The next generation shop floor management – how to continuously develop competencies in manufacturing environments

Manufacturing companies have to cope with a rising number of product variants as well as ageing personnel due to the demographic change. These challenges require companies to develop their employees’ competencies – problem solving competencies in particular – especially on the shop floor. In order to support a value-driven material flow, shop floor management systems have been introduced in many manufacturing environments. The integration of a competency management system that continuously develops problem solving competencies through shop floor management seems to be a promising approach. In this paper, today’s understanding of shop floor management as well as its connections and differentiations to other managerial systems are developed in order to fully grasp its potential for competency development. To use shop floor management as a facilitator for competency development in production environments the problem resolution cycle known from lean production is picked up and thoroughly analyzed regarding the integration of competency development. An outlook is given on a current research project which aims at concretizing these means of competency development through shop floor management