Automated pr actical activities of the GEIO gr oup in the Flexible Manufacturing Cell

Abstract

The article sets out the results of a project that sought to establish the articulation of the research carried out by the Laboratory of Flexible Manufacturing and the Operations Research Teaching Group (Spanish acronym, GEIO), belonging to the School of Industrial Engineering - Technological University of Pereira. Its main objective consisted of allowing the students to use research spaces where they could generate work to facilitate the inter-relationship and application of concepts reviewed in various subject areas. To reach this objective, an adaptation was made to the games generated by the GEIO group, through the use of automated centers and the specialized software of the flexible manufacturing laboratory, thus creating exercises where the benefits offered by the game were brought together in a systemic manner, such as its application, contextualization, viability of concepts, and those offered by the flexible manufacturing cell, such as the automation of processes, use of the programming language, and use of technologies to improve production systems. The integration of these knowledge-generating spaces contributed to the training of industrial engineering students in technical skills, since they were able to take part in a basic, barely-automated production process of a micro world generated through game play, and take it to a professional and technological level, mechanizing it through specialized machinery and tools used in real industries.