Integration of a teardown approach at Graz University of Technology´s LEAD Factory

The teardown approach is a useful tool to understand both the structure and the functionality of products. Furthermore, it plays a
significant role in product development and the related product evolution. Due to the fact, that there is no research known describing
a teardown process implemented in the environment of learning factories, the development and application of the teardown
approach plays a significant role in future development of Graz University of Technology’s LEAD Factory. The aim of this research
is to develop a teaching module, which combines the usage of product teardown with the integration of new products into a learning
factory environment. The theoretical framework for the approach is built up on the basic teardown procedure and principles of
function analysis combined with the Learning Factory Curriculum Guide. The teardown objects are e-scooters in three different
variants. After the teardown process, the most promising variant is addressed to be implemented in the assembly line of the learning
factory as an additional product to the actual scooter. Within the designed teaching module, the training participants should first
disassemble the teardown objects and compare the different variants of the e-scooter in terms of functions, geometry and the ability
for assembling afterwards. In the following step, the participants have to select the e-scooter variant with the highest functional
correlation and optimize the e-scooters functionality by applying the Value Analysis Tear-Down approach in terms of enabling the
integration into the LEAD Factory. The focus of the teaching module is the application of the hands-on teardown approach, the
functional evaluation of the teardown objects and the implementation recommendations.