As industry navigates the transition towards Industry 5.0, the need for human-centric workforce development becomes more pressing than ever. This shift highlights not only technological implementations but also employee empowerment through lifelong learning. Digital platforms for learning and skill management rapidly emerge, to align individuals’ skills with changing organisational needs. However, how these platforms are perceived and integrated across different companies is greatly underexplored. This study describes a mixed-methods evaluation of a digital skill management platform implemented in two industrial contexts: large Swedish companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany. The platform offers individual skill gap assessments, recommending suitable training for users. In the study, two main dimensions were investigated, i.e. the platform’s perceived effectiveness for users and the organisational integration of the platform. Results show a range of challenges in said dimensions. Users report varying platform usability and relevance of recommended learning. Results also reveal challenges in organisational integration and in aligning the platform with existing company-internal skill, task, and job taxonomies, including learning management systems (LMS). Other identified issues were user engagement and the visibility of learning progress for managers. Our conclusions emphasise the importance of adapting solutions to organisational contexts when implementing skill management systems. Based on insights from the study, recommendations for supporting successful implementation of such platforms, including the need to accommodate different stakeholder needs, are outlined. Our recommendations include enabling conditions, organisational integration and platform design. The presented results contribute to ongoing discussions on how digital learning solutions can support efficient workforce transformation towards Industry 5.0. Our findings have clear value for the university and research institution context, where researchers, teachers, and leaders are exploring ways to deliver lifelong learning opportunities in industry. Skill management platforms have potential to serve as bridges between university courses and workplace learning demands, enabling universities to play important roles in their employees’ lifelong learning.

The Ingenjör4.0 initiative responds to growing demands for digitalisation, sustainability, and workforce upskilling in the Swedish industrial sector. As companies adapt to transformative technologies like AI, cyber-physical systems, and smart maintenance, a widening skills gap hinders full technological integration. Ingenjör4.0 offers a strategic, research-based solution: a flexible, scalable online learning platform developed by a consortium of 13 universities and 165 industry partners, reaching over 1000 engineers to date.

Key challenges—including low course completion rates, certification barriers, and financial sustainability—have been addressed through evidence-based interventions, such as adaptive AI-driven skill assessments, micro-credentialing, and user-centered design grounded in motivational psychology. Evaluation data indicates a strong impact: up to 50% completion rates, measurable workplace applications, and widespread user satisfaction.

Looking forward, Ingenjör4.0 plans to expand internationally and integrate its offerings into formal education systems and corporate training frameworks. It exemplifies how collaborative digital education models can close skill gaps and enhance industrial competitiveness in a rapidly evolving global landscape

Today, a reduced carbon footprint within the manufacturing industry results in higher demands from the sub-suppliers of components and raw materials. On the other hand, an increased number of recycled goods in the manufacturing process challenges the total appearance of plastic components. Yet, the demands on the perceived quality of plastic components have tightened in the field to remain in a premium segment, and the specification of plastic components in a car interior is probably stricter than ever regarding customer acceptance. The question is, do today’s tolerances of plastic components regarding design and perceived quality serve in harmony with a higher level of recycled material in future components, or should the industry adapt its tolerances? Texture, gloss, and color variation have a great impact on the perceived quality of materials and have been an issue historically within the manufacturing industry of plastic components. This paper presents the results of a pilot study where typical gloss and color variation in plastic pieces was evaluated. Historically, the gloss and color variation occurs generally more often with increased recycled content; however, in this study, the color variation was simulated and controlled in virgin material. Significant links have been found between the total appearance, perceived quality, and production properties by using a tailormade method and toolbox based on Kansei Engineering (KE) combining qualitative- and quantitative methods. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Surfaces are vital for a range of functions for automotive components. The visual appearance and cleanability of injection moulded plastic parts depend on the control of the polished mould finish. It is also of interest to reduce oil consumption and frictional losses in internal combustion engines, which are heavily influenced by the quality of the cylinder liner surface. The plateau cross-hatch topography of a cylinder liner consists of a system of grooves of different density, width and depth, some parts covered by folded metal, and some parts totally interrupted and unbalanced as a result of imperfection in the honing process. These grooves are critical for good liner function and need to be quickly and objectively quantified for an efficient surface finish development. A suitable way to do this is to use coherence scanning interferometry and to combine profile and image analysis. Thus, the features/parameters, such as honing angle, balance of honing texture, groove interrupts, width, height and distance between grooves, are successively quantified. Here, these parameters, along with areal surface texture parameters in the published ISO specification standard, were used in three case studies. The first case study is on the effect of the folded metal on the surfaces of run truck liners, the second is an evaluation of the improvements of the surface quality introduced by the diamond honing in production of car liners. In addition, based on the significant parameters of the surface, a general characterisation tool for qualifying the surface quality and determination of the required number of measurements is presented. The third case is implementing the methodologies developed for engine liner characterisation for polished tool steels. The case worked well after it had been modified and adapted to these types of surfaces. Also, the scratch patterns on the polished samples, quantified in terms of width and depth, are important parameters that indicate whether the topography of a polished tool steel surface has reached a sufficient quality level, and supports the monitoring of how the polishing steps affect the surface topography © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.

Rapid Investment Casting (RIC) is an advanced manufacturing technique that combines the capabilities of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies to fabricate complex metal parts through the creation of wax models for investment casting. The success of this process relies heavily on the dimensional quality and precision of the initial wax patterns. The growing adoption of Material Jetting Technology (MJT), a type of AM process, for crafting these wax patterns necessitates a thorough investigation of properties imparted by this approach.

The analysis involves a direct comparison of the final 3D-scanned metal parts with the corresponding CAD model, offering insights into the accuracy of the MJT-generated wax patterns. A structured light projection 3D optical scanner was utilized to capture the 3D models of casted parts, and Geomagic Control X was utilized to point out the dimensional discrepancies between the scanned and CAD models. Additionally, the research provides a comparative analysis between MJT and Vat-photopolymerization (VPP) methods in RIC processes, contributing to the understanding of the impact of Additive Manufacturing (AM) on dimensional precision. The findings aim to enhance the knowledge surrounding the efficacy of MJT in RIC, paving the way for advancements in precision casting.

One of the main challenges employers face today is the growing skill gap, resulting from a mismatch between business transformation and the skills needed by employees. Since the demographics show a declining trend in Europe, China, and the US, recruiting new skilled talent will become an even bigger challenge in the future. The growing skill gap has reached a point where almost half of employees’ skills will change in the next years. For the individual employee, this implies a need to take on an upskilling journey to still deliver value to their company and society. However, there is a need to understand the individual’s skill gap and identify suitable actions to bridge it. This paper presents the implementation of a tool for guiding employees in finding their skill gaps and matching them to relevant training and learning modules. This includes implementing a skill-matching solution in a nationwide Swedish upskilling programme, highlighting the challenges of creating efficient individualized skill gap assessment, and recommending learning paths. © 2024 IEEE.

As we find ourselves in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, the digital transformation of products, processes, and systems, along with their interconnectedness, is of utmost interest. To ensure future competitiveness in the manufacturing sector, the integration of advanced manufacturing technologies and advanced information technology is essential. Information technologies and knowledge are deeply intertwined with industrial equipment, processes, products, and systems, posing a challenge in transitioning today's manufacturing industry into the digital era. The manufacturing sector will require adequate methods, a conducive working environment, new tools, and lifelong training to support its employees. This article describes a joint effort of five Swedish universities with the ambition to strengthen the competitiveness and innovativeness of the national manufacturing industry through highly competent researchers and future leaders. The collaboration is in the form of an industrial graduate school, combining the efforts of five universities, 16 graduate students, and 12 companies or organisations. This article will outline how the graduate school has been organized, the joint efforts that have been made to assure the development of all parties, organisations and individuals, and will also outline some of the key success factors that have been identified thus far in the project. © 2024 The Authors.

The automotive industry continuously strives to reduce their environmental impact. For the paint shop it means to introduce more sustainable paint concepts, while maintaining the production rate and retain the right surface appearance that is crucial for the vehicle’s perceived quality. Today most painted parts are visually inspected and, if needed, manually repaired by abrasive polishing to eliminate spot defects. The repair process consists of one sanding step to remove the defect, and one or two rubbing/polishing steps to restore the surface, but still it tends to be a non-reliable process leaving patterns or clusters of shallow micro scratches seen as three-dimensional shapes moving over the surface when viewed from different angles like holograms. These so called ‘polishing roses’ are hard to detect in artificial light but clearly visible in Sunlight and therefore they constitute a constant quality issue. Accurate polishing procedures in combination with more objective inspection techniques would secure a high surface quality—but what is ‘accurate’? The overall scope of the study was to deepen the knowledge of paint systems to develop test routines for the polishability of coatings already during the development stage, and thereby ease the implementation of new coating systems in production. The study was based on collected process data from professional polishers to define a process window based on key parameters for successful end-of-line repairs of coated surfaces, i.e. strategies minimizing the occurrence of visible polishing traces. A CNC-machine was built up for the purpose to systematically test and evaluate new coating systems and repair procedures. The surface estimation was made by visual inspections as well as by a further developed photometric stereo system providing quantitative images of remaining repair traces. © 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd

Interior automotive plastic components are often manufactured by injection moulding since this technique enables cost-efficient manufacturing, large design freedom, and easy integration of functions. However, to obtain a high-quality impression, it is important to produce components with uniformity in texture, colour, and gloss. Unfortunately, this is rather difficult since a large number of material and processing parameters affect the surface topography and thereby the texture, colour, and gloss. It is therefore important to improve the understanding of how different material and processing parameters affect the surface topography, and in the present study, the influence on surface topography of ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) and PP (Polypropylene) by melt temperature, tool temperature, and injection speed is investigated by coherence scanning interferometry. Area scale analysis is used to identify the wavelengths of interest, and areal surface parameters are statistically screened to identify robust surface parameters that can be used to discriminate between the surfaces and quantify the influence on surface topography by different material and process variables. Results from the study suggest that tool temperature and injection speed have significant influence on certain surface parameters and, particularly, arithmetic mean height (Sa) and root mean square gradient (Sdq) by approximately 40%, core material volume (Vmc) by 35%, and core roughness depth (Sk) by 50%. These surface parameters are identified as significant and used to discriminate between the sample surfaces. © 2023, The Author(s).

Digital manufacturing can produce new and advanced tools more rapidly and at lower cost than traditional manufacturing. This new technology means manufacturers need to develop innovative business models adapted to this change in the manufacturing landscape. With digital manufacturing, companies have both an opportunity and a challenge. They can enter new markets where large-scale production provides competitive advantage. They can enter niche markets that become more attractive as old boundaries and structures lose relevance. Yet their additive manufactured components must meet the same standards set for conventional manufactured components. However, we know little about how companies manage this change as they make the transition from traditional manufacturing to digital manufacturing. This chapter presents two co-creation digital manufacturing projects between university researchers and Swedish companies. In each project, the goal was to develop sustainable and efficient digital production methods that offer tailor-made product solutions. Various technical methods used in the projects are described as materials, and prototypes are developed, tested, and analyzed.