Virtual factory layouts from 3D laser scanning – A novel framework to define solid model requirements

Paper in proceeding, 2018

In a world with increasing customer demands, manufacturing companies must develop and produce products more rapidly and adapt their production systems offline, to not disturb the ongoing processes. This creates a demand of using digital production development so that development can be performed in parallel with production. Virtual factory layouts (VFLs) are essential for companies in order to plan their factory layout and evaluate production scenarios. However, requirements for a VFL depends heavily on its purpose. For example, the requirements on a model for offline programming of robots are different from those on a model used to determine buffer locations. There is currently a lack of clear guidelines for how developed a VFL should be to fulfil said requirements, which contributes to unnecessary modelling time and variation in delivery quality. This paper aims to put the actual demands and requirements of a VFL in focus. By adapting a Level of Development-framework for establishment of Building Information Models (BIMs) and connecting it to the purpose of VFLs, development of a framework for detail and functionality level of VFLs is enabled. Such a purpose-oriented framework will help to define delivery packages suited for different circumstances, which will provide the modeler with knowledge of how much detail and functionality a specific model should contain. The increased clarity provided by the developed framework results in a clearer connection between expected result and actual output from a custom VFL project. Also, by connecting model properties or development to the model-purpose, the framework brings clarity and structure to a currently vague field. This provides means for a more efficient and accurate use of VFLs, which will support the rapid development of production facilities.