The project POM Learning Lab develops a technology-enhanced serious game for teaching production management. It enhances an existing and successfully deployed board game that uses LEGO bricks to teach factory management and manufacturing process design.
The project
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Enhancing a Lean Production board game with Industry 4.0 technologieswww.youtube.com
The project POM Teaching Lab develops a technology-enhanced serious game for teaching production management. It enhances an existing and successfully deployed board game that uses LEGO bricks to teach factory management and manufacturing process design. The purpose is to teach students how lean and digital transformation have the potential to change and improve manufacturing and to reflect on its advantages and drawbacks.
Implementation into teaching practice
We let our students immerse themselves in the role of a truck producer. They are the managers, process engineers, quality inspectors, and assembly workers who run the factory producing Lego trucks. The course is run as a block course over two days: On Day 1, we played the traditional lean board game, and on Day 2, we played the technology-enhanced version.
On Day 1, the students advance through different forms of production. First, they start with craft production, where each person individually assembles as many trucks as possible. As they learn about some of the problems associated with this form of manufacturing, we define stations and move to batch production. While this reduces production times, it highlights new problems, such as a lack of communication and a chaotic flow of materials. In response, we implement a line production where every station is moved to the correct order of production. Finally, for the fourth round, the students learn about lean production and its methods, such as visual management, flow, and decentralized control. In each round, performance metrics are tracked so the students can experience how the production becomes more efficient and profitable. The students also actively brainstorm and decide on suggestions for improvement after each round using a lean practice called “kaizen workshop.”
On Day 2, we used four technologies as sample use cases of the so-called fourth industrial revolution (“Industry 4.0”) to further increase the productivity of the classroom factory. The students are divided into groups and rotate to get an introduction to each of the four selected technologies. For this, we staffed each station with a “technology expert” (lecturer). We did not only want to provide a hands-on experience but also let the students reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of automation and digitization in manufacturing. In moving through these four stations, the students interact with the same technology that is used in manufacturing companies. Besides critically analyzing technological aspects, we also reflect on the impact on the workers. Eventually, all the technologies are integrated into a final game round where Lego trucks are built with a combination of lean and Industry 4.0 principles.
Lessons learned and further impacts
This course has become extremely popular in the study program at D-MTEC and is consistently overbooked. We were able to integrate the digital technologies as planned in the board game and run the course a couple of times. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. In both course evaluations conducted so far, the students scored the statements «In general, I am highly satisfied with the course» and «I will recommend the course to others» with a 5.0 («absolutely true,» md=5.0, dev.=0.0). We also used other scientific evaluation methods to assess the quality of the course and its pedagogical innovation.
Based on the course design and evaluation data, we have authored a paper that has been accepted at the top computer-human interaction conference CHI 2025: Zhang, X., Xue, F., Albers, A., and Netland, T. (2025) It’s impressive, but in practice …”: Experiencing a realistic digital transformation in and beyond the classroom. CHI 2025, Yokohama, Japan.
We have experienced that the students enjoyed the teaching format and reported high satisfaction and learning outcomes. The following quotes are student testimonials from the anonymous course evaluation survey:
– «It was a very exciting course that was well organized. Theory, practice and breaks were well divided and balanced so that you could well until the end. A very valuable course in the program.»
– «The course was probably the best I’ve attended in my MAS program so far: the lecturers constructed an enormously instructive simulation and were also excellently prepared. Thanks to the very good foundations, the course was also great fun.»
– «The best subject so far. The learning methodology was outstanding.»
– «The course was extremely well prepared, and I felt very privileged to have been able to attend it. You can feel how much work went into it (and still does, with all the tutors). It was very different from the other courses and I’m sure I am going to remember it for quite some time.»
The drawback of this course design is that it is time and resource-intensive to build and deliver. As a board game, we limit the number of students to 25. During the second block day of teaching, we have up to six teachers involved in classroom delivery. Hence, scaling is not easy. By publishing about the course, we hope to inspire other teachers to offer similar courses elsewhere.
