Automated Production Line Simulation Prevents the Unexpected

Imagine a scenario where a manufacturer could implement an entire production line complete with new equipment and automation and do so with no loss or interruption of ongoing production during line development.  

Or perhaps an OEM wants to experiment with its processes, make adjustments along the line and determine that production sweet spot for maximum optimization — again without any downtime or unexpected mishaps that might result from a misinformed calculation or concept. 

Up to now, there’s always been a significant amount of uncertainty to planning or altering production processes. Regardless of how long designers and engineers ponder and pour over spreadsheets and operation plans, floor managers are unsure whether the concept will work until they switch on the power to the line. If operations don’t go as planned, devastating consequences are often the result, especially if large capital expenditures have been made or lines have been shut down for months.  

In addition to production lost to implementing the new system, the manufacturer will suffer more loss of time and money having to rethink, rework and perhaps even replace the concept with another. To avoid this, many companies delay or resist modernizing, optimizing and making their next bold move for fear of unintended consequences — a mindset that is a sure path to irrelevance in today’s manufacturing environment.

With the advent of simulation technology, however, companies can now conceive, design, implement, validate, commission and optimize entire production lines in the digital virtual world without risk, downtime or loss of production. 

For example, prior to simulation technology, a Tier I auto manufacturer seeking to automate a welding and material handling system for a component would rely on CAD drawings, 2D schematics and countless spreadsheets detailing processes and operations. While they would also commission manual time and motion studies to predict potential bottlenecks and inefficiencies, those bottlenecks rarely exist as a singularity but as the sum total of several contributing factors. There would also be numerous meetings, presentations and reports to keep all stakeholders in the loop. 

Unfortunately, when all the traditional planning, operational schematics and meetings are concluded, one vital question remains: Will it really work in the real world? 

Highly Accurate Digital Twins of Production Spaces 

To answer that question, software companies like Visual Components offer new ways to design production lines and systems, optimize existing operations and even build factories from the ground up with 3D digital simulation software, offline robotic programing and immersive virtual reality (VR) simulations. With those capabilities, manufacturers can build realistic digital twins of their processes that reflect their actual production environments, including their unique best practices and detailed operations, personnel and specific equipment and controls. 

Using the hypothetical Tier I automotive welding and material line above, the manufacturer can plan and sequence every particular operation/process using dropdown menus and tools like Visual Components’ eCatalog of industrial robots, machines and automation components. The software’s factory layout tools allow the manufacturer to match its welding cell space requirements to highly accurate digital twins of its actual production space. 

However, production lines also involve operators. Using VR technology, operators functioning in the virtual digital world go about their individual tasks such as training robot paths, loading/unloading parts or interfacing with other components of the system to test whether ergonomics are acceptable. 

Offline robotic programming allows engineers to program and configure specific robots in accordance with the manufacturer’s unique process operations to perform necessary tasks in welding and material handling. In short, they can test and validate the entire welding cell, its equipment and the human operator interface in a digital space before process hardware even arrives on the factory floor. Engineers can map all work and material flows and establish automation rules and boundaries while also simulating, observing and validating all movements of the welding cell. 

Moreover, managers will receive operational data from the digital cell in real time. As a result, they can optimize the cell and automation strategies before deploying them to improve cycle times and workflows with alternative processes while saving downtime due to reconfiguring the system once it has been commissioned. They can test those potential improvements without impact to existing production and confidently make process changes that are backed by real data, as opposed to hypothesis and estimation. 

Digital 3D simulation and offline robotic programming technologies like those offered by Visual Components provide manufacturers with the tools they need to overcome the uncertainty that drives hesitancy and resistance to change — the very change that may be necessary to stay relevant in an ever-changing manufacturing environment. 

Production line simulation technology is more than computer simulation. It is a deep dive into what is possible from a place where that reality is yet to exist. As manufacturers are pressed with tighter production schedules, shrinking margins and economic uncertainty, it’s more important than ever that they work through the uncertainty of change in the digital world before they go live in the real one.