Integrated University-Industry Training: A Collaborative Journey

Abstract

University-Industry collaboration is fundamental in today’s changing and competitive world, as it allows us to take advantage of the strengths of each of them. The University of Valladolid has been collaborating for more than 25 years with Renault-Nissan Consulting in different fields: scholarships, contract research and, more recently, a laboratory adapted to the academic and industrial environment, where Renault students and employees are trained to improve their skills in lean management. This school provides training in production systems concepts and lean manufacturing in an innovative way simulating real manufacturing processes. This work shows one of the latest and most innovative training processes carried out at the Lean School and the results obtained with a small product manufactured with toy building blocks and which is also carried out in companies on demand. The levels of assimilation and retention of knowledge of the students are highly superior to those achieved by traditional methods.