Digital plant technology. Simulation breakthrough greatly enhances manufacturing industry's competitive edge

Citation

(1998), "Digital plant technology. Simulation breakthrough greatly enhances manufacturing industry's competitive edge", Assembly Automation, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.1998.03318caf.005

Digital plant technology. Simulation breakthrough greatly enhances manufacturing industry's competitive edge

Digital plant technology

Simulation breakthrough greatly enhances manufacturing industry's competitive edge

Keywords Construction, Simulation

Prosolvia Systems has announced a remarkable industrial simulation concept ­ digital plant technology. For the first time it brings together within a single infrastructure all the disciplines needed to plan, build, optimise and operate a complete manufacturing plant. It allows a user to construct, quickly and easily, a complete working 3D simulation of a plant ­ a digital plant that is connected to, and which interacts fully, with the real plant itself.

Within this simulation, the user can evaluate, optimise and cost new ideas, so that when an investment is made there is minimal risk involved in the decision. In an existing plant, the digital plant is used to schedule and optimise production, carry out "what if" scenarios at little or no cost, and to minimise downtime during production changeovers.

"In day-to-day operations, Digital Plant Technology enables a plant to be tuned, new ideas to be tried and machinery to be programmed within the simulation ­ all without disrupting ongoing production," says Morgan Herou, president of Prosolvia Systems. "Excellent communication between the simulation and the shop floor means rapid response to and correction of any line problems. This is a radical new approach to industrial simulation and there is nothing else like it available," he said.

The technology's open architecture and integration aid flow to and from existing software systems enabling, for example, production engineering to relate to design and development colleagues in a way not previously thought possible, greatly speeding the design-to-production cycle. System debugging is easier, too, enabling a plant to be up and running at full efficiency that much faster.

"Digital Plant Technology uniquely integrates discrete and continuous simulation technology and, therefore, supports every single aspect of a production process," explains Morgan Herou. "For management, there are financial management tools to help with the investment decision. Decision-making data are stored in a single location and are available for future use."

The technology is based on Windows NT with its easy-to-use interface and such built in functions as drag-and-drop, making it easy to implement across an organisation, from shop floor to senior management.

Digital Plant Technology's 3D graphics are realistic and environments are properly modelled. Where current simulation software runs on the more expensive UNIX platform, Digital Plant Technology runs on a regular PC, making it suitable for low cost, large scale implementation.

Also, its infrastructure encompasses conceptual studies, process design, programming, optimisation, scheduling, training, logistics and plant operation.

It integrates completely with existing production systems and machinery, robots and controllers, as well as with existing MRP, PDM and CAD software systems. Being fully scaleable, it is suitable for use in a wide variety of industries.

At the heart of digital plant technology lies Prosolvia Systems' (PS-Engine) software suite, which consists of a series of fully interactive stand-alone products.

These run a variety of hardware systems and make full use of such Windows features as drag and drop between products ­ a first in simulation software that makes model-building much easier.

All products operate in an interactive closed-loop system that closely matches industrial design and production procedures. Thus, the tasks of conceptual design, outline of material flow, detailed work cell and process design and optimisation are all handled within (PS-Engine) with its interactive modules and common easy-to-use interface, rather than by disparate packages, as with existing simulation software. A Unix version will soon be available.