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Virtual manufacturing as a way for the factory of the future

Article in Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing · January 2006

DOI: 10.1007/s10845-006-0041-1

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J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735
DOI 10.1007/s10845-006-0041-1
Virtual manufacturing as a way for the factory of the future
Mariella Consoni Florenzano Souza · Marco Sacco ·
Arthur José Vieira Porto
Received: February 2005 / Accepted: January 2006
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006
Abstract Virtual Manufacturing represents the
emerging approach the enterprises can use to improve
their processes, introducing new products more quickly
in the market in a cost effective way. The fundamen-
tal idea is to create an integrated and synthetic envi-
ronment, composed of software tools and systems such
as Virtual Reality and Simulation to support such pro-
cesses. This paper presents the Virtual Manufacturing
(VM) environment, highlighting the potential applica-
tion areas and the resulting benefits. The role of Sim-
ulation Lab and ITIA-CNR in applying the VM is dis-
cussed, the research activities currently carried out by
the institutes are presented and two significant cases
developed as example of the applicability of the con-
cept are shown.
Keywords Virtual manufacturing · Virtual reality ·
Data flow · Simulation · Integration
M. C. F. Souza (B) · A. J. V. Porto
Laboratório de Simulação, IFM,
Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos-USP,
Av. do Trabalhador São-Carlense 400,
13566-590 São Carlos, SP, Brazil
e-mail: msouza70@ford.com
A. J. V. Porto
e-mail: ajvporto@sc.usp.br
M. Sacco
Istituto di Tecnologie Industriali e Automazione,
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,
Via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
e-mail: m.sacco@itia.cnr.it
Introduction
More pressure has been placed on manufacturing com-
panies, as customers are becoming more and more the
focus of the market, mainly regarding the delivery of cus-
tomized and diversified products, quality improvement
and time reduction. As products, processes and data are
becoming more complex, the decision making process
in many disciplines such as product design, manufactur-
ing engineering, and production management involves
the consideration and analysis of many variables. These
decisions often result in a long-term impact on the deter-
mination of the success or failure of the organization. In
most cases, making these decisions based just on instinct
and experience can be extremely risky for the company.
In order to achieve success in this context, manufac-
turing companies need to develop capability to shorten
the delivery of their products and to quickly respond to
customers’ needs and react to market changes, making
correct decisions as earlier as possible during the prod-
uct development process through efficient and fast eval-
uations. It is well known how a change in a project can
affect the product development process cost. The cost of
a change to a design in the Conceptual Design phase is
essentially regarding engineering staff’s time to review
and modify a design. Reaching the Development phase
other considerations require modification as a result of
the change (process and work involved as example).
Once a design has been released and is in the Produc-
tion phase, a change can require modification of man-
uals, processes, training, government approvals, etc. In
other words, the cost of a change to a design increases as
development advances from conception, project, proto-
type to production and release. In this environment, pro-
vide production, quality and tests feedback to product
726
designer as soon as possible can generate great results
regarding maintenance of product family integrity, con-
tinuity of infrastructure and improved project and man-
ufacturing investments (Tseng, Jiao, & Su, 1998).
In pursuing these capabilities, companies are using
ever more frequently simulation technology, software
tools and digital models to reduce costs and increase
profitability. According to Uhlmann and Schaper (2004),
the time to develop new products can be reduced if
the product and manufacturing processes can be repre-
sented in a more realistic way, for example with the aid of
models and simulations, without the use of physical pro-
totypes. Perhaps one of the most recent and interesting
solutions in this area is Virtual Manufacturing (VM) that
proposes the creation of a synthetic and integrated envi-
ronment, composed by many software tools and systems
as simulation and Virtual Reality (VR), offering turnkey
solutions for the entire product development process
from design-to-manufacturing. The main objective is to
provide a way for engineers to develop, evaluate and
simulate a complex system entirely on a computer and a
way to rapidly conduct experiments to predict and eval-
uate the results of alternative manufacturing decisions
before spending time and money on the construction of
physical mock-ups.
Leading industries in many sectors such as aerospace
and automotive companies are making use of VM to
support many of the stages of their product develop-
ment process. Besides all the success and promises asso-
ciated to VM, it is unclear the way small and medium
companies can implement this approach to their product
development process and a defined strategy to the adop-
tion of VM is needed (Offodile & Abdel-malek, 2002).
Besides that, according to Bullinger, Warschat, and Fi-
scher (2000), many technologies as CAD, CAM, Virtual
Reality, Virtual Prototyping, Simulation have been used
in the last period, but the comprehension of how these
technologies can be integrated in a easy and continue
process is not defined.
VM represents an important step toward the factory
of the future providing ability to make changes in a
virtual environment, saving money and time, and result-
ing in better designs. The purpose of this paper is to
discuss the VM environment approach, highlighting its
potentiality to many industrial processes, and describe
the researches carried out by Simulation Lab and ITIA-
CNR in the field.
The approach of virtual manufacturing environment
VM is an approach that has been emerging in the manu-
facturing area to improve industrial processes. Because
J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735
of this, the meaning of the term is still evolving and has
an even less agreed upon definition. The fundamental
idea behind most of concepts however, is that VM is an
approach to achieve an integrated and synthetic envi-
ronment to be used for concurrently simulating all of the
activities involved throughout the life cycle of a prod-
uct. The proposal is to provide a strategy to integrate
all the processes, from engineering to manufacturing, to
enhance all levels of decisions and controls providing
the product development, validation and manufactur-
ing virtually before realizing physically the real product
(Lawrence Associates Inc., 1994).
According to Banerjee and Zetu (2001), the Virtual
Manufacturing can be used in a wide variety of manufac-
turing systems contexts, and can be defined as the mod-
elling of manufacturing systems and components with
the effective use of computers, audiovisual and sensory
displays to simulate or design alternatives for a manufac-
turing environment. The main objective is to support the
design of new systems and to predict potential problems
and inefficiencies in product functionality and manufac-
turability before the real manufacturing is realized.
This digital environment can be more realistic with
the use of Virtual Reality. This technology can provide
a better integration among designers and customers
requirements, allowing the interaction and immersion
of the user in the virtual world based on graphical 3D
images created in real time by the computer. Immersed
in the virtual world, engineers can create and mod-
ify their projects in real time, verifying immediately
the effects of these modifications. The main impact of
this technology in the Virtual Manufacturing regards
the products design and project, processes simulations,
operations planning and training, and real time control
of shop floor.
Achieving that approach means to develop an inte-
grated solution environment composed of a set of sys-
tems and software tools that operate throughout all
the phases of the product development process aiming
at realizing modeling, simulation, analysis of the new
product and processes and to facilitate communications.
Today, few commercially available virtual environments
exist, and they will be of limited scope and they will have
a definitive focus. This will require engineering effort to
tailor them to any specific set of business needs. Thus,
the actual challenge is to develop better and newer tech-
nologies and integrate them with current and available
ones to create Virtual Manufacturing systems (Com-
mittee on advanced engineering environments, 1999).
Currently practice in big companies is often based on
creating ad hoc and inflexibly integrated toolsets that
may lead to significant benefits. One of the main chal-
lenges is overcome data import/export problems among
J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735
systems (data interoperability barriers) to provide a
complete VM environment. Industries as the automo-
tive and aerospace have to deal with the consequences
of the lack of data and system interoperability.
Once the lack of system interoperability is solved,
VM will overcome engineering and operative ineffi-
ciencies and will enable companies to optimise critical
factors directly affecting the competitiveness of their
manufactured products. The results of developing a pro-
duct, from concept definition to production steps, in a
virtual environment are the creation of virtual proto-
types that can be manipulated in real time, providing
the parts interference verification before the physical
prototype construction; the execution of manufactur-
ing and assembly processes simulations; and the inter-
action with the product in a virtual manner. It will allow
one to rapidly analyze the factory performance, predict
results of process changes before the real implementa-
tion, reducing time and costs of development and prod-
uct implementation. Besides VM provides accurate and
efficient models to the evaluation and control of the
factory. Moreover the same system will be a good com-
munication and training tool once the product will be
developed.
The following section highlights the initiatives of two
research institutes in the Virtual Manufacturing field,
describing two case studies. Some conclusions at the end
of the two following paragraph summarize the major
outcomes and show the potential steps forward.
The virtual manufacturing at simulation lab and ITIA
Simulation Lab and ITIA-CNR are two research entities
developing studies and projects on VME.
Simulation Lab is a research academic group, part of
IFM (Institute Factory of Millennium), in the Univer-
sity of São Paulo-USP, Brazil. The initial purpose of VM
research was to achieve a better comprehension of the
use of higher interactivity interfaces. This study resulted
in the development of a virtual prototype of the inter-
lock of a CNC turning machine. The next step was the
creation of a framework to allow the generation of a
concurrent and distributed environment.
Now, Lab’s efforts are to organize and systematize all
the concepts and experiences developing a framework
to guide the application of VM in the Product Devel-
opment Process. This model considers the use of many
software tools and systems that can be included in the
environment and the analysis of the data interoperabil-
ity question. The interchange with ITIA-CNR started
with the aim of exchanging of information and expe-
rience to conclude the development of the model. The
727
case presented here briefly describes the framework that
is being developed for the use of Virtual Manufacturing
concepts in the Product Development Process, includ-
ing the analysis of neutral format files to achieve data
interoperability in this environment.
ITIA-CNR is the Institute for Industrial Technologies
and Automation of the National Research Council of
Italy. As a promoter of industrial innovation, performs
strategic activities of Scientific Research and Technolog-
ical Development for the Competitiveness and Sustain-
ability of Italian and European Manufacturing Industries.
The RTD activities of the Institute aim at innovating
Products, Processes and Organization: in this area,
Virtual Manufacturing plays an important role.
Simulation lab case: Framework to guide the
application of Virtual Manufacturing in the
Product Development Process (PDP) and analysis of
utilization alternatives of neutral formats files to
enable data interoperability
The main objective of Simulation Lab projects in this
research area is to study the relationship between Vir-
tual Manufacturing and PDP, emphasizing the impacts
this approach can present to a development process and
the requirements and challenges to its use. As a result
of this analysis, the project has as purpose the develop-
ment of a framework to provide initial guidelines for the
application of Virtual Manufacturing in a generic PDP,
presenting how product development activities can be
accomplished in the VM context. To the development of
this framework, the following tasks were accomplished:
(a) identification of the software tools proposed by VME
and their main features; (b) identification of PDP phases
and activities that can be supported by VME software
tools and how these tools can be used and systema-
tized to achieve advantages to PDP; and (c) analysis of
alternatives use of neutral formats files to enable data
interoperability. This framework is based on a generic
reference model of product development process and
can be conform to fulfil each companyć6s needs. A
briefly description of the results achieved by this
project until now is presented.
Identification of VME software tools
In this work, the software tools proposed by Virtual
Manufacturing Environment were classified in the fol-
lowing task groups: Product Project; Process Planning;
Resource Management; NC (Numerical Controlled)
Programming; and Validations (Fig. 1).
All these software tools, working in an integrated way,
can bring many benefits for the Product Development
728 J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735

Fig. 1 VM task groups Process Planning

Assembly and
manufacturing process
Planning
Resource
Product Project Management

Concept/Surface Design
Detail Design (CAD) Machine and tool
Digital Mock-Up definition and desig
Virtual Prototyping Plan layout
Rapid Prototyping Data Labor requirement
Analysis software Management

NC
Validations Programming

NC Machine Simulation
Robot Simulation
CMM Simulation NC Machine
Human Task Simulation CMM
Assembly Simulation Robot
DES
Factory DMU

Process. It is well known that a PDP can be divided into
some project phases such as Conceptual Design, Product
Design, Process Design and Pilot Production, and these
phases can be detailed in many activities that should be
as much as possible performed concurrently and in an
integrated way.
The product development process in a Virtual
Manufacturing environment
Thinking about that, Virtual Manufacturing can bring
to the development process a new way to execute this
process because proposes a virtual interactive design-
build-test cycle where the design, validation and manu-
facturing activities can be accomplished virtually before
be accomplished physically in the real world. Besides
that, VME provides a better way to achieve activities
concurrence and a greater integration of Product and
Process Design phases (Fig. 2).
VM can accelerate the interactive design-build-test
cycles present in all phases of PDP and move design
problem identification and solution backward in time,
to the earlier phases of PDP. In this environment, mod-
els are virtually built and tested very early in the devel-
opment process well before any physical prototypes are
created, reducing cost and time required to solve identi-
fied problems. By validating engineering, tooling designs
and process plans earlier in the development process,
costly mistakes can be detected earlier, more design
alternatives can be evaluated and the overall project
are optimized regarding costs, quality and time.
Following, a briefly description of how the PDP
phases and activities can be done in a VME is pre-
sented. The idea to this project is to reach as result
a more detailed framework, presenting for each phase
mentioned above which tools can be used and how these
tools can be systematized in an integrated process flow.
While many of the technologies have to be used simul-
taneously during PDP, the initial focus is on product
Concept Design phase, which means a description and
initial representation of the product regarding its basic
functions, characteristics and structure, resulting in a
conceptual model with necessary information for the
following phases. One of the main activities that can
be support by VM software tools is the generation and
selection of alternatives of product concepts. In a Virtual
Manufacturing environment, alternatives concepts of
product can be defined using an advanced computer-
aided concept design tool that provides a more flexible
and integrated environment to 2D sketch and 3D mod-
elling and to represent product concepts. Besides that,
product shape and styling can be molded and refined
with surface modelling software that permits develop-
ment teams to produce attractive and photo realistic
models while creating quality surface descriptions and
precise geometry important to produce high-quality
molds and dies. This tool allows designers, if necessary,
to analyse reflection lines and curvature from surfaces
and to manipulate the surface of digital models instead
of build many physical models to have this accurate look
of the surface. Imperfections and inconsistencies in the
shape of the product can be detected early in the process,
J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735 729

Fig. 2 The development

CONCEPT DESIGN PRODUCT DESIGN
process in a Virtual
Manufacturing environment
is not a linear process Design Validation Design Validation
environment environment environment environment

PROCESS DESIGN PILOT PRODUCTION

Design Validation Design Validation

environment environment environment environment

enabling many key design decisions to be made without
the development of expensive clay modeling.
Product ideas can then be initially verified and vali-
dated using virtual and rapid prototyping technical
before the project advances to the next phase. The cre-
ation of a virtual prototype in this stage of PDP pro-
vides the interaction with the product to verify and
validate basic functions, the presentation of the new idea
to managers, product and manufacturing engineers and
customers, to validate the project with industrial design-
ers, to analyse initially the product manufacturability
and permits the comparison of the concept alternatives
without the need to construct a physical prototype. Even
earlier in the PDP, designer can work with the customer
to better define requirements using a virtual prototype.
The framework proposed for this phase is briefly pre-
sented in Fig 3.
Product Design phase can be enhanced in a VM con-
text as many tools can support the accomplishment of
styling and shape refining and detailed design, verifica-
tion and analysis of parts, systems and overall product
(Fig. 4). In this phase, a product model that contains
all the technical information about the product includ-
ing shape, assembly structure, shape tolerances, mate-
rial, mass properties, kinematics properties and so on
is used as the basis for downstream activities. Product
aesthetics, ergonomics and functionality can be verified
and validated in a virtual environment where users can
interact in real time with a virtual product and simulate
and predict its functional behaviour in the same man-
ner one would interact with in the real world. With VP,
new products designs can be evaluated for form, fit and
function to improve styling, performance, ergonomics,
manufacturability and maintainability and make sure
they work as intended before something is physically
built.
Besides that, many types of computational behaviour
simulations of products such as kinematics, mechanical
dynamics and static behaviour, structural analysis and
finite element analysis, is performed aiming at optimis-
ing the overall system that is being created.In this phase
the processes planning can be initiated.
In the Process Design phase, Virtual Manufacturing
concepts are applied in the elaboration and validation

Fig. 3 Concept design in a

Virtual Manufacturing Project Validation
environment Environment Environment

STL
VR Application
Conceptual VRML
Conceptual Development
Model
Project System
A STL
Part Rapid Prototype
database

Feed back
Conceptual
Model

STEP
A IGES Information:
UPR A: Conception alterantive description and representation;
B: Product specifications (materials, superficial finishing
and tolerances); C: Geometry; D: Manufacturing
information (tolerances and process planning information)
730 J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735

Fig. 4 Product design in a Feedback

Virtual Manufacturing
environment
Validation
Environment

STL VR Application
3D Product Project VRML Development
Conceptual 3D CAD
Environment Model
Model
B, C STL Rapid
A STEP Proto typing
IGES 3D CAD
UPR Model
CAD System
STEP
B, C
IGES
Parts UPR
database Analysis Environment
STL

3D CAD Dynamic Static

Model
Simulation Simulation
STEP Feedback
B, C
IGES
UPR Tolerance
STL Simulation

Process Project
Process Environment
database Ergonomic
DMU Simulation
Process
Planning
System

3D CAD
Model Information:
STEP A: Conception alterantive description and representation;
IGES B: Product specifications (materials, superficial finishing
UPR B,C,D and tolerances); C: Geometry; D: Manufacturing
STL information (tolerances and process planning information)

of many manufacturing and assembly processes plans
including basic operations, welding, painting, numerical
controlled (NC) programs to machining, robotic and co-
ordinate measurement machines (CMM), application of
standard times and application of ergonomics aspects
(Fig. 5).
In this environment it is also possible to have a 3D vir-
tual prototype of an assembly and import it in a assem-
bly sequence simulation tool allowing a full kinematics
simulation of the proposed assembly sequence plan to
check potential insertion paths for access clearance and
clashes between parts and fixtures and for verify the
fitness of interrelated parts.
Another important contribution is to model opera-
tions of NC machine and inspection program in virtual
reality, making possible the identification of access and
machining and fixturing problems in actual production
systems before expensive orders are placed for equip-
ment and tooling. With a 3D fixture solid model it is pos-
sible to perform a full kinematic simulation of machining
or inspection process and validate the NC or inspection
program prior to execute the actual activity. This makes
provides a greater feedback of manufacturing capability
information and statistics to design department. Besides
that, a 3D virtual prototype of tools and fixtures can be
used to allow crash detection between the machine tool,
tool, and fixture and stock material and to be used as
the basis for manufacturing the fixtures and tools.
The framework also proposes ergonomics assessment
of the design using a 3D ergonomic model to check
for visibility, reach, access and strength required. Ergo-
nomic studies on human motion such as posture calcu-
lations and energy expenditure can be examined for the
development of human task simulation model.
During Production Pilot phase, VME improves capac-
ities of new assembly and production lines and assures
an improved material flow. To support factory and cell
design a key tool as factory simulation can be used to
provide the possibility of achieving a macro-level model
of manufacturing capability with a high degree of accu-
racy. The framwork proposed for this phase is presented
on Fig. 6.
J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735 731

Fig. 5 Process design in a Product Project

Virtual Manufacturing Environment 3D CAD
Model B, C Tolerance
environment
STEP Simulation
IGES
CAD System UPR
Part
database
Process Analysis Environment
3D CAD
Model
NC
STEP
B, C IGES Simulation
STL

Robot
STEP Simulation
Process Project Environment IGES
UPR
STL
Process Planning MMC
System B,C, D Simulation
Process Task
database Task
ergonomic ergonomic
STEP STEP factors factors
UPR UPR Human tasks
STL STL Simulation
B,C, D STL
B,C,D VRML
Resources
database Resource NC B,C,D
Management Programming
STEP
UPR C, D Validation Environment
STL
3D CAD Virtual Environment
Model Development System
STEP
B,C,D IGES
UPR
STL Information:
VRML A: Conception alterantive description and representation;
B: Product specifications (materials, superficial finishing
and tolerances); C: Geometry; D: Manufacturing
information (tolerance sand process planning information)

Feedback operation can be enhanced by change in system layout,

Validation and addition of workstations and resources or rearrange-
Factory Project
Visualization ment of plants.
Environment The text presented here showed a briefly view of the
Environment
Discret Event framework that is being proposed in the lab work. The
Factory Simulation main objective is to offer an initial guide for who wants
Model
Layout Project to apply the VM. But, implement a VM environment,
System SDX with all the tools and systems integraded, is a big chal-
Factory Digital lenge. One factor that results in a challenge for the VM
Mock-up
implementation is data and system interoperability. The
next section has as objective to ilustrate one way that
companies can use to improve data interoperability in a
Products, Processes and Resources VM environment.
database

Fig. 6 Pilot production in a Virtual Manufacturing environment Data interoperability analysis

One of the challenges found to achieve a ideal Virtual

Simulation of a production system aims at visualiz-
ing the effects of changes of production constraints such
as investment costs on the system layout in terms of
resource requirements in labour, machine and equip-
ment and production volume. The execution of simula-
tion gives as results the production rate, machine and
resource utilization, throughput time analysis and bot-
tlenecks identification. And thus, efficiency of the plant
Manufacturing environment is the fact that software
tools, most of the time, need to share product and pro-
cess data and the data input and output formats are fre-
quently different. As a consequence, the development of
standards in a neutral format is required. This approach
avoids the development and maintenance of many inter-
faces of specific systems and allows applications to be
oriented directly to a shared file.
732 J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735

Product Project Process and the information access have to be managed by PDM
Traditional CAD Planning
Operations systems pertaining to the product development process.
selection
process Applications protocols STEP AP203 and AP214 have
Operations
STEP AP214 sequencing useful data architecture to the interoperability of many
process
VS-3D (*) VM systems, and they are the reference basis to com-
Other
Proprietary Format characteristics pare other formats. Processes supported by AP203 are:
STEP AP203
the development and exchange of design data with other
STEP AP214 Validations
STEP AP214 STEP AP203 steps of the life cycle of the product, the project devel-
STEP AP203 Information UPR, SDX CN
UP-3D VS-3D(*) Database VS-3D (*) VRML Verification opment and technical changes. The scope of AP214 is:
SDX
Discrete product definition, project, prototyping, process plan-
validations
Resources
Management NC Programming
ning, quality control, tools design and production. SDX
Machine Facility STEP AP214
Ergonomics
validations
allows data exchange among simulation software,
selection layout STEP AP203 Machine integrating factory project and material handling to sim-
UPR, VS-3D(*) Center
Tools
selection
Manpower
requirements
ulation and analysis environment. VRML represents
Measure
machines multimedia and 3D objects with hyperlinks to another
Configurations Geometries
planning by operations object as texts, films and images, and allows the interop-
Robotic
(*) 3D Simplified Visualization erability using the strategy of data integration through
database. UPR presents a great potential to data ex-
Fig. 7 Neutral formats to interface VM tasks groups change between traditional CAD systems and can be a
solution to the exchange or project representation based
on features. Neutrals formats of 3D visualization such
In this paper alternative to the use of standard for- as STL (Stereo Lithography) and CFL (Cubical Facet
mat files aiming at achieving a data interoperability List) can be used to store information internally in the
level in a VM environment is presented between task VM systems (Ravelli, Porto, & Souza, 2003).
groups presented above. These task groups need differ-
ent interoperability levels regarding information access ITIA-CNR case: the MPA-virtual factory
requirement, system association, information exchange
frequency and detail level of data converted among Towards the development of the Digital Enterprise,
these systems (Ravelli, 2003). In the end of this project, ITIA-CNR proposed an idea of integrating virtual real-
a more detailed analysis of data interoperability will be ity and discrete events simulation in the ManuFuturing
done regarding each tools used in each PDP phases. The project (Boër & Jovane, 1996; Sacco, Mottura, Viganò,
integration of product and process data in this environ- Avai, & Boër, 2000), which focuses on the development
ment will be possible with the presence of a mechanism of a new production system model for self-innovative
as a digital standard representation enabling the infor- and extended factory. A step forward it is applied in
mation sharing between the different VM systems. MPA project, where a factory is defined from its main
Figure 7 presents the proposed alternatives to allow modules and virtually reproduced in order to control
the interoperability to this data flow between product and test the shop floor performances (Viganò, Liao,
project and MV tasks. In order to achieve that proposal, Sacco, Mottura, & Boër, 2002).
studies and researches in this field (Greco 2002a, 2002b; The goal of this work is to define and to develop the
Marsan, Kumar, Dutta, & Pratt, 1998; Mecklenburg, “Virtual factory”: a system that allows the modeling and
2001; Schutzer & Henriques, 2002) have been analysed. the simulation of a factory in a virtual reality environ-
Some of the neutral formats that were considered ment where both the layout design and the production
here are STEP (Standard for Product data Exchange), process are taken into account. Moreover the factory
neutral formats to 3D imagine visualization, SDX (Sim- can be design in its structural components (i.e. offices,
ulation Data eXchange), UPR (Universal Product Rep- wall, stairs, etc.). The VR system is running on graphi-
resentation) and VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling cal workstation and mainly developed using C++, while
Language). the simulation system and the Standard Facility Library
Data created by a CAD system in the product pro- (SFL – the DB containing the whole factory resources
ject phase and data created or modified by systems of and building blocks) are based on PC and Java.
the VM environment are stored and managed by the In the MPA, the SFL maintains standard modules
database both in their proprietary font format as in neu- for virtual 3D design and the designed layout for suc-
tral formats. Automatic procedures to the generation cessive simulation. The VRE (Virtual Reality Environ-
of these additional files, the control of technical changes ment) provides a friendly 3D immersive interface for the
J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735 733

in order to create a lighter environment that can be

Personal Computer SGI Workstation
used on PC avoiding the workstation and the expen-
sive immersive devices. After the simulation completes
the emulation process, it is designed to produce a XML
Simulation SW
record file to store all the simulation processes, including
SFL Virtual Reality the necessary parameters for the VRE to replay the sim-
Emulation SW Interface
ulation effect under 3D environment. This idea is similar
Control SW
to transferring the layout file from the SFL to the simu-
Graphical User lation. Consequently, the integrative method discussed
Interface
above could also be used to transfer the record file from
the simulation to the VRE. Utilizing XML file to imple-
ment data integration has the following advantages:
Fig. 8 The MPA logical architecture

• The learning curve is very shallow because XML is

a natural step up from HTML.
factory building or the shop floor design; thus, the users
• The programmers are not necessary to worry about
are able to select the desired resource objects from the
the complicated interface definition and interaction.
SFL, put them on the virtual factory floor, connect out-
What is only required to do are producing and
puts to inputs and verify the hypothetical layout against
receiving the XML file on the basis of W3C stan-
the existing spatial constraints. All the operations can
dard.
be executed in the virtual room of ITIA-CNR. Due to
• XML is good at handling matters that are hierarchi-
the high costs and heavy burden of the virtual room,
cal. The SFL database is a real hierarchical object
especially for SMEs, a GUI (Graphical User Interface)
tree that can be represented reliably and conve-
is envisaged as a complement of 3D interface in case
niently by XML document.
the dedicated hardware platform is not available. The
• Some APIs support the development, for example,
fundamental idea of emulation and control software is
Java provides powerful tools like JAXP, JAXB. The
to create a simulation tool that can support the analyses
disadvantages are:
and evaluations of factory building and shop floor lay-
• XML document is human-readable file whose secu-
out. The simulation data then can be fed-back to the 3D
rity is not so good as that of transferring file in binary
or 2D interface to get emulation effect.
format, like CORBA.
The pilot case to test the application and the overall
• The application has to parse or unmarshal the XML
framework is a factory layout plus the factory build-
document after receiving the XML file. It is less
ing modules (both the case come from real companies
inefficient and needs a more heavyweight client
data); the represented process is for manufacturing and
especially when the file is large and works with
assembling car air-condition system and, since in real-
parser DOM. Anyway, it sacrifices the performance
ity the process is replicated five times, in the factory the
as the return of simplicity.
pilot application deals with just one single line; the build-
• The programmer has to know which language (C++,
ing, as well, is reconstructed just in its more meaningful
Java) is used in the parsing side. Different languages
modular component.
should have corresponding parsers.
For the pilot application almost all the 3D modular
components have been modelled from scratch. In future
a conversion procedure will be foreseen.
3D factory layout builder
A brief introduction to the XML integration
of the simulation and the VRE A new step that allows the visualisation of Virtual fac-
tory on PC is to create a three-dimensional environment
The integration between the VRE and the simulation meant to represent a factory layout taking information
can be fulfilled in different ways: using SOCKET out of the SFL directly using XML. The environment
(Haverlock, 1998; Mahmoud, 2001), CORBA (Schmidt offers to the user navigation functionalities as an avatar
& Vinoski, 1996; Vinoski, 1997) or through XML inside the virtual factory.
(Mohseni, 1994; Sun Microsystems Inc., 2001). In the The tool is characterized by low hardware require-
MPA project the whole possibility have been studied ments (PC-based), user-oriented semi-immersive graph-
and tested; finally the XML solution has been adopted ical interface and a modular and open architecture.
734
Fig. 9 The layout builder software
All the information needed in order to create the
virtual factory layout is stored in the SFL. The data-
base contains information related to the resources, their
characteristics and spatial information (positions and
orientations); the model repository collects all the 3D
models in VRML format. In order to create a modular
system a “Database Interface” has been created so that
the virtual layout builder can work without regards to
the internal structure of the Information System. Mainly
two modules compose the Layout Builder; a Parser for
the layout representation based on the Schema men-
tioned above and a Loader, based on the VRML spec-
ifications, which loads the models pointed out by the
XML file. The result of the layout builder is a virtual 3D
representation of the factory with a intuitive navigation
system and some reports about the resources informa-
tion in the factory.
The software provides three main functionalities: the
representation of the virtual factory, the semi-immersive
navigation of the virtual factory and the reports about
the factory layout
The user can then navigate this environment as if he
is really inside it. Since the mouse and the keyboard, not
using stereo-glasses and data gloves, provide the input
we can define it a semi-immersive navigation. Moreover
the user can view some reports about the layout contain-
ing information related to every single resource with a
direct link to the virtual resources in the environment.
Final considerations
The competitiveness of a company depends more and
more on the utilization of new developments on method-
ologies and environments, supported mainly by compu-
tational tools and technologies. The Virtual
J Intell Manuf (2006) 17:725–735
Fig. 10 The virtual factory
Manufacturing approach leads to an integrated and syn-
thetic environment to develop a product, from concept
to market launching. However, applying Virtual Manu-
facturing involves an effort to develop a good solution
to integrate all the applications and data present in that
environment. An analysis has to be performed for each
case and alternatives have to be studied. The interoper-
ability barrier exists and a great deal of effort has been
placed on this question. The authors have presented
just a brief overview of the problem and two case stud-
ies where these aspects have been studied and applied
to real companiesć6 cases. The work is on progress and
some results coming from the evaluation campaigns will
be presented at the conference.
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