Performance indicators for factory planning on the basis of the virtual production intelligence approach

Abstract

Production companies in high-wage countries face growing complexity in their production conditions due to increasing variance and shorter product lifecycles. Solutions that provide an integrated view of the planning processes are needed to achieve increasing production quality and efficiency. One approach for managing this complexity is the use of simulation applications to design digital models. Using the approach of "Virtual Production", e.g. factory planning scenarios can be evaluated in advance by simulation. A new integrative concept called Virtual Production Intelligence (VPI) has been developed that applies solutions of different intelligence approaches to the field of virtual production by means of integration and analysis of data aggregated along the simulated processes. In this paper, performance indicators are presented for monitoring factory planning processes using the VPI approach. Hence, critical stages can be simulated in advance to support factory planning projects.