Learning to Teach Lean in the Age of Digitalization: A Review of Recent ELEC Literature

Digitalization presents us with new and novel means of teaching Lean which enhances the effectiveness of Lean education programs. Despite the increased trending role of digitalization in Lean research publications over the past few years, there is still a lack of clear understanding of how to incorporate digitalization into Lean thinking and practice, and indeed which pedagogical tools facilitate the digital Lean transition. In this paper, we present a review of recent European Lean Educator Conference literature on the theme of teaching and learning Lean in the digital era. We address the need to develop effective training content in relation to Industry 4.0 and the importance of selecting the appropriate training strategy to maximize the transfer of knowledge. Following this, we discuss the appropriateness of different teaching platforms and compare the benefits and challenges of each. Based on our review of virtual and physical learning factories, we encourage organizations to pursue a hybrid learning approach that combines the physical and virtual environment and lets remote and on-site users benefit from both advantages.