Envision Energy

Wind may be one of the cleanest forms of energy, yet fluctuating weather conditions and wind speeds also make it one of the more challenging energy sources to guarantee a steady supply of power from. Huge, expensive turbines must harvest the most possible energy from every gust of wind and stay operational for as long as possible to justify their investment. Historically, any outage tended to be costly and significantly impacted output. Then, Envision Energy came onto the scene with its smart wind turbines, designed to optimize energy yield with turbine blades that automatically adjust to the wind direction and speed, and inbuilt predictive maintenance capabilities to keep downtime to a minimum.

The Chinese green energy technology company has quickly grown into one of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers. Driven by its mission to create a world of low carbon energy, Envision harnesses the latest digital capabilities to create and operate its smart turbines. Each one is equipped with hundreds of sensors that gather data about how they’re running, how effectively they generate power, surrounding environmental conditions and maintenance requirements. This software-driven approach extends from design through to deployment and beyond.

Envision also uses technology to become more sustainable and efficient as an organization. In 2022, the company successfully achieved carbon neutrality across its global operations. By 2028, it plans to extend this so that every supplier it works with in the value chain also emits zero carbon emissions. To help achieve full transparency across its organization and beyond, Envision has moved all its global engineering processes to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

“As wind technology evolves and global competition intensifies, supply chain capabilities have become a core element of competitiveness,” said Shao Chunlei, vice president of global supply chain and general manager of international project delivery and service. “Our processes from order acquisition and production planning to logistics, on-site operation and maintenance services must be seamlessly connected so that we can achieve timely delivery to our customers while gaining control of our global supply chain and meeting our carbon neutrality goals.”

Keeping track of its rapidly growing global activities – and product portfolio – requires Envision to manage its product development processes in a seamless and consistent manner, where all divisions including R&D and sales use the same best practices and workflows. Regardless of whether a wind turbine is manufactured in China or India, all data surrounding that asset – and all associated suppliers – must be managed centrally. This is also critical for making sure its turbines comply with all local safety regulations.

“From orders to sales, development and delivery, companies use many different systems to complete these different tasks,” said Alan Tung, vice president of digitalization and general manager of R&D. “We needed a platform to manage all these functions in one place and achieve end-to-end connectivity, which is what the 3DEXPERIENCE platform does. So, when we need to make a quotation, and develop, configure or deliver a product, everything is based on the same data source. With thorough preparation and planning, we implemented the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in less than six months.”

Working with its technology partner Shanghai Jiangda, Envision has successfully transformed its approach to product lifecycle management. The company has also re-engineered its processes to take full advantage of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

“We have completely reshaped our business using new data models, data objects and data relationships provided by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform,” said Liu Mingfei, director of IT. “To adapt to this new approach, we’ve had to restructure and adjust many of our business processes.”

Today, all product development data related to wind turbines is managed on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This centralized data management has transformed how everyone across Envision Energy accesses the information they need.

“We manage over 16 million model objects, over 120 million attribute objects and close to 160 million index objects on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform,” Liu said. “Our query and execution rate is almost 10 times as efficient. It has certainly bolstered our confidence in working with Dassault Systèmes in the future to enhance Envision’s overall digital capabilities.”

From load calculation to machine optimization, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s simulation capabilities help Envision cope with the challenges that come with designing large-scale and lightweight wind turbines. Through simulation, engineers can factor in aerodynamic data parameters and structural calculations.

“Simulation significantly reduces design cycles and improves the quality and longevity of our products,” Liu said. “For example, the spindle is a very important part on the transmission chain of the wind turbine. It has a very complex load that we analyze and optimize using SIMULIA Abaqus. While ensuring the strength requirements of the spindle, we can reduce its weight by 10%. This alone can save millions of Renminbi (RMB) [equivalent to hundreds of thousands of Euros/US dollars] for Envision each year.”

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s robust bill of materials (BOM) and configuration management capabilities – handled in ENOVIA – are also proving critical for the seamless transition from engineering through to manufacturing and assembly. It allows Envision to manage the entire process with a modular mindset so that every wind turbine can be configured according to each customer’s needs and where it will be installed.

“It is a highly challenging task to configure our wind turbines for different operating conditions,” Tung said. “On site, the turbines are assembled from different semi-finished products, so it is very important that each one has a unique data source. With ENOVIA, we can keep track of all this information, which we use to accurately configure each design for the local operating conditions and hoist it into position with precision.”

To keep pace with mounting demand for its turbines, Envision Energy has rapidly expanded its manufacturing footprint. In China alone, the company has 35 plants producing wind turbines, 10 factories for storage products, 5 for blades, 1 for gearboxes, another for generators, and another for batteries. Overseas, it has a further two facilities in India manufacturing wind turbines and blades, and plans are also underway to expand into Saudi Arabia.

“For such a complex supply chain layout, we must have a powerful and robust system like the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to ensure stable production, have visual and integrated management of the order status chain, and maintain our competitive advantage,” Shao said.

Envision uses DELMIA Quintiq to build complex supply chain networks through digital models and harness powerful analytics and simulation capabilities to mitigate disruptions. Planners gain a clear view of the end-to-end supply chain to support decision-making and finalize sales and operations planning within a day, instead of five. In the same timeframe, they can also confirm supply availability for new sales and projects.

“DELMIA Quintiq allows us to continuously optimize and schedule our plans based on key performance indicators,” Shao said. “We can simulate multiple scenarios, such as supply chain network disruptions, changing customer demands, supplier and manufacturing plant capacity fluctuations and product configuration modifications, and compare different outcomes to formulate better production plans.”

By optimizing its supply chain network, Envision has achieved impressive business benefits, including increased efficiency, faster order completion and delivery rates, and significantly reduced logistics, production and inventory costs. The sheer size of the parts Envision manufactures typically means they are expensive to transport. Having better visibility of its complex supply chain network has helped the company plan ahead and choose more economic options.

“Envision Energy has saved tens of millions of RMB [equivalent to millions of Euros/US dollars] in transportation fees each year,” Shao said. “Customer satisfaction has gone up by over 9% as a result of on-time delivery, and overall product delivery is three times faster.”

Following the successful implementation of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform so far, Envision plans to expand its usage of the platform in more areas of its business to achieve truly intelligent and interconnected energy management. The company will use the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to build virtual twin experiences that further optimize engineering, manufacturing and asset performance management in areas such as its battery gigafactories and energy storage products.

“Just as we’ve used the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to develop our smart turbines, we’re now using that same approach to bring our other energy products to market,” Tung said. “As we expand our global footprint and open new factories, all processes will be managed on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. I hope that Envision and Dassault Systèmes continue to innovate and explore new technologies together on the road towards a zero-carbon future.”

Discover additional insights on how Envision Energy uses DELMIA for supply chain planning.