Demonstration and evaluation of a digital twin-based virtual factory

Area of Science:

• Industrial Engineering
• Manufacturing Systems
• Digital Transformation

Background:

• Smart manufacturing faces challenges from increasing complexity and shorter product lifecycles.
• Traditional methods struggle with dynamic environments and concurrent evolution of products, processes, and systems.
• The 4th Industrial Revolution necessitates adaptive manufacturing strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate and evaluate a digital twin-based virtual factory (VF) concept.
• To assess the VF concept's utility in modeling, simulation, and evaluation of complex manufacturing systems.
• To explore the application of multi-user collaborative virtual reality (VR) for learning and training in manufacturing.

Main Methods:

• Demonstration and evaluation of a digital twin-based VF concept.
• Application to two wind turbine manufacturing cases: blade plant and nacelle assembly.
• Semi-structured conversational interviews with thirteen industry experts.

Main Results:

• The digital twin-based VF concept shows potential for supporting concurrent engineering through virtual collaboration.
• Virtual prototyping (VP) using the VF concept can decrease physical builds and save time.
• Expert evaluation highlighted the dynamic, open, cognitive, and holistic system aspects of the VF concept.

Conclusions:

• The digital twin-based VF concept is a promising approach for managing complexity in smart manufacturing.
• It facilitates adaptation to dynamic environments and supports concurrent engineering and virtual prototyping.
• The integration of VR enhances learning and training capabilities within the virtual factory environment.