Learning Spaces for Engineering Education: An Exploratory Research About the Role of Lean Thinking

In the last decade, learning spaces have moved from the traditional classrooms and laboratories to sophisticated spaces that leverage on emerging technologies to facilitate and enhance active, social, and experiential learning. Engineering institutions around the globe are investing their resources in the creation of this spaces in order to provide students with a holistic training in line with the current demands in the job market. The present work identifies the main learning spaces implemented for engineering education and conducts and exploratory research about the role that Lean Thinking plays in their educational programs. The results suggest a clear distinction between Learning Factories and the group made of Fab Labs, Hackerspaces, and Makerspaces, which can be attributed to differences in governance and technical features. Learning Factories have successfully integrated Lean Thinking into their engineering curriculum, and while there is scarce literature concerning FLs, HSs, and MSs, there are elements in these spaces that can be considered lean enablers that could be exploited to integrate Lean Thinking into their research and educational activities.