Virtual Development, Testing and Learning Platforms for the Integrated Development of Products and Production Systems

Influenced by decreasing product development times, early production startups, increasing ranges of variants and heightened process orientation, systematically interconnecting the development of products with the development of production systems to form an integrated unified process is becoming a priority in manufacturing companies. This constitutes a significant basis for realizing time and cost cutting potentials while simultaneously engineering superior products and production processes. Suppliers are also increasingly being integrated both in product development and the setup, start-up and operation of production systems. Cross-company orders and projects are seldom managed transparently and efficiently in machinery and plant manufacturing in particular. This creates problems for companies with regard to delivery reliability . Moreover, approximately three quarters of the orders annually received by German machinery and plant manufacturers now come from abroad. This makes the integration of both regional and international partners in product development as well as in the setup and operation of new production systems essential. Transferring required knowledge between cooperation partners also translates into considerable time and work. New cooperation and communication strategies will have to organize this transfer so it is integrated throughout every phase of the product life cycle. Digital product and process models provide a fundamental basis. Digital tools such as 3-D CAD and simulation are already established in product development and integrating them with virtual reality (VR) technologies will furnish an opportunity in the future to advance the development of new forms of collaboration and information exchange between cooperation partners. The Fraunhofer IFF Virtual Development and Training Centre (VDTC) provides machinery and plant manufacturers VR based technology platforms on which methods and tools employing digital technologies can be developed, test- - ed and applied for 1)Virtual product development 2)Virtual process engineering and 3)Operation (education, operator training). These platforms are oriented toward the product life cycle from development to production and up through application. The approach is unique because it does not treat the stages as consecutive and independent. Instead, it applies the tools and methods being developed to integrate the use of virtual technologies throughout all phases and particularly to meet the needs of SME. This paper introduces the methodology behind the technical solution and presents experiences acquired during its implementation with a virtual development, testing and learning platform for a machinery manufacturer serving as an example.