Towards Realistic Visualisation of Production Systems

Licentiate thesis, 2014

Redesigning a production system is a complex process for which numerous virtual tools are available to support the planning process. These virtual tools are used to forecast and analyse the production system prior to implementing the redesign, which makes it possible to identify and prevent costly problems during the planning process. However, such problems occur anyhow due to incorrect information in the virtual representation of the production system and misunderstandings between experts responsible for different areas of the production system. These problems can be avoided by supporting the planning process with realistic and accurate information regarding the existing and redesigned production system. The aim of this thesis is to show that realistic visualisation can support the process of redesigning production systems, in order to reduce the time required for planning and implementation. Three industrial studies were carried out to evaluate how realistic visualisation can be created to support the redesign process. These industrial studies focused mainly on discussing redesign considerations in groups of experts with different areas of responsibility. Additionally, two workshops were carried out to identify what information these experts found important to include in the realistic visualisations. The results show the potential of using 3D laser scanning to create realistic visualisations of production systems with high accuracy. These visualisations can be used to present existing and redesigned production systems in a way that is easy for a wide range of people to understand. Redesigned systems can be visualised by combining 3D laser scan data with 3D CAD models to enable discussion and analysis of redesign alternatives. The support of realistic visualisation can reduce the time required for planning and implementing the redesigned production systems by enabling effective and accurate planning.