Digital Manufacturing

Sundarmoorthy TamilrasanThe evolution of Manufacturing Industry and Processes could be traced along the same lines as that of the IT Industry. One of the basic and common factors in the evolution cycle of these industries is reducing Human Interface.

From manual manufacturing processes of yesterday, the industry today has made a shift towards Digital Manufacturing. Digital Manufacturing, as the name suggests, simulates all the processes of manufacturing on computers to define the most efficient processes for companies. The entire manufacturing process right from assembly lines, human ergonomic simulation, robotic simulation, plant layout, etc. could be defined, developed, implemented and monitored virtually in the 3D environment.

This results in companies to achieve utmost production efficiency, in reduced time and costs thereby facilitating early entry to market.

Digital Manufacturing Solutions and technologies through their offerings like “Design for Manufacturing” and “Design for Servicing” help companies configure the optimum work flows during the plant layout stage which enables them to enhance productivity and overall output of the company. Digital manufacturing solutions could be used to design and plan the green field project (right from scratch – new plant) or brown field project (to bring out necessary planning and layout changes in the existing plant). Either ways it configures optimum and customized workflows for the companies which would help them generate highest possible level of production output thereby enhancing the production capacity of the plant.

Digital manufacturing solutions create and present plant planning in virtual 3D environment, it becomes easy for the companies to validate and evaluate their designs to identify any concerns beforehand and address them at the planning stage. Apart from virtual validation of plant and processes, these technologies also help companies to plan and allocate their resources and also make optimum use of their available plant space. The human ergonomic simulation helps companies to identify the ways and means of carrying out a task manually which would cause minimum possible physical stress to the people working on shop floor. This reduces chances of accidents and occupational hazards. It thus helps companies to build plants that are more efficient yet secured, safe, and worker friendly.

The digital manufacturing processes could prove to be a boon for the companies who are committed to implementing Six Sigma and Kaizen. It would in-turn help them in bringing about product and process quality enhancement and control, which would identify defects, reduce errors etc. to attain utmost production accuracy.

Thanks to such technologies, companies today can try out many “what if” scenarios at minimum costs to validate their processes and arrive at the most optimum solutions. They can try all the options through simulation and finally incorporate those suitable changes in actual practice which would best benefit them. Companies stand to largely gain from the benefits of virtual validation and simulation of Plants and Processes, concurrent Engineering and Customized approach to arrive at the right approach for achieving higher efficiencies.

This article is written by Sundarmoorthy Tamilrasan, Application Engineer - EDS Technologies Pvt. Ltd.