Virtual technologies in production

Virtual technologies are increasingly finding their way into all areas of everyday life and in production environment. Virtual applications can also bring new possibilities and improvements - if applied correctly, effort is realistically estimated.

When thinking of "production", heavy machinery, large production lines or machine automation often comes to mind. This is due to a rather historically grown and traditional environment. Nevertheless, there are companies that have been relying on new technologies for some time, because the resulting opportunities are huge.

What can be virtual in the production environment

For a quite long-time virtual production planning has been common. Here digital technologies have been an important component for simulatively reducing errors in planning in advance. The significance of virtual technologies in the actual production process is just at the beginning. Here, the focus is on supporting processes, people, standards and safety.

One of the many applications is standardized work processes in which people are guided through the process by virtual aids. For example, augmented reality (AR) can be used to display the relevant work information directly to the field of vision via glasses. Additional image capture can be used to immediately confirm quality-critical work results or, if necessary, instruct a correction. This technology is already used in manual welding processes. This ensures process stability, and thus also quality and throughput time.

The downside – the effort behind it

In order for such technology to be used, a certain amount of effort is required. A corresponding IT infrastructure is necessary that can transmit the volume of data in real time. The effort required for cyber security must also be taken into account.

In addition to the technical framework, master data, parameters, images and drawings must be maintained in the system. What sounds like a one-time effort, includes a factor that must not be underestimated: This data has not only to be entered once, it also has to be updated continuously.

Furthermore, the speed of change has increased in the last decade. These challenges affect companies both in terms of the products and services they offer and in the process landscape. Sufficient capacities for the data maintenance of the virtual processes in production must be planned, as these must be continuously adapted and changed by someone in exchange with the product and process managers. After all, without this effort, the investments made up to this point are quite pointless.

Conclusion

Virtual technologies in production can contribute to process reliability. However, their use should always be weighed up against the required effort.

Mario Buchinger?is (Economy-)Physicist, Musician and Author. The specialist for Lean and Kaizen worked for Daimler and Bosch as employee and executive for ten years, before he founded his own company Buchinger|Kuduz in 2014 located in Austria. He is no consultant, instead he and his team support as external colleagues the development of changeability regarding to process, strategy and climate transformation. In addition to industrial companies, his customers also include banks and public authorities.