Digital Factory Explained

Have you ever wondered how engineers and project planners go about building supermassive factories? Say Volkswagen Group's headquarters located in Wolfsburg, Germany, which sprawls over 6 million square meters (around 65 million square feet)! The entire undertaking cost more than $40 million - safe to say, there is no room for any error on a project of this scale.

Now, imagine you have just been handed a similar project; put yourself in the lead engineer's shoes and think, where the heck would you start?

Drawing a blank?

So were we!

That is until we came across a brilliant manufacturing concept that lets engineers like yourself (wink wink) make a computerized model of the proposed factory. You can then tweak this model until you develop the most optimized layout and process flow for your factory. You can perform an A/B test comparison for tools, manufacturing operations, machine setups, material flow design, etc., till you find the most suitable version of your factory.

Intrigued yet? Presenting to you - Digital Factories.

Read on to learn more!
 

What Is A Digital Factory?

A Digital Factory, in layman's terms, is a virtual replica of a factory or industrial unit. Using this computerized model, you can simulate the working of the actual factory, including the manufacturing processes, maintenance, workflow bottlenecks and so forth. You can then adjust the proposed designs on various levels until the processes and strategies are refined to your liking.

This tech essentially lets you observe how your factory and all its components would function in real life, even before the cornerstone is placed. Fascinating, right?

Before we dive in, let us see how this brilliant concept came about.
 

History And Evolution Of Digital Factories

A Digital Factory is a relatively new concept. It is based on a modern technology called Digital Twinning, which lets us create a virtual copy (of tools, machines, factories or even entire cities!) that mirrors the physical 'twin' in real-time. Hence, a Digital Factory is the specialized application of Digital Twinning for a factory.
 
Let us briefly see how the concept of a Digital Factory evolved.
 

• 1982

  AutoCAD software was launched, allowing engineers and designers to create basic blueprints and layouts on computers. Yes, fellow engineering grads, it is that old!

• Mid 1980's

  Development of simulation software. Engineers could replicate the real-life performance of machines and tools by simulating them using dedicated software.

• Mid 1980's to 2000's

  Industry-wide adoption of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software. Businesses needing a physical infrastructure could create and test digital models before actually constructing them.

• Early 2000's

  Simulation and 3D Visualization become standard elements of the industrial design process. Every product today - from the Boeing 767 to a car engine - undergoes simulation before mass manufacturing.

• 2015

  First application of a Digital Factory as GE Renewable Energy builds The Digital Wind Farm; a digital model that used over 20 distinct turbine configurations to figure out the most efficient layout for a wind farm.

Now let's come back to the present and check out what a Digital Factory is.
 

What Did The Factory Say? Digitize Me!

Let's start with a simple question - what do test engineers do? (Apart from doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. No offense!) Their job involves testing and evaluating products before they reach the consumer. They ensure that the product is suitable for its intended purpose, will perform as expected and provide the end-user with a satisfying experience. For example, an engineer testing a car's safety systems will simulate to check if the airbags open in time to protect the passengers during a crash.

Similarly, engineers and architects constructing factories need to know beforehand if their design serves the intended purpose and long-term expectations. Sure, they can find the answer by constructing the factory but what if it does not meet their expectations? Think of the expenses needed to modify and reconfigure all the processes, equipment and strategies. There are better ways to waste money, guys!


Step in - Digital Factory. It is the same as building a physical factory from scratch - the only difference is your factory is a digital model. You can then make iterative changes to processes and strategies to improve the overall manufacturing process. Digital technology will help you plan, evaluate and constantly improve your factory - till you look at the digital model and say, "Viola!"
 

What Are The Benefits Of A Digital Factory?

Indeed, you must have realized the primary benefit of using a Digital Factory - it saves time, money and other assets spent on adjustments after the factory is built. A Digital Factory allows you to recognize things you might have missed while creating the original layout. This helps you reduce design flaws, which leads to an improved and efficient factory. Since there is virtually no rework or modification, the time-to-market is also significantly quicker.

However, it doesn't stop there - you now have a digital model of your working factory! Comparing the data generated by the Digital Factory and that from your physical factory gives you a broader understanding of what is working as per plan - and what is not. Using this information, you can allocate resources wherever necessary. Moreover, the digital model provides operational data, so you can accurately forecast the availability of material.

What's more, you can digitally test the working of complex (read expensive) machinery before it is installed. Hence, engineers can run multiple simulations to find the optimal workload to reduce maintenance costs and increase life. A Digital Factory can also help determine the most suitable placement for machines and tools.

Yeah, George, let's place the electrical workshop next to the fuel depot - great idea!
 

What You Need To Know Before Jumping In!

 
As we said earlier, a Digital Factory helps you "see" your product before it is built. Awesome, right? However, you must have a few things in hand before you can see.

You need to have a rough estimate of the order intake, production target, inventory and raw material requirement, etc., of your planned factory. When this data is fed into the digital model, it helps you simulate the real-life scenario. Suppose you plan on using ten machines for a monthly output of 10,000 units. The Digital Factory can help you understand what would happen to the output in case one machine breaks down.

Besides, once your physical factory is up and running (congratulations!), the model can provide insights using real-time data from the machines and devices. It can notify you when a particular component is nearing the end of its life cycle, or a machine needs servicing. This data can help identify breakdowns or workflow bottlenecks before they occur. Bonus - you can monitor your Digital Factory from anywhere, anytime and on any device!

All in all, investing in a Digital Factory empowers you and your workers to make better decisions. It helps you understand what concerns you might have to face when your factory is built - in the future.
 

Done Building Your Factory? Here's What Comes Next

As technologies like Digital Factory (and Digital Twins, as a whole) improve, it will help us perfect industrial processes and techniques. Today, we need several simulations to find the most enhanced production plan. In the future, optimization algorithms will systematically automate this procedure for us. This will offer higher visibility to manufacturers - from pharma to textiles to electronics - on decreasing production time, reducing manufacturing costs and improving output quality.

A Digital Factory also brings us closer to Industry 5.0 - people working with robots and intelligent machines. Using digitization, we will be able to assess which functions can be automated entirely using robots and which might need human intervention. It is certain; today's Digital Factory is tomorrow's smart factory.

We're leaving you with this - since a Digital Factory lets you glimpse into the future, is it not time travel technology? Food for thought!