Published on 02/16/2017 | Technology
I have read recently several articles and papers explaining the importance of Modeling & Simulation (M&S) in the development of new industrial products, some of them are this post by Scott Walton https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/value-simulations-new-product-development-scott-walton, this report written by Aberdeen Group: http://www.aberdeen.com/research/10032/10032-rr-virtual-simulation-design/content.aspx or this paper presented in 2014 IEEE 17th International symposium on Real time distributed computing by my good friend David McKee : http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6899178/.
All these documents highlight the value of M&S in the development of new industrial products. Modeling & Simulation technologies are already key in the design, development and support of new products. Model based system engineering allows to design products faster, virtual prototypes allow to reduce the number of physical prototypes produced during the development of a new product, virtual simulators allows also to train operators and engineers in the operation and maintenance of the products. But the importance of M&S will be increased with the progressive introduction of new business models because of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 will disrupt also the way to use M&S, increasing its use and value because under the Industry 4.0 model, product design and development take place in simulated laboratories and utilize digital fabrication models. The products themselves take tangible form only after most of the design and engineering problems have been worked out.
The capability to perform virtual prototyping and automation in manufacturing industries is critical as industries seek to reduce the time moving through each engineering phase
Industry 4.0 promises to optimize the industrial processes, allowing to design and build more complex products, usually “smart” and connected, faster and more efficiently. Industry 4.0 will not only invent new products but also new services, as mass customization, predictive maintenance, online upgrade of products after they are sold (in the same way that software has come to be updated), etc.
A relevant part of this optimization will be achieved by adopting a design-centric workflow, supported by digital product models, understanding as such a virtual model of the product containing all the elements of mechanical, electrical, electronics and software and its virtual interactions. Under the Industry 4.0 model, product design and development will take place in simulated laboratories and utilize digital fabrication models. Only in this way companies will be able to develop and upgrade smart products faster and at a competitive price to success in the market.
Digital product models will enable the Simulation based system engineering of the smart product, covering the whole life cycle of the product, from its conception to its deployment and support.
Industry 4.0 is dealing with the development and operation of smart systems, which are by definition connected products, in which their capabilities are improved and optimized by other products and services available in the network. Development of these products will be performed by virtual supply chains, with networked engineering and productions systems.
The capability to leverage the network, achieving a seamless digital integration, will be key, both for the design & manufacturing of the smart product and for its operation. In this context, if we want to use Modeling & Simulation techniques to support the life cycle of the system, we will need to work with Net-Centric and interoperable models and simulations. In the same way that the physical product evolves to the Internet of the Things, its digital model will need to evolve to an Internet of the Simulations or IoS, in which heterogeneous simulations of the diverse physical and cyber subsystems of the smart product can interoperate without restrictions.
Industry 4.0 demands an evolution of the M&S technologies, doing imperative requirements that nowadays are very uncommon in the industry:
· Open Simulations
· Net-Centric Simulations
· M&S as a Service
· Seamless interoperability
· Integration with the real product
IoS allows to deploy the models and simulations as services in the Cloud, enabling new business models as M&S as a Service (MSaaS), Simulation Platforms as a Service (SPaaS) or Web based Training (WBT). IoS is a lever for many key processes in the engineering life cycle of a smart product, from its conception to its deployment, enabling important improvements in productivity, collaboration and lead times.
IoS requires a new "technology infrastructure", that allows to provide simulation services with a hybrid deployment, combining some components onsite and others on the cloud. In Simware Solutions we have developed the first IoS compliant simulation platform : Simware. Simware is the leading networked technological infrastructure for IoS. It is providing the mechanisms to connect the simulators to the network and to share data between the publishers and subscribers or consumers of the data. Simware is the first and only microservices architecture for simulation in the market, specifically designed to support the development of real time and Net-Centric simulation products as the integration of many small and easily manageable components.
Simware platform is useful both as a development technical framework and as an integration and deployment infrastructure. Simware is an agile and flexible set of tools, libraries and APIs that supports the whole life cycle of the system engineering of any smart product : from its conception to its retirement.
If you want to know further about how M&S will evolve to the IoS because of Industry 4.0 and how Simware will help in this evolution download the paper in this page : http://www.simware.es/industry-40.html
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.
