For example, Walldorf-based software giant achieved an annual turno-
the development organisation evaluated the needs of ver of 20.8 billion EUR in 2015.
central competitors and partners and the requirements
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G 29

Susanne Müller was particularly impressed by two virtual the employees also confirmed that the learning and devel-
training units. “One unit presented the SAP product portfo- opment opportunities fitted in with their own career goals.
lio. The trainer drew the complex SAP portfolio very clearly
on a digital board and added an oral commentary. In addi-
tion, as participants we could ask questions and exchange Low entry threshold and direct practical
opinions at any time via a chat window”, she recalls. “I relevance
found the use of the method very effective, and after the
unit I contacted the instructor directly with an applica- “Motivation is the central element for successful further
tion-related question.” Networking teachers and learners – training and for learning in general”, comments Markus
bilaterally or in theme-based communities – is possible on Bell on the basis of many years of experience. “Here, we
the platforms and is explicitly encouraged. must create an organisational framework for the employ-
ees so that they can enjoy learning and not feel that it is a
The second unit which Susanne Müller talks about aimed burden. The flexibility of the training programme is there-
to teach how to communicate effectively with supervisors fore a key to success in two ways.” Firstly, Markus Bell says
and executives. “Some months after this unit I had a pres- that flexible access to the courses – including access from
entation to the Human Resources director. I looked back mobile devices – is important. And secondly, he says that
at the recording of the unit on the learning platform and the courses must be able to be flexibly adapted to individ-
took the advice to heart: keep sentences short, put the most ual needs and individual learning behaviour.
important points first. That was very helpful.”
In addition, the direct practical relevant of the teaching
When Susanne Müller herself sees a need for training, she content and the social dimension of the learning expe-
can use the search function on Success Map Learning to rience are very important for a successful learning pro-
find an appropriate course. “There are mandatory courses, cess. Practical relevance is assured by learning on the job.
for example on IT security, which we must complete within The way learning takes place at SAP also reflects the social
a certain time. In addition, I can also take courses on my dimension: under the slogan “Everybody is a teacher,
own initiative, and they are even automatically added to everybody is a learner”, employees can switch flexibly
my Outlook calendar.” The next course she wants to take is between the roles of instructor, mentor and participant,
on gamification. and can thus help each other to succeed in their learning.
In addition, social competence also features in the teach-
ing content, which is shown by the second core compe-
The employees feel supported tence area with subjects like communication and working
in a team.
“The learning platform Success Map Learning and the
training opportunities as a whole are intensively used and And finally, the systematic collection and integration of
positively regarded by the employees”, concludes Markus employee feedback via the cloud-based learning platform is
Bell, and he can support this statement by solid figures: In a key condition for the continuous and sustainable devel-
the annual world-wide employee survey in 2015, 74 percent opment of the further training programme.
of the more than 54,000 respondents stated that over the
last 12 months they had been able to use opportunities to
improve their abilities and their competence. 75 percent of
30 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G

Project APPsist – Learning in the working

process with an assistance system
Learning on a tablet – that sounds like time after work on this gave the engineers and software specialists “several
the settee, but the idea is really implemented by Festo in its new perspectives and insights”.
plant at St. Ingbert-Rohrbach in Saarland. The factory has
2300 employees and manufactures pneumatic cylinders. On the tablet, information about the remediation of
Tablets will be used in production in future. An assistance machine errors is displayed and communicated step
system – APPsist – runs on these tablets. by step. In addition to the explanatory text, short video
sequences show how some working tasks can be com-
APPsist is an artificial word made up of app (APPlication) pleted. These are tasks which the employees have not
and asSISTance. The research project of the same name carried out previously. The system guides employees
began in January 2014 and is due to end in December 2016. through the maintenance process step by step – without
The goal of the project is that employees in assembly work- test and check lists on paper. When the employees have
places can in future take over more complex tasks with grasped the new steps in the working process, they can skip
the aid of intelligent software based assistance and knowl­ individual explanations or the whole assistance system.
edge systems. The systems are capable of learning, use On request, the instruction films also provide background
artificial intelligence and offer exactly the support which knowledge about the product.
the employees need. It is clear that the use of systems like
APPsist requires the agreement of the workforce. Section On the partly automated U-shaped assembly line where
87 (1) sentence 6 of the German Works Constitution Act the assistance system is being tested, three employees are
specifies that the participation of the workforce is required assembling pneumatic cylinders. Their work is enhanced by
for the “introduction and application of technical facilities APPsist, and new tasks are added. For example, the system
which are designed to monitor the conduct or performance gives the employees instructions to remedy small errors,
of the employees”. e. g. when the system gives the error message “Action nec-
essary: change grease drum”.
The Festo works council member Carsten Kemmer reports
that the staff had no fears or reservations about APPsist. “The assistance system was very well accepted by the
In his opinion, it was “of decisive importance” that the employees, they liked testing it”, says the Festo works
employees were involved from the outset and that their council member Kemmer. No wonder – they helped to
suggested improvements were accepted and implemented develop it. “In the evaluation meetings, the front-end was
by the experts. According to Kemmer, the cooperation constantly improved by employee input.” This inspired the
between scientists, members of the works council and programmers. Initially, the works council had to remind
company representatives was “very fruitful”. He says that the project partners again and again “that it is people who
will have to work with the product”. Thus, the initial data
collection frenzy of the external experts was reduced to a
minimum. An agreement was reached with the company to
ensure the protection of data.

Data glasses were initially discussed in connection with

the selection of APPsist hardware. But there is very lit-
tle information available about the health effects of such
augmented reality glasses, so the misgivings of the works
council prevailed and the employees now use tablets. The
fact that APPsist can be used not only for work, but also
for learning, is a factor that “everyone sees as positive”, says
Kemmer. It must be decided where and for how long the
new learning opportunities can be used in the company.
It is even possible that APPsist will make itself superfluous.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G 31

This could happen when an employee has a command of

the processes, i. e. the teaching function has been successful.
Insight from research – No. 4
Prof. Dr. Christoph Igel of the German Research Center for
Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) also considers that the project
has been successful so far and offers great opportunities. World Economic Forum
In his opinion, the assistance system is also a new venture
from a scientific perspective. He says that the system marks Further training – the royal road
the development of a knowledge service for real-time
learning on the shop floor which calls on machine and The main demands placed on the employees will
plant data and uses methods of artificial intelligence. “This change over the next five years. This applies both to
makes a new dimension of individualisation in workplace competence areas of a cognitive, social and personal
training possible for the first time.” nature, ranging from independent learning to creativity,
and to basic and advanced IT knowledge and abilities.
What are the next steps of digitisation in the Festo factory But the extent of the changes will vary depending on
in Rohrbach, and what can other works councils learn from the line of business and the company involved. This was
this example? “The early involvement of the works council the result of a 2015 survey of personnel managers in the
and the employees is essential”, says Carsten Kemmer. But world’s largest companies in seven branches of indus-
he has learned that genuine participation costs a great deal try, ranging from automotive to energy.
of time. Initially, her recalls that only one member of the
works council was responsible for the APPsist project, but Extending and improving the qualifications of the
that five works council members are now responsible for existing workforce is therefore the most important
Industrie 4.0. “There are now already two other ongoing employment strategy – in all sectors and branches of
projects in the factory which we are involved in.” industry. Because the speed of change will increase and
the possibility of “disruptive”, in other words revolu-
At the Hannover Messe in April 2016 the project results tionary technology cannot be excluded, the importance
were presented on a linked automatic assembly line; trade of further training will increase significantly in almost
fair visitors could test the state of development of the all companies.
APPsist system for themselves. All functions and elements
could already be experienced “and were positively received This is the conclusion reached by the World Economic
by all” according to a statement by the Project Systems Forum: further vocational training and instruction for
department at the Ruhr University of Bochum, which was employees is regarded everywhere as the prime means
another partner in the research project. to cope with digital change.

The latest status report of September 2016 reads as follows: Source: World Economic Forum (ed.) (2016) The Future of Jobs,
“The following procedural model has proved itself success­ Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial
ful. Firstly, all necessary steps for the implementation of Revolution. Cologny/Geneva: WEF.
a process were determined in an expert workshop. (...)
(Then), in a second step, the process must be optimised in
a dialogue of experts to generate a best-practice approach.
This must especially take into account the intended target
group ... Before the process can be used in the real environ-
ment, it is also essential to test it in an evaluation meeting
with experts and also shop floor workers (= employees in
production) to make the final adjustments to the content
which is shown.”
32 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : F U RT H E R T R A I N I N G

mits this message directly to the machine operator’s tablet,

data glasses or smartwatch. He in turn goes to the machine,
logs in to the system and receives instructions to remedy
the error, which he works through step by step. This ena-
bles him to get the machine going again relatively quickly
on his own – without any maintenance staff.

APPsist adapts to the user and the situation and gives

priority to the best solutions. If the operator cannot solve
the problem on his own, he can use the tablet to contact
This is APPsist experts by phone or e-mail. At the same time the system
provides background knowledge, in other words further
The project “APPsist – Intelligent Assistance and Knowl- training in the workplace. The individual knowledge struc-
edge Services in Smart Production” is one of 14 collabora- ture and learning success are documented and can be cer-
tive projects which are subsidised by the Federal Ministry tified.
for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in its technology
programme “Autonomic Systems for Industrie 4.0”. The
project partners – business companies, research institutes, Who is involved in the project?
higher education institutions and interest groups – develop
prototypes of intelligent, software based assistance and The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
knowledge systems which support employees in their (DFKI), which has sites in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken,
interaction with machines or plant by using the meth- Bremen and Berlin, says that it is “the leading Germany
ods of artificial intelligence. The project also deals with research institute” in the field of innovative software tech-
work organisation questions and economic issues which nology. In the international scientific community the DFKI
can arise in connection with the introduction of this new is regarded as one of the most important “centres of excel-
generation of mobile, context-sensitive, intelligent and lence”, and in terms of the number of employees and the
adaptive assistance systems which provide knowledge and volume of external funding it is currently the world’s larg-
action support in production. Employees, works councils est research centre in the field of artificial intelligence and
and the trade union IG Metall were involved in the project its applications.
from the outset.
Festo AG & Co. KG is a group of companies in the field of
control and automation technology with its headquarters
How APPsist works in Esslingen by the river Neckar. The company claims to be
the “global leader” in automation technology and in tech-
A typical situation in production: a machine stops work- nical apprenticeships and further vocational training. Its
ing, a light turns red and shows the plant operator that an aim is to offer its customers maximum productivity and
error has occurred. The plant operator goes to the machine, competitiveness in factory and process automation.
determines that the error code is XYZ, looks this in the
manual to find out what the error is (XYZ = Component The industry partners of the APPsist project, in addition to
not recognised) and calls the maintenance staff to ask for Festo, are Fertigungstechnik GmbH and Brabant & Lehnert
help. The fact is that this leads to long stoppages and high Werkzeug und Vorrichtungsbau GmbH. The development
costs because two employees are involved in solving the partners are the DFKI, the Festo training centre, Fraunhofer
problem. IAO, the Ruhr University of Bochum (RUB) and the joint
working group of RUB and the IG Metall trade union.
In the world of tomorrow it works like this: The machine
sends the error code to APPsist. The assistance system For more information: www.appsist.de
translates the code “Component not recognised” and trans-
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K 33

Examples from companies:

changes to how
people work
34 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K

Company map for Industrie 4.0 and Work 4.0

– seismograph and navigation system
The fourth industrial revolution is arriving on tiptoe. In and workplace stress changed? What opportunities can be
some companies it is already far advanced, in others it is harnessed, what risks should be avoided?
just starting or is still a complete mystery. To clarify things,
there is a company map for Industrie 4.0 and Work 4.0. Works councils that want to exert their influence require
a good overview. Has Industrie 4.0 already started in your
First there was the steam machine which revolutionised company? If so, where and to what extent? With what
production, and it was followed by electricity and informa- effect on the number and quality of jobs?
tion technology. Now we are facing the fourth industrial
revolution with Industrie 4.0. In theory we can describe it
very precisely. Industrie 4.0 stands for networked and dig- The map provides guidance
itised production: Raw materials, machines and employees,
manufacturers, suppliers and customers communicate with To document the scenarios for the design of future work
each other, and control each other. Industrie 4.0 permits environment, the company map for map for Industrie 4.0
the implementation the individual customer wishes under and Work 4.0 is an illustrated instrument to help you to
the conditions of mass production – and is nevertheless answer these questions. The company map was tested in
cost-effective. Networking and digitisation allow highly connection with company change processes by the Dort-
flexible production with decentralised control. mund consulting company SUSTAIN CONSULT, then
developed further in collaboration with IG Metall North
What effect to these changes have on the employees? Rhine-Westphalia to take digitisation and networking into
How are working processes, qualification requirements account.

Illustration 4: Company map: Industrie 4.0 and Work 4.0

Electricians Administration

9 empl 58 empl

Assembly Verpackung
E-shop

88 empl MA 15 |
9 empl 67%

Servicing In-house
sales staff
15 empl 77 empl

Mechanical Job
processing preparation
77 empl 12 empl

Degree of networking
Effects of Industrie 4.0 Positive Negative Neutral empl. = employees
No networking – In each Inter- With external
stand alone department departmental companies
Workplaces Quality of the work Working conditions
Degree of self-controlling technology Set-up / dismantling Enhancement or Improvement or Organisationsgrad
devaluation (e.g. job deterioration (e.g. der IG Metall
Decision support Decision- Process: Partly Process: Fully
status; qualifications) stress, working hours)
(information) making aids self-controlling self-controlling

Source: Project “Arbeit 2020” (Work 2020) IG Metall North

 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K 35

The company map provides several benefits for members

of the works council. It gives them a general overview. They
can inform the employees systematically and enable them
to participate. And they are well prepared for negotiations
with the management to influence the Work 4.0 process in
the interest of the employees.

Depending on the size of the company, the company map

It helps to identify fundamental changes in the company. It can be drawn up in two to four all-day workshops in the
allows the systematic guidance and it indicates where there company.
could be a need for action.
At Trilux in Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, the com-
In each functional area of a company – i. e. areas such as pany and the works council have already worked with it.
development, job preparation, production, financial over- The Work 2020 project of the IG Metall – which the com-
sight, maintenance, logistics and sales – colours can be pany map is part of – has created “a very specific contribu-
used to show the degree of networking and self-controlling tion to transparency”, says Trilux manager Johannes Huxol.
that exists there. Different shades of blue on a four-level He considers this important “because all the employees
horizontal scale show whether networking actually exists, need to understand and support this development – that
whether it is only present in this functional area, whether is the only way we can be successful”. The works coun-
it crosses department or site boundaries or whether it cil chairman Thomas Bause also emphasises the practical
even exists with external companies. A second scale with benefits of the company map. Now, he says, “the issues
different shades of orange visualises the degree to which involved in designing the system become clear”.
components are controlled by technical systems. Does the
technical equipment support the decisions of the employ- The works council chairman of Achenbach Buschhütten in
ees, does it provide decision-making aids, does it partly or Kreuztal near Siegen, Daniel Wollny, also praises the project
completely control and guide the processes? and says that the company map achieves much: “A com-
plete change of mood is now taking place”, he says. “Indus-
And what effect does all this have on the working situa- trie 4.0 suddenly becomes tangible. We can see what it has
tion of the employees? Are jobs created or reduced? Are the to do with us. We notice that it involves processes that we
requirements increased or reduced, is the value of the work can influence ourselves, processes that directly affect our
enhanced or devalued? What about the working conditions working environment.”
(work load, work intensity and working hours): are they
improved or worsened? Each of these factors – employment
trends, work requirements and working conditions – is Industrie 4.0, a social project
visualised with a pictogram. These development trends are
marked by different colours: Red: negative development, Industrie 4.0 is not just a technical project, it is also a social
Green: positive, Grey: neutral, Red/green: no clear develop- project. Therefore, the trade union IG Metall has been
ment. involved since 2012, helping to develop the world of work
for tomorrow. In North Rhine Westphalia the Work 2020
project is regarded as a pilot project of the “Alliance for the
Assistance for works council members Economy and Work 4.0” sponsored by the federal state gov-
ernment in North Rhine-Westphalia. One thing is clear: “We
Just as a seismograph gives a warning of an earthquake, the need to face up to the change in the world of work, to learn
company map shows whether and to what extent elements together and act together. This will enable us to ensure that
of Industrie 4.0 are already operating in the company. digitisation is carried out in the interest of the workforce.”
At the same time it is a navigating system, says Thomas Otherwise, the IG Metall chairman Jörg Hofmann says that
Gebauer of Sustain Consult: “The members of the works “digitisation would be a project for companies which other-
council can see at an early stage what they must do.” wise would focus exclusively on rationalisation.” 
36 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K

KUKA – Agile development for engineers

KUKA AG is one of the world’s leading automation com- is becoming more and more important in the automation
panies. It is a global technology company which offers sector. KUKA therefore uses agile development methods.
one-stop solutions to its customers from different sectors This means that instead of extensively designed develop-
of industry, from automotive to electronics, from cells and ment processes which are planned in detail from the out-
individual components such as robots to fully automated set, KUKA uses short and fast development intervals based
plant equipment. The trend towards intelligent digital fac- on the Scrum model.
tories and flexible production concepts creates challenges
for KUKA, because development cycles are becoming ever The development is carried out in iterative work intervals,
shorter in the dynamic area of industrial production. known as “Sprints”, which last between two and four weeks
and build on each other. After each Sprint the development
The rapid development means that new employee qual- team presents the progress of the work to other project
ifications are necessary, and this in turn requires a new participants, such as the pilot customer. The results are
organisation of working procedures – and innovation tested and discussed. If it becomes apparent that the devel-
processes. “Employees from our locations in Austin, Augs- opment is moving in a wrong direction, or if there are new
burg, Budapest and Shanghai jointly develop new high- insights about other necessary steps, the work content for
tech products via digital working platforms”, says Silvia the next Sprint is assigned new priorities. The presentation
Buchinger, KUKA’s corporate personnel HR manager. of the results, the short cycles and the dynamic changes
“Designing such complex processes efficiently is crucially in priorities should enable any problems to be recognised
important for our company.” and solved at an early stage. This means that products can
be ready for the market sooner. The Scrum method there-
fore aims to achieve faster and less expensive development
Development by the Scrum model of high quality products and a stronger focus on the cus-
tomer. Often the customer is already involved even in the
Innovation cycles are constantly becoming shorter, the development phase.
project requirements are increasingly volatile and software
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K 37

20 Scrum masters involved

“Currently there are 20 certified Scrum masters working

at KUKA to bring change into the company”, says Silvia
Buchinger to sum up the initial success in the transition.
“New products are already being developed with the Scrum
method, and the transition to this method is already provid-
ing the first high quality results.”

“Development projects are very complex”, explains Silvia

Buchinger. “Therefore, it is not possible to create a mas- Change is only possible in a dialogue
terplan at the start of the development process which will
underlie the whole development. Often, a significant part A comprehensive change process such as the introduction
of the requirements and the possible solutions is not yet of a new product development model in a highly inno-
known at the beginning. These uncertainties can only be vative company must be supported and modelled by the
overcome in the course of the process on the basis of the management. Close cooperation between the manage-
interim results”, she continues. “In Scrum, the development ment, personnel departmentHR and works council helps
and planning is carried out in small steps in self-organised to take different perspectives into account at an early stage
teams. A detailed plan can always thereby only be made for and thus to achieve long-term success. The way in which
the next Sprint, i. e. the next two to four weeks develop- Scrum is introduced is a decisive factor for the success and
ment phase”, explains Buchinger. “If 400 developers have to acceptance of the method in the development teams. It is
develop by the Scrum method, they must be supported by a important to help the development teams to understand
sustainable internal further training concept, and this must which why this method is being used and also to support
be put into practice in the everyday life of the company.” the employees in developing agile ways of thinking. A pro-
cess cannot simply be imposed, it must be appropriately fol-
“KUKA’s background is in the classical mechanical engi- lowed through. The acceptance and introduction of the new
neering sector, so we have drawn inspiration on agile project structure in the workforce can vary widely. “Soft-
development methods from various software manufactur- ware developers are familiar with Scrum, but others still
ers”, Buchinger adds. In its software development, KUKA have to learn to work with agile methods”, says Buchinger.
has worked with the Scrum model for some time. Now it is “It is important that the management reacts sensitively to
rolling out this method to other development areas. any friction and that it is is also openly discussed even at
team meetings.” Another important element of the method
To this end and with the support of an external service is the retrospective meeting that is held after each Sprint in
provider, it has trained employees as certified Scrum mas- which the team, with the support of a Scrum master, anal-
ters. Scrum masters play a central role in agile develop- yses what has gone well, what has gone less well and what
ment. They are “serving” leaders for the development team. changes should be focused on to ensure that problems do
They do not give procedural instructions to individual not recur in the next Sprint.
team members, they monitor and support the develop-
ment process and ensure that the principles of the method
are adhered to. They hold regular daily working meetings KUKA AG at a glance
(10 – 20 minutes), ensure a constant flow of information KUKA AG is a global automation company which offers
between the members of the development groups and customers from very different sectors world-wide solu-
obtain support from outside the team if necessary. tions for their production. The company was founded in
1898. Today, KUKA has 12,300 employees and achieves an
The management, personnel HR department, personnel annual turnover of 3 billion EUR. It has its headquarters in
HR development and works council all participated in the Augsburg with subsidiaries on all five continents.
implementation of the Scrum method.
38 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K

Insight from research – No. 5

Study by the University of Hohenheim

We can manage Industrie 4.0

“Do we have sufficient competence today to shape Industrie 4.0?” This question was studied by researchers at the Univer-
sity of Hohenheim in Stuttgart. They calculated a working ability index, which they called the “AV index”. The AV index
determines work requirements which arise due to complexity and uncertainties. It is based on an evaluation of a survey of
20,000 employed persons by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and the Federal Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA).

Important results:

• The distinction between routine tasks (that can be automated) and non-routine tasks (that cannot be automated) is not
suitable. It does not do justice to the actual work in industry, the qualification structure or the dual vocational educa-
tion system.

• Especially in automated or digitised working environments, the comprehensive personal experience of the employees is
indispensable to be able to deal with the complexity and uncertainty of work situations.

• Today, 71 per cent of all employees already have an AV index value of above 0.50. That means that they can cope with
complexity. Only 19.7 per cent of employees have an AV-index value of 0 – no complexity.

• In the production-based careers which are especially relevant for Industrie 4.0, above-average AV index values were
reached. The highest results were in core IT careers, followed by technicians and engineers. Then came metalworking
trades (for example industrial mechanics).

The study’s conclusion was that a large proportion of employees are fit for the transition to Industrie 4.0.

Pfeiffer, S., Suphan, A.: Der Mensch kann Industrie 4.0. Kurzfassung (People ready for Industrie 4.0. Short version). University of Hohenheim, dept. of
Sociology, 2015.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K 39

Insight from research – No. 6

Elias research project

How workplace-based learning works

New concepts and approaches to the design of modern work and production systems to encourage learning are the goal
of ELIAS, a collaborative project of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The abbreviation ELIAS stands
for “Engineering and Mainstreaming of Learning-based Industrial Work Systems for Industrie 4.0”. It is decisive to begin at
an early stage: from the start of the process of developing technical systems, possible systems to enhance learning should
be taken into account and planned which facilitate learning during the work process and the acquisition and preservation
of competence throughout the employee’s life and career. In the project, a model for the design of company learning solu-
tions was developed for work-based learning. There is also an available catalogue of instruments and forms of learning:
“Arbeitsorientierte Lernlösungen für industrielle Arbeitssysteme: Lernen für die Arbeit” (Work-based learning solutions
for industrial work systems. Learning for work) (http://bit.ly/2cYWrFX). These “learning solutions” are being tested in prac-
tice, for example, by the medium-sized enterprise Zwiesel Kristallglas in the course of the transition from Industrie 3.0 to
Industrie 4.0.

Principles
Society Politics • Industrie 4.0 as cyber-physical and social systems
Engineering
• Promotion of learning for competitive and production capability
• Promotion of learning as an engineering task
Ramp-up ELIAS Planning • Promotion of learning as a mainstreaming task

Methods
Principles
• Interdisciplinary and design-based approach
Technology

• Learning factory with work systems and demonstration units

Man

Introduction Methods Development • Integration of work design and competence development

Tools

Tools
Implementation Design • ELIAS planning tool for work systems
Organisation
• Module catalogues for ELIAS methods and technology
• Use of simulation and scenario technology
Mainstreaming
Economy Technology

Source: http://projekte.fir.de/elias
40 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K

Software AG – The learning organisation is

serving as a model
Any company that wants to stay in business in the age of The method of design thinking
Industrie 4.0 needs not only innovative partners, but if
you ask Dr Peter Dern, Head of Corporate University at Design thinking was originally a method used by designers
Software AG, “it also an innovative training strategy”. to develop brand new products expressly designed around
the needs of the user. It has since become a way of organ-
Given that those companies who develop high-tech want ising thought processes used by management – another
to stay ahead of the competition, they are “a hundred per way of asking the question as to how we learn and how we
cent customer-focused”, says Dern. He cites this as being want to work. Design thinking enables new and surprising
the reason why a core focus of corporate training is placed forms of creative cooperation to develop. Pooling the ideas
on the development and fostering of soft skills and skills of a heterogeneous group of people is a key concept here.
in methodology. He believes that learning organisations, in When it comes to problem-solving and developing new
which constant learning is normal, should serve as models, ideas, an interdisciplinary team is more than just the sum
since an approach like this is analogous to the permanent of its members.
process of digitising work processes.
The process aims at bringing together as many different
A learning organisation is a system that is in constant opinions, sets of experience, and ideas as possible in order
movement. The findings made serve as a starting point for to solve a particular problem. The process is based around
adapting development processes such that the knowledge the work of designers and consists of six different steps:
bases and scope for action stay in line with requirements.
This means that the organisation has to be open and indi- • Understanding the problem.
vidual; not only able to be creative in its problem-solving,
but also fostering creativity of approach. • Observing, researching and generating findings in order
to describe the status quo.
So what is needed?
• Breaking down the observations into one prototype
• Orientation towards actual benefits for the customer. user.

• Ability to cooperate and solve conflicts; mutual trust • Developing ideas: Using creative techniques, such as
and team spirit. brainstorming, brainwriting, or pre-mortem (“Imagine
the situation in a year’s time, assuming that a disaster
• Process orientation and self-regulation in the group. has occurred”).

• A democratic style of leadership that invites participation. • Prototyping: Developing prototypes in order to demon-
strate ideas and to test them.
• Tolerance when errors and mistakes happen; reward for
participation. • Refining: The concept is further improved based on the
insights gained during prototyping and is continually
The orientation towards the customer at Software AG goes refined until the optimum, user-oriented product is
so far that the development of innovative products and created.
services can actually be called “co-innovations”. It requires
a set of new skills, such as the ability to develop and nego- According to a traditional, widely used training model,
tiation and communication strategies, to think creatively, some 70 per cent of professional skills are attained through
and to exchange knowledge. learning on the job, 10 per cent through coaching, and just
10 per cent through further training. Talking to Peter Dern,
What does this mean for staff at Software AG? Key posi- he says that this training formula is not really helpful, since
tions at Software AG should be held by both experienced it is unable to say whether a person is actually learning
staff as well as by the company’s leaders of tomorrow, who the right thing. He says that employees can actually learn
should all be able to explain their product – the Digital the wrong skills in their everyday professional life: “No
Business Platform – to others. How is it possible to think in matter how much you go running, it will never teach you
a new way and work in a different manner? to swim.”
 41

Modern teaching methods and motivation It’s about product innovation.” What does this mean? “Look
at how the customers deal with the product and see what
Software AG is taking a different approach. It not only applies they miss. And never ask them what they want. How are they
modern teaching and learning methods such as e-learning, supposed to know that? Henry Ford once said: ‘If I had asked
interdisciplinary teamwork and web conferencing but also people what they wanted they would have said faster horses.’”
banks on staff undergoing training to take on the role of
teachers – and thus of multipliers – who are able to trans-
fer their knowledge effectively and efficiently, not just to Design thinking is ideal for SMEs
employees of Software AG but also to customers and partners.
Design thinking is a problem-solving technique that cannot
It is up to the employees to decide whether they would only be used by major corporations. “It is ideal for SMEs”,
like to participate in further training. “But if you want says Dern. “The method is quickly learned – and then you
to become a learning organisation, you have to inspire don’t need to pay for expensive new consultants!” What he
employees to pursue continued learning”, says education is saying is that the potential for solving operational prob-
expert Dern. This is one of the core tasks of the Corporate lems is already there. It does not have to be bought but to be
University of Software AG. One way of fulfilling this task is unleashed and brought to bear. In that sense, design think-
to lower obstacles to further training. This includes build- ing embraces and values the potential of the company’s
ing a corporate culture that appreciates those who plunge own employees.
into the adventure of further training. Peter Dern: “We are
embarking on design thinking to become an organisation According to Dern, the problem in small and medium-sized
that truly learns.” companies is often that the company’s engineers think they
know best what the customers need. Having to ask them-
Design thinking is a methodology that was designed by selves the question ‘what is the customer actually looking
Software AG’s product development department. The goal for?’ is “often a culture shock” for them, says Dern.
was to create more user-friendly products for customers.
“And we have managed to achieve this goal,” says Peter
Dern. “Our sales success and the feedback from our cus- Software AG at a glance
tomers are testament to that.” Founded in Darmstadt in 1969, the group is the most
powerful German software producer after SAP and Wincor
Nixdorf (see statista.de). It is divided into three business
User orientation is paying off segments, with the Digital Business Platform (DBP) being
the largest (50% share of sales). With a total of 4,337
employees in 70 countries, Software AG generated reve-
The design thinking process has also significantly improved
nues of EUR 873 million in 2015.
the company’s internal IT service portal. The IT service
portal was rather dry and uninviting until someone put The IoT Evolution magazine, a trade journal for the Inter-
together a group of employees from different departments net of Things, chose DBP as the product of the year 2015.
and asked them to use the portal and to comment on their In addition, Software AG recognises outstanding achieve-
approach, in other words, to “tell their user story” (Peter ments of its customers and partners. In 2016, the Innova-
Dern). “Just by listening and observing we have gained a lot tion Awards at the Innovation World went to projects deal-
of information about what is good, what is bad, what is of ing with the topic of digital transformation.
interest to the users, what they are looking for, whether or
The Software AG Foundation is the largest single share-
not they directly find what they are looking for or whether
holder, holding 30% of the shares. The foundation is active
they only get the information they seek by searching for in the promotion of science and supports self-help projects
some time, or if they do not get it at all.” After the re-launch in the areas of education, child and youth welfare, disa-
of the intranet portal, the usage of self-service functions bility assistance, help for the elderly and conservation of
increased significantly and the number of misdirected natural resources. Since 2008, Software AG has been the
referrals in the helpdesk system declined noticeably. main sponsor of the SV Darmstadt 98 football club which,
after 33 years, returned to the first German Football League
Nevertheless, Dern adds a word of warning: “Don’t take it (1. Bundesliga) in 2015/2016.
too far. Design thinking should not be reduced to marketing.
42 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K

Elschukom – From state-owned collective to

producer of high-tech wire

The company Elschukom GmbH already experienced quarters in Veilsdorf (Thüringen), is individual and inno-
‘disruptive’ market changes before that current buzz-word vative solutions. This is also why, within the workforce of
was on everyone’s lips. Shortly after German reunification, around 100 staff, more than one-fifth continually direct
the firm emerged from what remained of the ‘Kombinat their energies to the further development of products and
Keramische Werke Hermsdorf’, a ceramics producer. At first processes. “Our market environment is very dynamic”,
the company concentrated solely on manufacture of elec- notes Jan-Peter Krauss, Sales/Prokurist – General Manager
trical-equipment safety units. Yet the company manage- at Elschukom, “so to match this we have to optimise our
ment quickly realised that the world had not exactly been internal processes on an ongoing basis, in order to remain
waiting for another safety-units manufacturer – the firm flexible”. Substantial changes made at Elschukom were the
switched to specialising in manufacture of wires, including formation of a new Process Engineering (PE) department
extra-fine wires. Elschukom remained true to its roots and and the implementation of an ERP (Enterprise Resource
continues to produce fuse-element wires for equipment Planning) system, developed in-house, for wire-produc-
safety units. It now also refines special wires for other busi- tion by machine: this system integrates and utilises a large
ness sectors, e. g. musical-instrument strings and the textile amount of corporate data. The process optimisation and
sector (key term: ‘smart textiles’), as well as domestic wires, digitalisation were not without consequences for the staff
contact wires and wires used for wire saws. of this medium-sized company from Thüringen. Changes
and new requirements made themselves evident in all the
Time and time again, what European, Asian and American company’s activity areas.
clients order from this medium-sized firm, with its head-
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K 43

Optimisation of interfaces with a new is still hotly-disputed. Nonetheless, as Krauss points out,
department and new production technologies for Elschukom a production technologist is exactly what is
needed. This vocational education imparts knowledge in the
Using an additional, higher-level Enterprise Resource Plan- structuring of processes, in manufacturing procedures, in
ning (ERP) system, Elschukom records data on all company production and enterprise management. This combination
processes – from the customer-order through to the delivery of professional competences enables the production tech-
of the goods. This new system involved a major adjustment, nologist to analyse, simulate and optimise processes. “It’s at
notably for the Production team members, who in some the interfaces that Industrie 4.0 becomes a reality. And they
cases had experienced hardly any changes to their work- are also the production technologist’s point of approach”.
ing processes in 25 years. As Krauss puts it, fears are a factor The production technologist is also a point of contact for
that must be taken seriously here; they are primarily coun- the colleagues in Production and his role is to provide
teracted by open communication and by providing help, he assistance. He ‘translates’ the experience provided by the
noted. “We took the ‘old hands’ and dispelled their fears by subject-specialist colleagues, putting it into the ERP system
making clear to them that the process will not work without and using this practical knowledge to optimise processes.
them. We need the colleagues’ years of experience gained in
production and administration”, Krauss explains. Likewise, in the Process Engineering (PE) department
the key issue is interfaces. Elschukom has created a kind
Among other changes, the workforce was expanded at of playing-field for four team members in PE, who had
the same time, to include an apprentice in production also attracted particular attention with their strong
technology. He operates as a linking element between commitment and high degree of creativity. This special
the software, production and research & development department’s goal is to use interdisciplinary collaboration
departments respectively. Among professions for which to optimise processes, define interfaces and further advance
there is a specific vocational education programme, the the digital integration of the various parts of the company.
production-technologist profession is relatively new and In the workshop, planned and set-up by the team members

Insight from research – No. 7

The World Bank

Digitalisation affects blue-collar and white-collar alike

How work is affected by new technologies is dependent on

• the type of activity
• how those technologies provide support to the workforce.

If routine work comprises a high proportion of all tasks, regardless of whether this is predominantly cognitive work or
predominantly manual work, there are many possibilities for automation. This affects accountants and office personnel
as well as machine operatives. Whether the focus is on analytical work, provision of social care, or creative activities, the
deployment of technology can also lead to higher productivity.

There are very many activities, primarily manual ones, that have productivity levels which are hardly influenced by digital
technology. This refers not to routine activities but rather to services that engage with the individual customer close-up,
such as hairdressers or other service activities that can hardly be automated.

This much is clear: digitalisation affects blue-collar workers and white-collar workers equally, i. e. production workers and
administrative workers. This constitutes the greatest difference in relation to earlier waves of rationalisation.

Source: World Bank Group (2016): Digital Dividends World Development Report 2016.Washington DC.
44 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G E S TO H O W P E O P L E W O R K

themselves, an information scientist, a mechanical engi- and optimisation. Thanks to the precise analysis, backed by
neer, an electroplater and a control technician are adjusting data, ergonomic aspects and the safety of workspaces and of
and trying things out to improve activity sequences; for the machines were able to be improved – without even looking
most part, they are acquiring new specialist competences at the additional effects from the Controlling department’s
without having instructions provided in advance. As Krauss perspective. Through optimised processes, the company
notes, “the positive self-fuelling dynamic unleashed in saves costs and can make better investment decisions on the
these spaces set up for team-members‘ developments is basis of comprehensive process-data.
something that you just can’t plan”.
Krauss’s interim conclusion: “The development is not yet
concluded but we see the first successes as a vindication of
Effective processes, satisfied workforce the path that we are taking.”

Drawing together three points of emphasis in operations

is already yielding positive effects – product and process Giving people scope and making an
optimisation in R&D and PE; the adapting and integrat- interdisciplinary exchange of inputs possible
ing of software with regard to ERP; and the expansion of
specialist competences among the workforce by adding At Elschukom the working processes were restructured in
the production technologist. The effects are evident with such a way that team members can learn from colleagues
regard both to the firm’s competitiveness and to the indi- that have other qualifications, independently, with imme-
diate practical application and without fear. This interdisci-
plinary learning on the job is crucial to employees’ ongoing
qualification.

In the context of their ‘Industrie 4.0’ activities, companies

must constantly check whether their employees‘ compe-
tences and the existing profiles of individual professions
continue to match the company’s latest requirements: con-
sidering the positions for which we are currently offering
vocational education, and the relevant respective numbers
of personnel, are we still set up in the right way? Especially
with Industrie 4.0 in mind, in which a key role is played
by the interfaces that connect various specialist-compe-
tence areas, it becomes ever more important to map out
vidual team members. The production personnel have the path that the company’s professional training is to take.
been relieved of their fear of being steam-rollered by the At Elschukom the analysis led (among other things) to the
changes. They are familiarised with the new system by set-up of a traineeship for a production technologist.
their IT-specialist colleagues, in a ‘learning on the job’ pro-
cess, and their role is appreciated due to their wealth of Highly-dynamic environments also demand a company
knowledge gained through experience. The colleagues from management that transfers freedoms and elements of
Process Engineering are given scope for creativity by the decision-making authority to its employees, while living an
company management. Both factors positively affect the open corporate culture as its daily reality. That way, team
workforce’s motivation and its specialist qualification. Of members have the confidence to put forward ideas and
course, Process Engineering also includes machines’ design unleash their potential.

Elschukom at a glance
Elschukom Elektroschutzkomponentenbau GmbH produces protection modules for the most diverse range of application
areas. Elschukom is global market leader in the area of fuse-element wires. The company, founded in 1990, employs around
100 staff at its corporate facility in Veilsdorf (Thüringen). The company is managed by Ute Poerschke and Manfred Thauer
(both are graduate engineers).
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S 45

Examples from companies:

changing requirements
46 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S

Daimler – Qualification moves closer

to the workspace
As one of Germany’s first industrial enterprises to do so, In principle, this is about developing forms of work that
Daimler is offering the dual-study traineeship in ‘Business combine the workers’ cognitive abilities with robots’ strength,
Management/Industrie 4.0’. Alongside business manage- stamina and reliability. This fundamentally changes the
ment, trainees gain knowledge on IT disciplines and on employees’ working environment. IT is now at the centre of
Industrie 4.0. For this automotive group, education and activities, not the mechanical processes.
qualification are a success factor in the shaping of Work 4.0.
More complex activity sequences in production and the
Digitalisation is changing the automotive industry root- working process in the smart factory’s networked structures
and-branch. The development towards self-driving and present the workforce with changed requirements in terms
networked vehicles, cooperation between humans and of qualifications. Digital transformation leads to an increase
machines, and Industrie 4.0, serve as the key words signal- in the significance of further professional training, with a
ling this development. need for new professional qualifications such as the following:

Especially in times of transition, a company must secure • Extended skills in dealing with large quantities of data,
its competitiveness. Alongside innovative technology, the in data analysis and data security.
qualification of the employees makes the decisive differ-
ence. This is what becomes a competitive advantage if a • A new understanding of the systems of decentralised

company succeeds in educating and qualifying its work- intelligence and an ability to work effectively with new
force at an early enough stage and in accordance with its products and machines, coupled with holistic process-­
needs. New knowledge and new skills are called for. At the thinking.
same time, digital-learning formats open up new paths for
• Because products are becoming more individual, employ-
imparting knowledge and expertise.
ees must be able both to quickly switch-over the current
Daimler has formulated a guide as it tackles this process: production process and also to call-off information
‘Prospects for 2025: guiding principles of Education and straightaway about new products or variations that have
Qualification’. This is about innovation in professional not been produced for a longer period.
training, digital learning, innovative formats for learning
For the World of Work 4.0, education and qualification of the
and worldwide training centres.
employees constitute a key to shaping a successful future.
Individuals’ career paths are becoming more diverse and Companies need a good mix, consisting of young experts
more dynamic. The declining half-life that knowledge has introducing new know-how into the company and experi-
means that new demands emerge for new possibilities to enced subject specialists who know all the company’s activity
assimilate and retain knowledge. Innovative models of sequences. Both groups must be familiar with up-to-date
qualification must make lifelong learning possible. Daimler developments.
is banking on sound basic qualification in the initial train-
Profiles of some professions are now already being adapted
eeship and on fostering the subsequent specialisation pro-
to changed requirements. Through the ongoing process
cess step-by-step. In this context, innovative corporate edu-
of ascertaining future requirements in relation to profes-
cation and qualification must properly take into account
sional competences, qualification processes are set into
the heterogeneity both of the people learning and of the
motion, with new building-blocks being integrated into
knowledge content being learned, as well as the interlock-
companies’ vocational education and further training.
ing of basic and advanced training into the process.
A current example relates to the dual-study traineeship:
New dual-study traineeship for the Smart Factory since October 2016 Daimler is one of Germany’s first

In production, Daimler is pursuing the smart-factory concept,

taking the path step-by-step towards the intelligent, digitalised
factory. The aim with such a factory is to improve resource
efficiency and ergonomic suitability, as well as to improve
integration of customers and partners into the value-creation
processes. Central aspects are the versatility of the factory and
cooperation between humans and robots. In pilot applica-
tions Daimler has already deployed robots for light-construc-
tion tasks and tested them for series production.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S 47

industrial enterprises to offer the dual-study traineeship

known as ‘Business Management/Industrie 4.0’. Daimler AG at a glance
Daimler AG, with its headquarters in Stuttgart, is the sec-
In production, knowledge-intensive activities are increas- ond-largest publicly-listed German vehicle manufacturer,
ingly called for; less routine work is needed. Daimler is with 2.9 million private vehicles and commercial vehi-
working on the basis that the operation of machines is cles sold per year; its most famous brand is Mercedes
receding into the background to a significant degree, while Benz. In addition, the company provides mobility services
process development, process supervision and maintenance and financial services. At the end of 2015 the Group had
are advancing into the forefront. Cognitive and interactive 284,000 employees worldwide and had generated an
elements are gaining greater significance. annual turnover of EUR 149.5 billion.

What is decisive: interdisciplinarity and already starting with corresponding programmes of initial
collaboration professional training: since 2012, teaching personnel and
Alongside working with data-protection and Big-Data issues, trainees have DAS@web – the Daimler vocational education
interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of inno- system – at their disposal. This makes it possible to impart
vations constitute important competences, making it a pre- knowledge independently of a given place or time, while
requisite for employees to have a high degree of self-organ- ensuring that the learning content is available on a lasting
isation and capacity for effective teamwork. This is exactly basis and is up-to-date.
what digitalisation requires: the person learning must show
In its production and assembly, Daimler Trucks is committing
increased self-reliance and must direct their own activities.
itself to modularised qualification, based near the individual’s
This starts with the issue of what information is to be found
workspace. The goal is to integrate qualification for new pro-
in the internet, and where, and ends with the matter of how
duction processes into everyday working life. In the ‘Ambi-
to differentiate correct from incorrect information.
Wise’ project, that is receiving funding from Germany’s Federal
To develop vocational education and further training, the Ministry of Education and Research, Daimler Trucks is testing
decisive factor is the extent of success achieved in firing out a concept for further training that is close to working prac-
up the enthusiasm of teachers and trainers for innovative tice. The concept is based on the deployment of digital media
learning content and learning processes. Daimler supports near the individual’s workspace. Since 2005, Daimler Trucks
its trainers and other teaching personnel by means of qual- has been building up a digital learning platform that is avail-
ification measures, encouraging them to seize upon and try able worldwide. It describes individual steps in working pro-
out technological developments and trends. cesses in a standardised way, for the respective manufacturing
and assembly section, as well as processing those steps from
The collaboration with the works council is an important the viewpoint of teaching that unit of knowledge. The knowl-
success factor in this. The structuring of Industrie 4.0, as edge can be called-off worldwide in the relevant local lan-
well as education and qualification, are all topics subject to guage. Hitherto it was solely at specified locations that it was
works-council co-determination; plans are agreed between possible to access the digital learning platform for production.
company management and the works council. The description of the steps in the activity and also the quali-
fication of the workforce ‘near the job’ took place at terminals
in the production environment or in designated group-spaces.
Online Platform DAS@web – the Daimler
The digital learning platform is now being made available on
vocational education system
a mobile basis: this means that, in assembly and manufactur-
Digital learning systems and learning methods make it pos- ing as in other areas, the qualification process is being moved
sible to teach and to learn independently of the location or closer to where the individual team member works.
time. They support the enhancement of flexibility and the
Learning in the digital world also relies upon the individ-
individualisation of processes of professional qualification.
ual employees’ capacity to take the initiative: the ‘Daimler
Using learning-on-demand formats, learning can be inte-
Connect’ internal social network offers the employees the
grated directly into the working process when so required. For
opportunity to improve in their daily work by benefiting
instance, in the future the learner can use interactive data-
from shared knowledge, by finding experts more quickly,
glasses in order to learn new processes in assembly operations.
and by collaborating more efficiently, worldwide. It is nota-
Today’s working practices are already hard to imagine with- bly from ‘Digital Natives’ that this type of learning in the
out new learning formats such as e-learning. Daimler is company environment is expected and is used.
48 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S

Telekom – Educational chain to becoming a

Cyber-Security Professional
trends, Telekom has set up a comprehensive skills manage-
ment system.

The skills management system includes four essential

steps:

1. Technological, customer and business trends are recog-

nised at an early stage and monitored.

2. The trends are assessed in terms of their importance

to the company. At the same time, it is also assessed
how quickly the company must react to the trend and
whether it concerns only one specific department or the
entire company.

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading suppliers 3. Based on the analysis, the specific skills development
of telecommunications and information technology. It and training needs of the individual groups of employ-
employs 226,000 members of staff and has an annual turn- ees and departments are identified.
over of 69.2 billion euros. The company is now the midst of
digital transformation and particularly needs to respond to 4. Finally, training programmes are developed and intro-
the changes in technologies, customers and business mod- duced that cover these skills and training needs.
els. “To be successful in this environment, we need clever
strategies, innovative products and services, and the right The four steps of the model have already been imple-
staff to deliver these,” says Markus Lecke, who is responsible mented for the trends of All IP, Big Data and IT security. In
for education policy at Deutsche Telekom. the field of IT security, in particular, applying this model
was urgently necessary. Security is a key issue for almost
all companies on the way towards a digitised economy. IT
Skills management: an analysis of trends is the security experts are highly sought after and hard to find on
first step the labour market.

Deutsche Telekom finds a certain share of the employees

it needs on the external labour market. “In 2015, we hired IT security – a major training focus
around 1,700 members of staff in Germany,” says Lecke,
adding: “In addition, some 1,800 of our own young talents “In order to meet our need for skilled experts in the area of
were taken on after completing their vocational education IT security, we have set up an educational chain that leads
or a dual course of study. At the same time, it is becoming to the high-level qualification of Cyber-Security Profes-
more and more important to continue to train employees sional” says Lecke. “The possible paths of study include IT
who have been working at the company for a long time.” vocational training or dual degrees in IT, Chamber of Com-
According to Lecke, customised training programmes help merce training programmes, workshops, practical exercises,
enhance staff’s employability. In order ensure that it has the project work and study modules, which can be recognized
best “digital pioneers” in its own ranks in the future, and in a master’s degrees in the later phase.” The content of the
staff who recognise and are open to the most important various training options complement one other. Training

Deutsche Telekom AG at a glance

Telekom is one of the world’s largest suppliers of telecommunications and information technology. It was not only in 1995
when that the company became a public stock company. More than half the company’s 226,000 employees work outside of
Germany. The branch offices located in over 50 countries are managed from the company’s headquarters in Bonn. In 2015,
the group generated turnover worth 69.2 billion euros.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S 49

on the job, i. e. the daily work in the respective department, alone. Each employee spent an average of 3.6 days on fur-
is given a high priority. In this context, individual learning ther training. In the past three years, 30 talented young
objectives are agreed with each employee. professionals have been trained as cyber-security experts
and have thus acquired the necessary skills to meet the
What is more, the tailor-made training programmes are strategic business needs of the company. Based on this
not only available for young staff. Experienced employees success, Markus Lecke is optimistic about the future: “We
are also given the opportunity to embark on training to are very satisfied with what has been achieved so far, but
become security experts. In this way, the company is seek- we will be working on further fine-tuning our skills man-
ing to break away from the traditional pillars of education agement approach”.
and to more effectively integrate vocational education and
further training or university studies with on-the-job train-
ing – right through to employees becoming experienced What is needed is a vision
experts. “The requirements in the field of computer science,
in particular, are changing so rapidly that lifelong learning Identifying trends at an early stage and then analysing
becomes indispensable. Just as there are constantly new and evaluating them fully is crucial for implementing
and different forms of cyber attacks happening, the peo- needs-oriented training opportunities at Deutsche Tele-
ple who fend them off must remain flexible and capable of kom. Each trend is examined as to whether and in what
learning,” says Lecke. way it is relevant: is the trend important for the entire
company or only for a certain business unit? Will its
The path of further training leading to the qualification of impact be short-term or long-term? Once these questions
Cyber-Security Professional set out above is just one tool in have been answered, suitable training and skills devel-
the toolbox. For example, Telekom has set up its own Chair opment programmes will be designed and offered to the
for Data Protection and Security in Computer Science at workforce.
the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences. In the winter
semester 2015/2016, the first bachelor’s degree students The new possibilities opened up by digitisation have also
started their studies there, focussing among other subjects been used here. Employees are now able to access web-
on data protection awareness, IT law and forensics. The based training units in a fast and flexible manner from
research findings produced at the chair are to be incorpo- anywhere in the world.
rated into further training curricula. Further to this, learn-
ing modules are being developed which will benefit the Different education methods have been linked together
employees’ learning process. and offered to both young and experienced employees
alike – in each case tailored to the needs of the respective
In the coming years, Telekom will further develop its skills employee.
management approach. For example, training opportuni-
ties are to be made available at global level in order to meet
transnational training needs within this large international
corporation. This will be accompanied by a growing digi-
tisation of the training portfolio. “Industrie 4.0 is thus not
only leading to the development of ‘Work 4.0’, but also
‘Education 4.0’, in order to meet the requirements of the
flexible, cross-cutting and increasingly global development
of industry,” says Lecke.

Young experts from within the company’s

own ranks

The number of Telekom’s training programmes alone is

outright impressive: in 2015, more than 32,000 seminars
with some 300,000 participants were held in Germany
50 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S

Airbus Operations – On the path towards

HR 4.0 in aviation
The “Human Relations 4.0” future project was launched Cooperating with partners
in January 2017. “HR 4.0” is part of the much wider Airbus
project “Industry 4.0 – Factory of the Future in the Aviation Airbus seeks to accomplish all this with partners from
Business.” research and industry as well as representatives of employ-
ers and employees, along the end-to-end aviation supply
Project manager Jan Balcke firmly believes that Industrie chain. The project is thus implemented in close coopera-
4.0 will “significantly” change the entire aviation industry tion with Prof. Dr. Christoph Igel of the German Research
– with repercussions not only in terms of technology and Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) as well as Airbus’
organisation, but particularly for its employees. “So it is all core partners German National Academy of Science and
the more important that we identify and discuss the chal- Engineering (acatech), FESTO Learning Centre, Hamburg
lenges and opportunities for employees at an early stage.” Centre of Aviation Training plus (HCAT+), IG Metall, Nord-
metall, and Ruhr University Bochum. “Due to its interdisci-
The aim of HR 4.0 is to shape future workplaces in aviation, plinary, interprofessional, and international approach, HR
to qualify its employees, and to prepare them for techno- 4.0 is unique in Germany and in the aviation industry from
logical change. a scientific and technological point of view. This coopera-
tion between industry, research, and social partners is an
unprecedented experiment that will serve as a model for
others,” says Igel.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S 51

Industrie 4.0 will bring about fundamental changes in the The overall objectives of the project are to
relations between people, organisation, and technology.
These changes will be felt most keenly by employees, which • establish a cross-institutional network of internal and
is why in times of Industrie 4.0, competency models must external HR & Industrie 4.0 experts,
be reviewed at all corporate levels. Qualification shall be
achieved through learning at work. New workplaces must • set up a think tank for developing HR 4.0 concepts, and
be designed and tested. White-collar and blue-collar work
must be reorganised according to the changed overall con- • establish research and learning factories for testing con-
ditions set by Industrie 4.0. cepts related to workplace design and employee qualifi-
cation.
The Internet of things, services, and data has provided a
global stimulus toward Industrie 4.0. The parameters of this According to Klaus Ahlborn, Chairman of the Central Works
transformation are determined by the Airbus corporate Council at Airbus, everyone is talking about Industrie 4.0,
strategy, co-determination, and the governance, culture, but “still in very vague terms.” The actual consequences for
and values of Airbus. employees – from aircraft design engineers to mechanics –
are not yet known. Ahlborn expects that requirements will
increase, not only in terms of qualification but also with
Industrie 4.0 by and for the employees regard to employee availability. “So we have to make sure
that our employees’ rights are respected.” To make its prior-
At the heart of the digital transformation process towards ities clear, the Central Works Council chose “People 4.1” as
Industrie 4.0 are the employees: they are the change agents. the title for the 2015 assembly of works council members on
Their future tasks are only just taking shape – a first set of Industrie 4.0. In fall 2016, a key elements paper was signed by
potential topics has been identified, the first questions have the Board of Management and the Central Works Council.
been phrased. However, many solution approaches are still According to Ahlborn, both sides agree that “no employee
abstract and not tailored to any specific industry. There is a with whom we embark on this process must be left by the
lack of specific requirements for manufacturing in general wayside.” Moreover, it must be ensured that employees also
and aviation in particular. benefit from the expected productivity gains.

Airbus Operations GmbH at a glance

Airbus Operations GmbH is a subsidiary of Airbus Group (formerly EADS), which is a European Company (SE) with 136,574
employees and a turnover of 65.5 billion Euros (in 2015). The company employs around half of all employees working in
Germany’s aerospace industry. Airbus Group is the largest aerospace company and the second largest defence company in
Europe. Among the Group’s three divisions, Airbus is the one that manufactures commercial aircraft. In Germany, approxi-
mately 17,000 people work at Airbus in the four Hanseatic Cities of Hamburg, Bremen, Buxtehude, and Stade. With 12,500
employees, Hamburg is the largest Airbus site in Germany. It plays a key role in the development and manufacture of all
Airbus programmes, in fuselage and cabin design. The site also features a large training centre where hundreds of aircraft
mechanics sent by airlines from all over the world are trained every year.
52 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S

Insight from research – No. 8

Companies can ‘do’ the future – Study reveals high level of flexibility in the digital transformation
The ‘World of Work 4.0’ project for the future prompts the question of whether today’s vocational education and further train-
ing matches the new requirements generated by the digital transformation. A current study concludes that, in principle, it does.

Based on a representative sample of companies, a study by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and by the
Institute for Employment Research (IAB) throws light onto changes in basic training and further training, as digitalisation
moves forward. The study states that, in the digital world of work, there is a shift in requirements, with regard both to com-
petence (e. g. creativity) and to employees’ qualifications (e. g. type of professional traineeship completed). At the same time the
companies acknowledge that the dual-training system provides a high level of flexibility in dealing with the digital transition.

The IAB and the ZEW have examined the issue of how intensively companies are already applying 4.0 technology, and simul-
taneously studied how individuals’ places of work, as well as competence-related and qualification-related requirements that
they face, are changing. Beyond this, attention is directed to companies’ vocational education and further training, against the
background of working processes and elements of training content that are undergoing changes. The analyses are based on the
representative survey of 2,032 production-based and service-based enterprises, carried out by the IAB and ZEW in May 2016.

Illustration 5: Companies: assessments regarding advanced training and further training

Proportion of those who agree (per cent)

The total expenditure on advanced training and further training has increased
67.6
57.4
Allocation of funding is increasing with regard to working with the latest ICT technologies
71.2
49.9
Increased funding is being directed at developing cross-discipline skills Reading-guide: 68 per cent
60.2 of the companies that have
40.2 invested in 4.0 technology
(uppermost green bar) agree
Increased funding is being directed at higher-level qualification accompanying workers’ professional activities
with the statement that their
47.6 expenditure on advanced
41.9
training and further training
There is increased use of digital learning-media or respectively of e-learning product-offerings has increased. Even among
54.7 the companies not making
34.5 investments in 4.0, 57 per
cent agree with this state-
Has the company invested in 4.0 technologies over the last 5 years? Yes No ment (uppermost blue bar).

Trend towards fully-automated business processes

The results show that half of all businesses are already using 4.0 technology. However, only five per cent of the working
funds can be allocated to 4.0 production and only eight per cent to 4.0 administration. Even if the degree of automation and
digitalisation remains at a low level, with regard to companies’ working funds, the changes clearly indicate a trend towards
fully automated processes. In this context, the advance of automation is changing the activities at the workplace; there is
a reduction in routine tasks and (as regards Production) in manual tasks. By contrast, abstract tasks are gainly strongly in
significance; indeed, the increasing cognitive burden can entail a health risk. As digitalisation progresses, work is becoming
more demanding, more diverse and more complex, the study’s authors note.

Cross-discipline competences are of growing significance

The change to work processes is also reflected in the requirements that the employees must meet. Thus there is an increased
need for competences such as process know-how, an interdisciplinary way of working, and problem-solving.

As a result, greater flexibility is demanded of the employee of the future, as is the readiness to constantly adapt to meet
new requirements. The changes are accompanied by an increased cognitive burden, while simultaneously the trend points
towards a reduced physical burden at the workplace.
 E X A M P L E S F R O M CO M PA N I E S : C H A N G I N G R E Q U I R E M E N T S 53

As regards qualification-related requirements, a differentiated development can be seen. In the companies‘ administrative
work, automation is bringing about a shift away from simple tasks not requiring completion of a traineeship and towards
subject-specialist knowledge, also including knowledge gained in higher education; simultaneously, in production a polar-
isation is making itself felt: both higher-qualified and also simple activities – such as the work of supervision and checking
– are experiencing increased demand.

Illustration 6: Companies’ assessments on vocational education

Proportion of those who agree (per cent)

Increased funding of cross-discipline skills

88.6
71.3
Increased funding on working with the latest ICT technologies
79.6
64.5
We have changed the content in work forming part of vocational education
72.7
57.7 Reading guide: 80 per cent of the
companies making investments in
Increasingly, the content in vocational education no longer matches requirements
4.0 technology are of the opinion
23.3 that, in vocational education, there
22.8
is an increasing need to fund devel-
We are providing vocational education for different professions than was previously the case opment of competence in working
23.4 with ICT technologies. This opinion
11.2 is even shared by 65 per cent of
companies not making investments
Has the company invested in 4.0 technologies in the last 5 years? Yes No in 4.0 technology.

The German vocational education system is proving to be flexible

As the companies see it, in principle the existing vocational education system is flexible enough to adapt education activ-
ities’ content and individual professions’ profiles to suit the digital age. Accordingly, most companies are not providing
vocational education in different or new professions for which vocational education (now) exist; rather, they are changing
their current vocational education arrangements so as to engage more frequently both with the most modern information
and communication technology (ICT) and with cross-discipline skills, such as personal, social and problem-solving compe-
tence. This applies equally to companies’ in-house vocational education and further training, with additional opportunities
emerging from the use of digital learning media (see Illustration).

The results form part of a study conducted on behalf of acatech. Further results have been compiled in the document
‘acatech POSITION paper – Competences for Industrie 4.0’, with recommendations for action to be taken by politicians, the
business community and society as a whole, directed at the development of relevant competences.

References

Arntz, M., Gregory, T., Jansen, S. und Zierahn, U. (2016), Tätigkeitswandel und Weiterbildungsbedarf in der digitalen Transformation, Studie des
Zentrums für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) und des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung (IAB) im Auftrag der Deutschen
Akademie der Technikwissenschaften (acatech). ‘Transition in Activities and Further-Training Requirements in the Digital Transformation: a
Study by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) on behalf of acatech (National
Academy of Science and Engineering).’

acatech (2016), Kompetenzen für die Industrie 4.0. Qualifizierungsbedarfe und Lösungsansätze (acatech POSITION), München: Herbert Utz Verlag.
‘Competences for Industrie 4.0: Qualification Requirements and Approaches to Solutions (acatech POSITION Paper), Munich, Herbert Utz Verlag
(publishing house).’

Arntz, M., Gregory, T., Lehmer, F., Matthes, B. und Zierahn, U. (2016). Arbeitswelt 4.0 – Stand der Digitalisierung in Deutschland: Dienstleister haben
die Nase vorn. IAB Kurzbericht 22/2016. ‘World of Labour 4.0 – Current Status on Digitalisation in Germany: Service-Providers are in the lead. IAB
Short Report 22/2016.’
54 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5

Long version of the

recommendations for
action, working group 5
 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N D AT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5 55

Digital information and a technical working environment people and therefore create fear. Such fears must be refuted
are the key characteristics of the world of work today and by the practical working procedures within the company.
in the future. New business models and innovations are Industrie 4.0 can only really be successful if the employees
changing career patterns, working tasks, job profiles, cus- can see the direct benefit, develop a positive basic attitude
tomer relationships and last but not least the competitive- to the innovation activities and contribute to the success of
ness of the companies themselves. Humans and machines the company. The basic requirement is trust, which can be
will work even more closely together in future. Complex created by transparency, information, training, sharing in
inter-disciplinary and software-driven jobs will increase, the design of in-house solutions and not least enjoyment
jobs that can be replaced by technology will decrease. in the implementation and testing of the new system. The
Development cycles will be shorter, the dynamic role of employees are interested in the personal outlook which is
knowledge will grow and the half-life of knowledge will be created, how their prospects for career development and
shorter. Production and development will be more indi- attractive workplaces can increase and how secure their
vidualised and less dependent on the location. Even sales jobs are. Digital change must benefit both the company and
and customer relationships will change. The international the employees.
division of labour in globally distributed production and
service networks will be intensified as a result. It is clear: Industrie 4.0 creates new qualification require-
ments, and the education and training opportunities and
This will change the nature of work, career biographies, their implementation must be adapted accordingly. The
procedures and organisational structures. Even the distinc- workforce can then be prepared comprehensively and in
tions between unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers, time for the future of work. That involves changes in the
master craftsmen and engineers will become more fluid. whole vocational education and training system.
At the same time, the design of the work location becomes
more important. New forms of digitised work allow coop- The working group “labour, vocational education and
erative action in new value creation networks, and this will training” has intensively studied the consequences of
have a decisive effect on many forms of paid employment Industrie 4.0 for vocational education and training. The
in the future. The standards for these changes are on the participating companies and works councils have the con-
one hand the competitiveness of the companies and on the viction that they should first face the challenges at the
other hand the motivation and perceptions of the employ- company level and only appeal to the political stakeholders
ees in relation to the quality of their work. The changes in where it is unavoidable. They see the role of politics espe-
the world of labour must be mastered and shaped by the cially in creating a framework in the following areas:
employees who already work in the companies. Building
on a solid apprenticeship or basic course of academic study, • Continuation and development of the dialogue formats
continuous further and advanced vocational training, espe- in politics, science and the economy (trade associations,
cially in the workplace, is therefore more important than employers, unions, works councils and employees);
ever.
• Exploration and testing of concepts by which technical
New forms and the independence of work bring up innovations can be more systematically linked with the
new questions for companies, managers, employees and necessary changes in occupational, organisational and
employee representatives, not only on competence and educational structures;
qualifications but also on leadership, change manage-
ment, the design of work tasks and the possibilities for • Acquisition of skills, expert knowledge and process
co-determination. Industrie 4.0 brings opportunities and design knowledge;
risks at the same time. On the one hand, it offers great
potential for self-determined and ambitious labour in • Inter-disciplinary coordination of these activities with
which employees can be given more responsibility. On the the participation of the most important stakeholders
other hand, employees face the risk of being left out of the from politics, the economy and society.
development, seeing their work devalued or even losing
their jobs. It must not be overlooked that the consequences On this basis, the working group’s aim is to enable com-
of Industrie 4.0 are still difficult to understand for many panies and employees to cope with the requirements of
56 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5

digitisation. These recommendations are meant for them and an important pointer for future vocational training
as well as for the politically responsible stakeholders in the and qualification. Even more important as a basis for devel-
national government and the federal states. opment are the recommendations proposed by the parties
who are directly involved – company representatives and
The working group has repeatedly observed that com- works council members.
panies and employees have been looking at digitisation
for a long time and discussing its consequences for voca-
tional education and training. But it is becoming apparent
that Industrie 4.0 is rapidly bringing a new dimension of
changes in the quality of labour. Therefore, companies are
currently in a process of upheaval. They need to form an
impression of the necessary qualifications that is as realis-
tic as possible, use the existing scope in a responsible way
and develop solutions. These company activities were the
starting point for the working group. Its recommendations
for employees, companies and political stakeholders are a
reflection of the current approaches in business companies
 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N D AT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5 57

AR
 ecommendations for action for
companies and employees
The changes brought about by Industrie 4.0 and digiti- even company road maps which facilitate a comparison of
sation are happening at different speeds and in varying different processes and departments, both within the same
intensity in different companies. Therefore, the working company and between different companies.
group believes that it is important now to develop custom-
ised solutions, which are drawn from and directed towards
the practical situation in the company, for each individual Implementing training in the company
case. Therefore, these recommendations should not be seen
as a “one-size-fits-all” solution, merely as guidance for deci- The dual vocational education system is a central key to
sions that must be made in the necessary reorganisation of success of the model used in Germany, but academic edu-
vocational education and training. This guidance is espe- cation seems to become more attractive compared with
cially important for small and medium-sized enterprises. apprenticeships and vocational education. The working
They need comprehensive support in the transition to group sees it as a major challenge to increase the attractive-
Industrie 4.0. Good practice examples from SMEs and large ness of the dual vocational education model again.
corporations, which have already started this development,
can act as a pointer. The competence, professionalism and experience of skilled
employees will continue to be the foundation of their own
The working group “labour, voacational education and successful vocational development and the competitive-
training“ therefore regards the following recommendations ness and innovative ability of their companies.
as guidelines for a “vocational education and training road
map”. If the dynamic force of technological change increases due
to digitisation and Industrie 4.0, this will also make career
biographies more diverse and dynamic. The falling half-
Analysis of the changes life of knowledge requires new answers to questions about
acquisition and preservation of knowledge. Innovative
At present, the level of maturity of digitised products, training and qualification models can cushion the require-
processes, systems and plants in business companies var- ments for flexibility in training, qualifications and life-long
ies widely. Many possible applications are still at the trial learning, for example by combining a solid and recognised
stage. Digitisation and networking are taking place step by basic qualification with subsequent specialisation.
step. A digital strategy for the whole value creation chain
only exists in a few individual instances, mainly in larger Innovative qualification structures and modern career
companies. In practice, companies are increasingly look- descriptions have been developed in the metalworking and
ing for the best possible steps they can take to try out and electrical industry and in information and communication
develop Industrie 4.0. In this constellation it is often still technology. They are process-oriented and based on cus-
unclear what the new qualification requirements are and tomer relationships. Currently, they constitute an appropri-
how they can be linked with the existing personnel, edu- ate solution for the increasing networking and complexity
cation, training and organisational development: What of Industrie 4.0.
new qualification requirements will arise? What qualifi-
cations are needed, and when? Who needs which qualifi- These job and career descriptions can be dynamically
cation level in what framework? What opportunities can adapted and developed to take the changing requirements
be offered to equip employees for new tasks? How can and new vocational opportunities into account. The train-
employees with low qualifications be supported better and ing curricula define the minimum content requirements.
sustainably integrated? Many employees still do not know They provide the necessary scope for business companies
which developments are likely to occur and how their own to enable them to cover the specific qualification require-
workplace might change. The working group recommends ments for Industrie 4.0. The working group suggests that
using instruments which help to give a real and differen- the given possibilities should be used even more to adapt
tiated picture of the qualification demands. The examples the vocational education to the specific company require-
given in this brochure show different approaches and the ments and processes.
varying scope of such analysis. They include trend analy-
sis, skill management, extensive competence analysis and
58 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5

• The innovative vocational education structure allows Facilitating flexible and constant further
the core and specialist qualifications in occupations vocational training
affected by Industrie 4.0 to be closely linked with the
operational requirements and working processes. In typ- In the development of vocational competence for a digitised
ical career-related competence areas, the training con- world of work, new forms and programmes in vocational
tent which is relevant to Industrie 4.0 can be combined education and training and in-service learning will become
in a way that is appropriate for the process. Optional significantly more important. And the proportion of infor-
areas of application – which are selected or defined by mally acquired competence will increase. Learning by digi-
the company – allow a flexible development of skilled tal media will also become more and more important.
personnel in line with technical and organisational
developments. Further vocational training merely to fulfil the company’s
short-term needs is not enough. It is an intrinsic task of
• The competence-based training curricula define the business companies, and therefore important, to inform
minimum content. But the structure and timing of the employees about their personal prospects for their future
content can be varied by the companies in the interest career development – on the basis of solid information,
of vocational education based on the conditions in the structured participation and open training opportunities.
individual company. In addition, however, each employee must also take the ini-
tiative. Therefore, it is essential in the future that employ-
• Even in the final examination, the companies can decide ees must be kept informed about the company’s business
on the form of the examination within the framework model and strategic decisions. This will help them to recog-
of the defined standards. The candidate can prove his nise the necessary personal further training requirements
vocational competence by presenting a company-based themselves at an early stage. Only then can (and should)
assignment or project in a way that shows his ability to the further vocational training opportunities offered by
deal with technical challenges in a real-life operational the company or on the market be actively and systemati-
context. cally used. Digitisation is an open process, so the adaptation
of the training content and opportunities should also be
In addition to the structuring and adaptation of current structured as a flexible and shared process.
vocational education in companies, the most important
task for business companies is a continuous review of the
portfolio covered by apprenticed trades and education cur- Coping with major changes
ricula. The decision of which careers and trades should be
taught in the context of Industrie 4.0 in the future may also Companies and their employees face up to the increasing
be helped by reference to career training patterns in other and sometimes fundamental changes in the demands for
industrial sectors. qualification and training and develop new solutions. The
examples presented in this brochure show a number of
The expansion of dual and on-the-job bachelor and mas- approaches. Often this involves the relationship between
ter degrees, especially in the MINT subjects (mathematics, general and inter-disciplinary competence on the one hand
information technology, natural science and technology), and special knowledge and in-depth expertise on the other
can help in the successful further development of the dual hand. The specific requirements are changing very rapidly,
vocational education model – adapted to the rising quali- so there is an increasing demand for training courses, fur-
fication requirements – and thus offer an efficient solution ther vocational education, adaptation and in-depth knowl-
to the lack of specialist personnel. The close links between edge. At the same time, however, fundamental abilities and
theory and practice mean that dual vocational education soft skills are becoming increasingly important, especially
will offer ideal conditions for students and apprentices to the ability to be organised, work in a team and communi-
gain useful practical qualifications at an early stage. The cate and cooperate with customers – across technical and
working group therefore suggests that the existing possibil- departmental boundaries. The working group believes that
ities for creating dual vocational training courses should be the combination of work and learning, theory and practice,
exploited even more within the company. training and competence development should be improved
and that this should be transformed into new models for
 59

apprenticeships and further vocational training, including cooperation between the two areas and a stronger link
aspects such as training for mixed-age teams. between their teaching content and teaching organisation
is necessary.
The working group believes that the general qualifications
needed by all employees in future will include not only The working group also recommends that the compe-
economic skills but also basic IT knowledge and a greater tence centres for small and medium-sized enterprises
competence in the use of the media which is worthy of the should be used as an important learning and experimen-
name and goes beyond the mere ability to “wipe and click”. tation resource for companies, work council members and
This especially applies to managerial staff because they employees, and that this role should be strengthened.
will increasingly need to make decisions about the specific
implementation of the digitisation requirements. Igno-
rance or half-knowledge at the management level can lead How can (further) training and qualification be
to intransigence or technical naivety, and thus to danger- promoted in the company? Promoting learning
ously wrong decisions. in the workplace

The fundamental changes, which the working group The working group encourages businesses and employees
expects, also include an increasing demand for qualifica- to work together to develop new learning cultures in the
tions which transcend career and subject boundaries and company. This should lead to working structures that
“hybrid” qualifications. IT security, for example, will play facilitate learning and a culture of lifelong learning which
an ever more important role in future as a topic that is rel- unlocks personal development potential, greater employer
evant across the board. Service and process orientation will attractiveness and competitive advantages. Companies
also become more important in almost all subject areas, so should develop to become learning organisations in which
in addition to their skills in production (or administration), the employees have better learning opportunities – for
employees will increasingly need skills in customer contact example due to intelligent organisation of work – and can
and cooperation. themselves contribute as knowledge providers. Continuous
learning is becoming increasingly important. This means
Informal learning in the workplace will play a greater role that it is also necessary to develop customised training
alongside systematic and guided learning. For example, this opportunities for semi-skilled workers. Up to now, this
could include the acquisition of competence through coop- groups of employees has only been taken into account in
eration in inter-disciplinary groups, or experience gained exceptional cases. Employer and employee representatives
by solving company-related tasks. have a special responsibility for the development of a
new learning culture, because a cultural change cannot be
The working group therefore recommends that qualifica- created by an order issued from above, and it will only be
tion, vocational education and training and competence sustainable if it is jointly developed and supported and if
development should always be designed flexibly with the managerial staff model it in their own approach. The
reference to the applicable business process to ensure collective agreement on part-time work to allow for edu-
that it keeps up with continuous change. The operational cation between the metalworker union IG Metall and the
requirements for vocational education and training are metalworking employers is a first step in this direction.
often similar, so the working group considers that greater
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The working group is convinced that a new learning cul- and occupational research and future technology, in the
ture also requires the right sort of leadership culture in the dynamic process of change this access must also be given
companies. It must increasingly be based on communica- to works councils.
tion, cooperation, self-directed responsibility and partici-
pation, not on detailed hierarchical regulations. Transpar-
ency is an important concept here. The leader of the future Effective use of new media
will share knowledge, give constructive feedback, trust
the strengths of the employees and systematically pro- The use of digital media and associated training resources
mote these strengths. This leader will also have a strongly can provide effective support in the transition to a learning
developed social competence and will use this to motivate culture which is appropriate for Industrie 4.0. Fundamen-
the employees to support each other in the learning and tally, learning is increasingly taking place “on the job”. In
working process. At the same time, the employees will have educational research there is a growing assumption that
greater scope for action and to structure the workplace so employees learn 70% of their competence by facing chal-
that they can make full use of their strengths and construc- lenging tasks and solving sophisticated problems in their
tively apply their experience. daily work, 20% from and with other people (e. g. their own
supervisors) and 10% by formal learning through books
Information and participation are essential to defuse and courses. Under the slogan “everybody is a teacher,
people’s fear of change. This is especially the task of the everybody is a learner”, the exchange of experience with
responsible stakeholders within the company. Against colleagues and systematic mentoring or coaching relation-
this background, it is one of the strengths of the platform ships become an important knowledge resource, with the
Industrie 4.0 and the working group “labour, vocational advantage that the newly acquired knowledge is directly
education and training” that they bring company repre- applicable. Learning via in-house or external social plat-
sentatives and works council members together in close forms is also becoming more important because it allows
cooperation. Co-determination and a negotiating part- real-time discussion of the subjects. To organise the var-
nership between the management and the workforce are ied learning opportunities, including mixed-age learning
important elements to ensure that the working conditions teams, and to document learning achievements, it is pos-
are conducive to learning and that the available training is sible to use “learning road maps” which the learner can
up to date. compile in consultation with the supervisor and then use
for guidance. And global access to knowledge irrespective
The working group encourages businesses to create a of the location can take place by scalable learning opportu-
framework for more leaning in the workplace, and thus for nities such as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Clas-
in-service training, to make working procedures more con- sical classroom formats with a teacher-pupil structure are
ducive to learning for employees of all age groups and to becoming rare, but can be used systematically for specific
make increasing use of flexible forms of learning that can teaching content.
be integrated into the workplace.
Before digital media such as learning games, simulations,
The introduction of a new learning culture is a process assistance systems or instruction films are used to a greater
which companies must plan in the light of their own extent, careful thought should be given to the teaching or
business needs and the individual training needs of their learning processes in which they can effectively be used, in
employees. The discussions in the working group show order to bring in-service training closer to reality and inte-
that the transition to sustainable and socially responsi- grate it more into the working processes. The mere fact that
ble solutions needs solid dialogue processes and guidance media are digital does not automatically mean that they are
mechanisms in the companies to facilitate the participa- effective Similarly, it must be determined where traditional
tion of employees and their representatives in the process. learning environments (e. g. attending seminars) are no
Thus, companies not only promote acceptance and moti- longer in step with the times and can be replaced by digital
vation, but also help to discover and test good solutions. learning opportunities. It is important that digital resources
That requires employee participation, intensive coopera- should be designed to be available to all employees simply
tion and new competence for all parties involved. Not only and flexibly – irrespective of the time and place of work –
the management and the people responsible for training and that regular feedback is given by the employees to facil-
need access to expert knowledge in areas such as training itate the adaptation and improvement of the resources.
 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N D AT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5 61

B Recommendations for political action

In the light of their own role, the companies and work make the sensible use of information and communication
councils involved in the work group especially expect technology and digital media, and the use of data a normal
the political stakeholders to create a framework that will part in all school subjects. Technology as a separate school
ensure constructive cooperation between all parties and subject (including broad coverage of computer science)
facilitate the acquisition of abilities, expertise and design would still be necessary, but could be reserved for those
knowledge for Industrie 4.0. This includes changes in the who want more in-depth knowledge.
entire education process.
Schools also need to change in the interest of the demand
for a closer link between learning and work. If the work-
Promoting media competence in schools place becomes a place of learning, then the school class-
room should also become a place that is linked to the world
The national government and the federal states already of labour. The work group therefore suggests that career
promote media competence in general and vocational choice processes, trainee placements, practical learning and
schools, although this is not the same as media affinity. vocational guidance should become a standard element in
The work group suggests that this goal should be extended. all schools. Grammar schools in particular have ground to
IT skills such as programming should be regarded as an make up here.
important cultural skill for the 21st century, and supported
accordingly. Therefore, steps must be taken in schools to
ensure that this knowledge and these skills are sufficiently Making vocational education more attractive
promoted. The work group believes that there is a special
need for extra treatment in teacher training. Basic informa- The national government and the federal states need to
tion technology knowledge should become a binding ele- strengthen the dual system. The dual vocational education
ment in teacher training and in-service courses. This would system and dual studying are successful models which the
62 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N DAT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5

work group believes should be preserved and extended. the cancellation or at least modification of the prohibition
Joint efforts are necessary to make vocational education of cooperation so that a “programme of action for voca-
more attractive so that they are preserved as a basis for new tional schools in 2020” can begin. This includes greater
employees, especially for SMEs. investments to ensure that vocational schools are available
everywhere, the development of new educational concepts,
The work group does not believe that new apprenticed improvements in the training of teachers and an intensifi-
trades are necessary for Industrie 4.0 or that existing cation of contact between vocational schools and business
trades need to be formally changed. But some of the voca- companies and between SMEs and large enterprises. Sim-
tional education regulations and career profiles need to ilarly, inter-company vocational education centres should
be adapted and made more flexible in their content. The be developed further.
employer and employee representatives (the Federation of
German Employers’ Associations in the Metal and Electrical To cope with digital change, the work group believes that
Engineering Industries, the union IG Metall, the Mechan- assistance (“tool boxes”) for the design of vocational educa-
ical Engineering Industry Association VDMA and the Ger- tion for Industrie 4.0 should be developed for instructors,
man Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers‘ Association teachers and business companies on the basis of the exist-
ZVEI) are currently preparing to adapt the vocational edu- ing vocational education and training curricula. It would
cation regulations and curricula in the metalworking and also be helpful to create a setting in which business com-
electrical trades so that their content can be adapted to panies can exchange information about good practice and
meet the current challenges of digitisation. They are also also about negative experience. Here, teaching materials
checking whether any further demand could arise. that have been successfully used in one company can be
made available to others in digital format. The work group
The work group calls on the responsible stakeholders in therefore suggests that the responsible stakeholders in the
the national government and the federal states to consider national government and the federal states should consult
 LO N G V E R S I O N O F T H E R E CO M M E N D AT I O N S F O R A C T I O N , W O R K I N G G R O U P 5 63

with employer and employee representatives to ascertain ciplinary and based on real working processes in order to
the extent to which this is possible in existing meetings. do justice to the increasingly fluid transitions between dif-
Perhaps – especially in view of the rapid pace of change ferent areas, e. g. between electronics, mechanics and IT or
– new settings or even digital and networked resources between production and service. In the last resort, the goal
must be created. is to create better recognition and credit allowance mech-
anisms for the transition between different educational
The range of dual courses offered should be increased levels and institutions.
to match the rising demand for highly qualified experts,
and the cooperation between higher education institu- The demand for advanced and further training for all
tions and business companies should be encouraged. groups of employees at all qualification levels will increase
dramatically across the board. To cope with this, the work
group believes that a better cooperation between in-house,
More advice on further vocational training for private and state training programmes and institutions
business companies is necessary. The goal must be to link further vocational
training and education programmes, including the relevant
The working group suggests that the national govern- courses of study, more closely with practical work. If gen-
ment and the federal states should consider providing eral schools, vocational schools, private and state advanced
financial support for further training advice for busi- and further training institutions, adult education centres,
nesses (especially SMEs) and employees, because the universities and applied science universities are to cooper-
existing demand for advice is not being sufficiently met. ate better, the work group believes that they must be more
The aim would especially be to help companies to find strongly networked in future. This requires the appropriate
ways to develop the competence of their employees formal and legal regulations.
either on their own or with outside support. Public
subsidy programmes for further vocational training and
career development must be made more transparent and Using test beds and competence centres for
accessible. training and qualification

The work group sees a significant need for research pro- In the Industrie 4.0 competence centres and “test beds”,
jects and advanced training subsidies for the study of the work group believes that workplace design, vocational
teaching methods in further vocational education and education and training should play a significantly greater
media teaching strategies in the workplace, with similar role. The work group also recommends that the compe-
provisions for managerial staff. The necessary key com- tence centres for small and medium-sized enterprises
petence areas for digitisation and Industrie 4.0 should be should be used as an important learning and experimen-
the main content. tation resource for companies, work council members
and employees. The work group suggests that it should be
checked whether and how the competence centres can be
Linking different areas of education and more systematically geared to the work and training struc-
training tures. Here, changes must be made to promote sustainable
implementation and solution strategies. This also applies to
The work group “labour, vocational education and train- “test beds” in companies which have so far only been able
ing” believes that the need for courses that transcend to test technical solutions.
career boundaries and for hybrid training courses will
increase significantly in order to cover the complexity
of the world of work. In this context, vocational educa-
tion, further vocational training and higher education
institutions must be more closely linked. The work group
suggests that revised and new curricula in all areas of
education and training should be increasingly inter-dis-
64

Members of the Industrie 4.0 Plattform’s

working group ‘labour, vocational education
and training’ | authors and editorial team |
supporters
Group management Employees’ representatives

Dr. Constanze Kurz, IG Metall Klaus Ahlborn, Airbus Operations GmbH

Armin Kolb, KUKA AG
Olaf Bolduan, Oliver Mauer, Siemens AG
Companies’ representatives Uwe Hußmann, IMA Klessmann
Carsten Kemmer, Jürgen Drung, Festo AG & Co. KG
Jan Balcke, Airbus Operations GmbH Christa Lang, IG Metall Baden-Württemberg
Markus Bell, SAP SE Dieter Lochbihler, Robert Bosch GmbH
Bernd Brennenstuhl, Hewlett Packard GmbH Uta Reinhard, Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co
Silvia Buchinger, KUKA AG Daniela Schiermeier, ABB AG
Siegfried Czock, Robert Bosch GmbH Dieter Seidel, Daimler AG
Dr. Peter Dern, Software AG Mathias Staiger, TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen
Dr. Kathrin Heckner, Wittenstein AG GmbH + Co. KG
Thomas Koch, Benteler Deutschland GmbH
Dr. Heike Kummer, Daimler AG
Christoph Kunz, Siemens AG Permanent guests
Markus Lecke, Deutsche Telekom AG
Karlheinz Müller, EABB Consulting Dr. Jörg Friedrich, Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und
Dr. Reinhard Pittschellis, Festo Didactic SE Anlagenbau e. V.; Mechanical Engineering Industry
Andreas Schneider, TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen Association (VDMA)
GmbH + Co. KG Juliane Peterich, Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft,
Reinhard Spilker, IMA Klessmann Telekommunikation und neue Medien e. V. (Bitkom;
Hermann Trompeter, Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG Germany’s digital industry association)
Marius Rieger, Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und
Elektronikindustrie e. V.; ZVEI; German Electrical and
Electronic Manufacturers’ Association
Dr. Volker Fürst, Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF)
Dr. Anette Rückert, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs
and Energy (BMWi)
Heike Zirden, Michael Maschke, Federal Ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)
Sabine Bergmann, Industrie 4.0 Administrative Office
Konrad Klingenburg, IG Metall
Dr. Irmhild Rogalla, Institut für praktische Interdiszipli-
narität (Institut PI, Berlin) (institute for practical interdisci-
plinarity)
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen, TU Dortmund
University (for the scientific advisory council)
 M E M B E R S O F T H E I N D U S T R I E 4. 0 P L AT T F O R M ’ S W O R K I N G G R O U P ‘ L A B O U R , V O C AT I O N A L E D U C AT I O N 65
A N D T R A I N I N G ’ | AU T H O R S A N D E D I TO R I A L T E A M | S U P P O RT E R S

Core team of authors and editorial team

Sabine Bergmann, Industrie 4.0 Administrative Office

Dr. Jonas Gobert, Industrie 4.0 Administrative Office
Norbert Hüsson, independent journalist
Konrad Klingenburg, IG Metall
Dr. Constanze Kurz, IG Metall
Dr. Irmhild Rogalla, Institut PI
(Institute For Applied Transdisziplinarity)

The editorial team thanks the following

co-authors and other individuals who provided
support:

Frank Mühlon, Dr. Erhan Serbest, Marcus Braunert,

Daniela Schiermeier, ABB AG
Jan Balcke, Merle Hasenkamp, Klaus Ahlborn and
Pierre Freyber, Airbus Operations GmbH
Moritz Niehaus, Carsten Kemmer, Projekt APPsist
Thomas Koch, Benteler Deutschland GmbH
Gabi Schilling (IG Metall NRW), Daniel Wollny (Achenbach
Buschhütten GmbH & Co. KG); (company site-map in the
context of the project ‘Labour 2020 in North Rhine-West-
phalia state’)
Dieter Lochbihler, Siegfried Czock, Robert Bosch GmbH
Dr. Heike Kummer, Daimler AG
Jan-Peter Krauß, Dipl.-Ing. Ute Poerschke,
Elschukom GmbH
Dr. Reinhard Pittschellis, Manfred Zahn, Festo Didactic SE
Jan Chaberny, IG Metall
Silvia Buchinger, Armin Kolb, KUKA AG
Magdalena Münstermann, Dirk Münstermann,
Bernd Münstermann GmbH & Co. KG
Bastian Bröckling, Eugen Heinrich, Norbert Wrede,
Birgit Baumeister, Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG
Markus Bell, Susanne Müller, Clara Marie Japing, SAP AG
Christoph Kunz, Erik Engwer, Siemens AG
Dr. Peter Dern, Software AG
Markus Lecke, Deutsche Telekom AG
Dr. Terry Gregory, Centre for European Economic Research
(ZEW)

This publication is a result of the working group on labour, vocational education and training of the Plattform Industrie 4.0.
www.plattform-i40.de