Yildiz Emre, Møller Charles, Bilberg Arne
Center for Industrial Production, Aalborg University, Fibigerstraede 16, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark.
Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, 6400 Sønderborg, Denmark.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol. 2021;114(1-2):185-203. doi: 10.1007/s00170-021-06825-w. Epub 2021 Mar 10.
Smart manufacturing, tailored by the 4th industrial revolution and forces like innovation, competition, and changing demands, lies behind the concurrent evolution (also known as co-evolution) of products, processes and production systems. Manufacturing companies need to adapt to ever-changing environments by simultaneously reforming and regenerating their product, process, and system models as well as goals and strategies to stay competitive. However, the ever-increasing complexity and ever-shortening lifecycles of product, process and system domains challenge manufacturing organization's conventional approaches to analysing and formalizing models and processes as well as management, maintenance and simulation of product and system life cycles. The digital twin-based virtual factory (VF) concept, as an integrated simulation model of a factory including its subsystems, is promising for supporting manufacturing organizations in adapting to dynamic and complex environments. In this paper, we present the demonstration and evaluation of previously introduced digital twin-based VF concept to support modelling, simulation and evaluation of complex manufacturing systems while employing multi-user collaborative virtual reality (VR) learning/training scenarios. The concept is demonstrated and evaluated using two different wind turbine manufacturing cases, including a wind blade manufacturing plant and a nacelle assembly line. Thirteen industry experts who have diverse backgrounds and expertise were interviewed after their participation in a demonstration. We present the experts' discussions and arguments to evaluate the DT-based VF concept based on four dimensions, namely, dynamic, open, cognitive, and holistic systems. The semi-structured conversational interview results show that the DT-based VF stands out by having the potential to support concurrent engineering by virtual collaboration. Moreover, DT-based VF is promising for decreasing physical builds and saving time by virtual prototyping (VP).
智能制造由第四次工业革命以及创新、竞争和不断变化的需求等因素塑造，是产品、流程和生产系统同步演进（也称为共同演进）的背后驱动力。制造企业需要通过同时改革和更新其产品、流程、系统模型以及目标和战略来适应不断变化的环境，以保持竞争力。然而，产品、流程和系统领域日益增加的复杂性以及不断缩短的生命周期，对制造组织分析和形式化模型与流程以及管理、维护和模拟产品与系统生命周期的传统方法构成了挑战。基于数字孪生的虚拟工厂（VF）概念，作为包括其子系统的工厂的集成仿真模型，有望支持制造组织适应动态和复杂的环境。在本文中，我们展示并评估了先前引入的基于数字孪生的VF概念，以支持复杂制造系统的建模、仿真和评估，同时采用多用户协作虚拟现实（VR）学习/培训场景。该概念通过两个不同的风力涡轮机制造案例进行展示和评估，包括一个风力叶片制造厂和一个机舱装配线。在13位具有不同背景和专业知识的行业专家参与演示后，对他们进行了访谈。我们展示专家们的讨论和论点，以便从动态、开放、认知和整体系统这四个维度评估基于数字孪生的VF概念。半结构化对话访谈结果表明，基于数字孪生的VF通过虚拟协作支持并行工程的潜力而脱颖而出。此外，基于数字孪生的VF通过虚拟原型制作（VP）有望减少实物制造并节省时间。
