With the digital factory, Hexagon opens the factory for visualization so that the manufacturers question their manufacturing processes and devices and “what if” could ask questions, confident that the 3D model is correct and up to date.
Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence Division announced the global “AS-A-Service” ranization of its digital factory solution last month. Digital Factory-AS-A-Service uses a team of hexagonal scan experts to scan manufacturers worldwide in order to capture high-exact current information about your plants and equipment. This process identifies the needs, defines workflows for collecting data and provides BIM models and custom services to use and analyze the full potential of the factory data.
The service offers the manufacturing industry easy access to the information required to convert assembly workflows, increase automation, install more advanced devices and maintain agility in order to be ahead of the competition. The business problem that solves depends on a simple problem: Most teams have no plans and especially not up -to -date plans. In the current production environment, the lack of good information has become acute, so that you cannot make well -founded decisions, e.g. B. the planning of new machines or devices.
Manufacturing customers usually have several websites that you want to visit from a distance to check the construction progress or to fix problems with your local team or system integrator. The applications are different, but the underlying need is constant, which is why hexagon has created a scalable offer, from scanning to a cloud-hosted 3D visualization with basic training to global multi-site scanning and BIM modeling. In practice, the service or the project is tailored to what you need with the skills, know-how and the scanning and software technologies from Hexagon.
Loosening of manufacturing problems with scanning and software
The service is individual, explains Benjamin Outtrey from the Department of Manufacon's Manufacturing Intelligence. This means that it is not only the technology, but also advice, scan, data processing and training.
“Our customers do not have the expertise or technology. Therefore, it is very different if they speak to someone who already scans or consumes this data,” he said. “Digital Factory customers prefer to concentrate on their main business and use our specialist knowledge to digitize their facilities. We are lucky that we have very mature and innovative scanners and software. With digital factory we use them and measure it to solve manufacturing problems.”
The company recommends at least one update a year to “sleep well”, but it depends on how quickly things move. Some plants change every week, a few years. From a technological point of view, Hexagon can provide the data for managing or providing cloud data visualizations, collaboration and analyzes via Reality Cloud Studio, which HXDR operated as part of their subscription.
The digital factory has been available for some time, but not as a service offer. This makes it an important communication tool for customers, says Outrey.
“Many of our customers have to discuss and present their plans to other stakeholders, and the 3D visualization gives them a new way to do this without becoming an expert in reading 2D plans or creating 3D -CAD. Now they can easily record this information and share their proposal with diverse participants, like everyone, how everyone can be interpreted immediately.”
“What is very important about our digital factory offers is that we are manufactured with people with people. We understand your problems and usually work together as a provider of manufacturing technology. In this way we can use the best specialist knowledge and the best technologies to give you the factory intelligence that you need to continue.”
Why digital factory is a global service
It is important to offer a global service, since according to Outrey Global Hexagon customers expect. “Our customers with larger manufacturing-oem or animal one have many websites, and we can support them in 30 to 40 countries with a single contact point and work with trustworthy partners. Hexagon's Partnership ecosystem comprises a network of companies worldwide that are trustworthy experts and can use our powerful portfolio of manual and automated scantechnologies to digize factory.”
In Europe, many Brownfield locations in Hexagon are reconsidered to find operational efficiency and to rethink 20- or 30-year-old manufacturing processes and operating models. In China there is great demand to plan and monitor new plants, but also to plan the transformation of legacy systems that were built for a lower value and labor-intensive production.
Worldwide, Aerospace is one of the largest markets of Hexagon, on which it touches 95 percent of the aircraft produced in any form. It is under immense pressure to increase production. Demand increases global aircraft production to 20 percent per year by 2027.
“You have tough decisions: they employ more people, use more robots, digitize more processes and they have to have more efficiently work,” said Outrey. “In automobiles, search more flexible processes and invest in more advanced robots and quality inspection systems that accelerate the time to the market. Many have no current 2D plans, let alone reliable 3D data with which they can plan and monitor modernization.”
Scan as the basis for more progressive applications
Hexagon has a large project with a global aerospace manufacturer to standardize location plans at all locations so that they check their global footprint and how best to use it to improve the large-scale production. This data is the basis for planning and transformation. In another project, an automobile manufacturer uses digital factory services to monitor changes to remote locations and a new JV assembly line.
“On a more detailed level, we have two customers who are planning to use new devices: those who change production with new robots, 3D printers (in aerospace) or material handling systems themselves and our hexagon customers, the project to install our large, automated quality inspection systems,” said Outtrey. “Here it is great to recommend the digital factory to plan capacity, layout and installation suitability. The digital factory can easily be associated with other data sources such as asset management systems. However, we see that scanning as the basis for more advanced applications and for most intelligent work treatments are the next step.”