Unlock Flexible Production Lines
Develop, integrate, manage and maintain flexible production lines with autonomous mobile robots.
Shrinking product lifecycles and customer demand for mass customization are pushing line builders to shift from mass production to flexible production. Escalating competitive forces and skills shortages accentuate the need for the comprehensive modernization of production facilities in today's manufacturing industries. In the next five years, 86% will invest in factory automation solutions to drive business competitiveness.
As such, companies striving to maintain a competitive edge must integrate virtual twin technology into manufacturing processes. As a digital replica of production lines – Dassault Systèmes' virtual twins offer a sandbox for experimentation and optimization – to improve first-time-right rates and minimize commissioning delays significantly.
Flexible Production Lines: Frequently Asked Questions
A flexible production line enables a quick and efficient response to changes in customer demand, market conditions and production requirements. Building and maintaining a flexible production line requires transparency throughout the line's lifecycle.
Working on an integrated platform provides real-time insights into each process — from development and integration to management and maintenance — ensuring that cost, efficiency and quality are prioritized in every decision.
By 2030, AMRs will be the cornerstone technology of flexibility on the factory floor, with a forecasted market size of $15 billion. The adoption of AMRs is steadily growing within factories and gradually supplanting traditional conveyor systems. This establishes a modular and seamless production process – that accommodates customer-specific manufacturing requirements – while reducing reliance on rigid, maintenance-intensive conveyors. The transition enhances agility and efficiency while mitigating scrap, contamination risks, waste and losses.
AMR integration allows production lines to be adapted to accommodate production changes such as product type and assortment size. In addition to rapid and efficient changeovers, seamless AMR integration supports the modular reconfiguration of lines to maintain quality and improve productivity.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform's integrated 3D modeling capability enables line builders to virtually model and simulate production lines from concept to operations. This allows AMR movements, line layouts and plant ergonomics to be optimized virtually before deployment on the factory floor.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform offers comprehensive visibility into the operational status of the AMR fleet and production lines. Real-time access to operational data enables proactive maintenance scheduling to ensure optimal performance and continuous improvement of service operations.
The platform facilitates advanced predictive maintenance through the integration of virtual twin technology, which leverages AI and machine learning to analyze equipment behavior patterns. The platform will streamline asset tracking, maintenance and repair processes – allowing for preventive identification of issues and improving overall equipment efficiency (OEE).
Flexibility, Modularity and Efficiency: The Next Frontier for Line Builders
1. Development
Accelerate the line development phase by:
- Creating virtual twins of lines with AMRs
- Sizing the number of AMRs needed in lines
- Virtually testing different scenarios before the physical build
- Identifying potential bottlenecks and optimizing AMR routes
2. Integration
Simulate AMR behaviors in the plant before implementation to:
- Test multiple scenarios for different production requirements
- Improve commissioning time
- Reduce total installation time
3. Management
Manage and monitor the status of the line and AMR fleet in real time to:
- Reduce downtime and unexpected shutdowns
- Improve resource utilization and increase productivity
4. After-Sales
Enhance after-sales service with the field service twin for:
- Improved maintainability to ensure the sustainability of service operations
- Performance and health monitoring leading to on-condition maintenance
- Predictive maintenance to deploy proactive actions
The Power of the Virtual Twin Experience
Powered by the cutting-edge 3DEXPERIENCE platform, virtual twins empower line builders with unparalleled efficiency – to develop flexible and modular lines – and reduce commissioning time and costs by up to 70%.
The ability to optimally monitor operational data for predictive maintenance enables manufacturers to operate at peak efficiency while minimizing production downtime. These advantages have allowed industry leaders to transform their operations to break competitive frontiers.
Ben Hempstead
Mechanical Engineering Lead and Chief of Staff
"Are we able to meet our customers' needs and provide the information they need seamlessly? Can we run the business better and more productively? Can our engineers collaborate and work effectively and efficiently? On all three counts, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is helping us achieve those goals."
Marc Levesque
Director of Corporate Marketing
"Dassault Systèmes' solutions have helped us design equipment to simulate the assembly in a virtual setting and anticipate problems we could run into when selling the equipment and programming the robots. It really gives us a leg up before we put the steel to the floor."
What Leading Line Builders Have Achieved
- 50% shorter development lead time
- 50% faster commissioning time
- 25% faster time to market
- 20% reduction in service execution time
Dassault Systèmes' Executive Brief: Flexible Production For Line Builders contains the full strategy to help you develop, integrate, manage and maintain futureproof production lines with AMRs.