Manufacturing engineering data integration for assembly process design review

In order to achieve rapid development process and reduce the time to market, new approaches have been investigated for automotive body assembly design. This research presents a prospective study about using plant digital mock up to support industrialization process and design reviews. The concept of Digital Lot (DLot) is introduced as a design object to validate a layout and assembly processes alternative in a collaborative way. The result is a better synchronization between manufacturing engineers and quick identification of key issues related to the future assembly process configuration.