Building a virtual factory: an integrated design approach to building smart factories

Abstract

Purpose The complexity of manufacturing systems, on-going production and existing constraints on the shop floor remain among the main challenges for the analysis, design and development of the models in product, process and factory domains. The potential of different virtual factory (VF) tools and approaches to support simultaneous engineering for the design, and development of these domains has been addressed in the literature. To fulfil this potential, there is a need for an approach which integrates the product, process and production systems for designing and developing VF and its validation in real-life cases. This paper aims to present an integrated design approach for VF design and development, as well as a demonstration implemented in a wind turbine manufacturing plant. Design/methodology/approach As the research calls for instrumental knowledge to discover the effects of intervention on the operations of an enterprise, design science research methodology is considered to be a well-suited methodology for exploring practical usefulness of a generic design to close the theory–practice gap. The study was planned as an exploratory research activity which encompassed the simultaneous design and development of artefacts and retrospective analysis of the design and implementation processes. The extended VF concept, architecture, a demonstration and procedures followed during the research work are presented and evaluated. Findings The artefacts (models and methods) and the VF demonstrator, which was evaluated by industry experts and scholars based on the role of the VF in improving the performance in the evaluation and reconfiguration of new or existing factories, reduce the ramp-up and design times, supporting management decisions. Preliminary results are presented and discussed. Research limitations/implications The concept VF model, its architecture and general methodology as an integrated design and development approach, can be adopted and used for VF design and development both for discrete and continuous manufacturing plants. The development and demonstration were limited, however, because real-time synchronisation, 3D laser scanning data and a commonly shared data model, to enable the integration of different VF tools, were not achievable. Originality/value The paper presents a novel VF concept and architecture, which integrates product, process and production systems. Moreover, design and development methods of the concept and its demonstration for a wind turbine manufacturing plant are presented. The paper, therefore, contributes to the information systems and manufacturing engineering field by identifying a novel concept and approach to the effective design and development of a VF and its function in the analysis, design and development of manufacturing systems.

Virtual Prototyping: Evaluating the Digital Twin Based Virtual Factory for New Product Introduction

“…Therefore, the study draws upon previous research, including concept design and development of the VF [16], its extension with DT [11], [12] and collaborative VR capabilities [17]. Thus, we spare the reader from prolonged discussions on the concept and its design and development methodologies.…”

“…There is also a higher level of utilisation of the VF concept as a collaborative business process monitoring environment for achieving business goals [39]. Yildiz and Møller [16] presented the VF concept as a more dynamic and open system by integrating VF into actual manufacturing execution and product lifecycle systems, as illustrated in Figure 1. A more distinct conceptualisation of the product, process and system domains in between the product and production lifecycle processes enables better interpretation of the link between these domains.…”

“…The utilisation of collaborative VR training simulations in the VF concept, together with DT capabilities, was also studied by Yildiz et al [11], [17]. They also considered VF as "an immersive virtual environment wherein digital twins of all factory entities can be created, related, simulated, manipulated and communicate with each other in an intelligent way" [16]. A comprehensive demonstration of the DT based VF concept in industrial cases [12] showed significant potential for the concept to handle co-evolution and called for more particular evaluation in VP cases.…”

“…The other DSRM activities, including the problem identification, definition of the objectives of the solution, design, and development activities, that were performed during the previous three years, were covered in previous studies. Thus, the reader should refer to those studies for more information to close the gap between the initial claim, which is the design and development of the DT based VF solution [11], [16], [17], and demonstration and evaluation.…”

Self‐organizing maps and Bayesian networks in organizational modelling: A case study in innovation projects management

“…This occurs through the identification, exploration and construction of internal competencies of the organization. This last task, most of the times, is complex, and the development of competences in systems modelling and simulation becomes increasingly important as a differential factor in the current competitive scenario (Airoldi et al, 2011; Harrison et al, 2007; Vernadat, 2020; Yildiz & Møller, 2021).…”