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Virtual factory planning

June 25, 2001

The planning of a modern factory incorporating all its installations, machinery and utility pipes represents a difficult task. All the more reason to coordinate every detail to perfection during the planning phase. Any additional modifications, even just a new piece of machinery, can rapidly run to several hundred thousand Euro. To ensure that production gets off to the best possible start, at the same time taking into account the safety aspects of operation, factory planners increasingly use virtual reality. This not only saves time and reduces costs but also provides a perfect means for presenting plans. Even before the first brick has been laid, the developer can stroll through his fully equipped factory, test machinery controls and observe if work pro-cesses are running smoothly.

For the first time, the company Ã-HMI Engineering GmbH in Magdeburg has simulated a refinery for the manufacture of fat products in a virtual reality environment on behalf of a Swiss customer. Refineries involve exceptionally complex systems of pipes - an enormous challenge for planners. Using the software program Mod!Fact (Modify your Factory) developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF, the company succeeded in planning faster, more cost-effectively, more efficiently and with a greater number of safety features. "These are vital factors for a planning company", says Gunter Börner of Ã-HMI, pointing out the value of this type of modern technology. "Mod!Fact has helped us on the way to becoming a market leader."

Using Mod!Fact, virtual manufacturing plant can be created in just a short time. During the planning phase, planners can review and optimize installation and collision studies, simulations and animations, as well as numerous alternative configurations of machinery and equipment. According to Bertram E. König, research director for Enterprise Strategies and Structures at the IFF, the success of Mod!Fact represents an important milestone on the way to the "factory as product". Claudius Borgmann, head of the Competence Center for Virtual Reality and Visual Simulation, is convinced that use of this technology will rapidly become widespread. "Today, anyone who operates a CAD system is a potential user of this virtual-reality technology because it enables planners, operators and staff to view their factory even before construction begins."

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

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