Maximizing knowledge transfer is one of the main factors of modern education. It is important to raise the probability that students can successfully apply acquired knowledge into practice. This article deals with virtual reality (VR) as an alternative method to provide students with a more immersive approach to semester assignments and their completion. In addition to information on paper, they are provided with an immersive virtual environment that interactively visualizes problems. To test this approach, a case study took place at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Žilina. Students were given a standard assignment for workplace analysis and optimization. However, in addition to papers containing all the necessary information about the workplace and its processes (a drilling workplace), the students could also put on a VR headset and walk through a virtual copy of the assigned workplace. Instead of relying on a 2D layout and a few photos, the students observed every detail of the workplace from any angle. Moreover, the immersive virtual workplace was interactive, and the students could interact with machine tools and replicate the real manufacturing process. With this new addition, the students completed the assignment and then filled out a short questionnaire questioning their satisfaction with the chosen approach. With positive feedback, the implementation of VR into the teaching process could further motivate students and make the transfer of knowledge into their future jobs easier.

The article deals with the design of virtual reality (VR) interactive training as a teaching method and its effect on knowledge transfer and retention of students. The first part presents the methodology of the VR interactive training design. The second part utilizes the created interactive training for a case study to evaluate its effect on the teaching process and to examine the potential of VR interactive training as a sustainable teaching method. The study took place at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Žilina. Volunteers were divided into two groups. The first group used VR interactive training as a teaching method, while the second group used the conventional method. Both groups then underwent tests. The main goal was to evaluate the effect of the VR interactive training on the teaching process in comparison to the conventional method while trying to identify the key elements of the VR interactive training design and its influence on knowledge transfer and retention in a sustainable learning environment. At the start of the case study, four hypotheses were formed, questioning the effect of interactive training on knowledge transfer and retention in the long and short term, and its overall influence on the teaching process. Obtained data were then used to evaluate these hypotheses.

Designing a workplace may be a challenging task. It is important to make sure that the new workplace will prevent unnecessary resource waste, but also create a safe working environment for employees. Therefore, creating a virtual copy of the workplace before its real-life implementation may help to eliminate design shortcomings. This article presents a methodology of creating a virtual workplace using a game engine – Unity 3D. The methodology describes basic principles and methods used for the creation of virtual workplace, from initial analysis to utilization. The user then can use a VR head-mounted device to see small details and possible shortcomings. Effectiveness of methodology was then evaluated by using it to visualize a bar-processing workplace.

(1) At present, it is important to bring the latest technologies from industrial practice into the teaching process of educational institutions, including universities. The presented case study addresses the application of educational games in virtual reality to the teaching process in a university environment. (2) The study took place at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Žilina in Žilina and consisted of two phases. In the first phase, students’ satisfaction with current teaching methods was examined. The second phase focused on an educational game in virtual reality, which introduced a non-traditional approach for teaching lean management, namely the tool 5S. (3) This game was designed by the study authors and created in the Godot game engine. The educational game was provided to students during class. After completing the game, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The aim was to enable students to express their opinion on the educational game and to identify the main benefits of this approach in the teaching process. (4) In the study’s final phase, based on the acquired knowledge, the authors examined the benefits and disadvantages of virtual reality educational games for the teaching process of industrial engineering tools.

The use of modern information and communication technologies plays a key role in the current global competitive environment of long-term manufacturing company sustainability. Based on the requirements of Slovak industrial companies (both domestic and foreign companies), there is a need to implement these technologies into the university teaching process. Therefore, this article describes virtual and augmented reality applications into the teaching process of Digital Factory module at the Industrial Engineering Department of the University of Zilina. The main aim of this study was to test and document how helpful immersive technologies could be in a teaching process. There were a group of students who took part in this study whose job was to assemble a specific assembly construction, first without the help of virtual technologies and second with the help of augmented and virtual reality. The results were collected through operation images and chronometry, these were then analyzed the conclusions stated in the article were obtained. In the conclusion, the final part of the article describes a general evaluation of virtual training use in the industrial practice of long-term industrial company sustainability.

The presented contribution deals with the research of the maintenance strategy and procedures for improving maintenance processes in order to increase the efficiency and quality of the production system. It is based on a thorough analysis of the research of the available literary sources published in foreign and domestic scientific journals. The subsequent proposal includes defining new goals and maintenance performance indicators relevant to today’s production systems to track improvements in the sustainable development of the production system. There are also basic principles of the maintenance strategy with links to the production system and the choice of strategy for the organization. This paper emphasizes the audit of maintenance management and the implementation of quality in maintenance. Next, a new procedure for changing the maintenance strategy is described. This process includes reviewing the criticality of machines and equipment and their structural units, then resource and capacity planning and inputs for maintenance management, and the impact of maintenance on the operating costs of the production system. This was based on which partial projects in companies were verified—automotive industry (spare parts, preventive maintenance, planned maintenance, RCFA, TPM), rubber industry (quality, production efficiency), pharmaceutical industry (preventive and predictive maintenance), engineering industry (TPM, LOTO, RCM). The overall verification of the creation of the maintenance strategy and the proposed methodology was carried out on the basis of the outputs of the sub-projects and overall projects in the following companies with positive results—glass industry, chemical industry, and operational research (research and development of equipment for non-reactor parts of nuclear power plants). Ten steps of the audit of the current state of the management of maintenance processes were proposed, to ensure economic improvements in the costs of maintenance processes and operating costs, ensuring competitiveness. A methodology for changing the maintenance strategy focused on the efficiency, quality, and costs of the production system was proposed. The average benefits from the implementation of strategy changes in organizations reached at least the following: (1) increase in production efficiency—OEE (7%), (2) improvement in production quality (20%), (3) improvement in performance (15%), and (4) reduction in maintenance process costs (10%) in implemented projects.