Can sim pay for itself?
If you're wondering how the time and effort of creating a sim can be worth it, here's some ideas about how it can provide both cost savings and revenue generation.
Cost savings
Listed below are the main phases of a machine build or automation project. The key to maximizing the ROI of a sim is to use it in most phases.
Sales
Sim makes presenting your concepts to your customer much more compelling than just CAD alone.
Design
Concepts, optimizations, algorithms, material flows, layouts are all done faster and more iteratively and collaboratively in a sim than in any other format.
- Mechanical: While detailed mechanical design will still be done in CAD, collision detection, large component interaction, layouts are more easily done in a sim.
- Electrical: Electrical design itself isn't done in sim, but ensuring mechanical and electrical I/O align can be done with automated auditing. The sim is where all disciplines come together to ensure a working whole.
Fabrication
A sim is a great tool for communicating with the shop. While detail drawings for specific trades will still be necessary, discussions will happen at the sim.
Software
The controls algorithms can be easily worked out in a sim then migrated to the actual platforms (PLC, robots). While this may seem like duplicate work, for large projects (especially) it assures that the programs are implemented only once and will not require changes late in the project due to unforeseen issues. It also provides a great reference for the programmers so they know what to implement. It eliminates 'sequence of operations' and similar documents.
Testing
As the build nears completion, electrical, mechanical and software come together in the real world to ensure everything works together. However, these teams typically work in series (Mech > Elec > Software), each one waiting for the previous. A sim allows the software team to work in parallel, even having their testing done before the others.
Installation
The sim provides a visual model of the working machine. It will become the reference document for all involved because it is just so easy to understand - you can see the machine working!
Training
Beyond having a working model to look at, video can be added and a truly interactive environment can be created. This can be anything from an information kiosk to full VR (Virtual Reality).
Support
Once your machine has shipped, the sim can be used later to explain to support staff how the machine works, what needs to be serviced, or as a reference when discussing with a customer.
Documentation
Documentation explaining the use of the machine can be greatly reduced (and improved) by providing a sim instead. While some documentation will still be needed (BOM, electrical drawings, etc.) these can actually be added to the sim and set up as an information kiosk. And the 'how-to' explanations can be fully replaced by animated sequences in the sim.
Summary of the cost savings described above:
- better communication (single reference for all disciplines)
- faster design iterations
- parallel software development
- faster, easier testing
- faster, clearer training
- reduced documentation
Revenue generation
If you use simulation only for your own use, then the customer may not be willing to offer you anything for it directly. However, you can provide extra value to them during production (after the machine is running) by creating applications that may well turn a profit.
HMI
Replace the typical machine HMI with a more dynamic HMI based on the simulation. While there are fears about the robustness and reliability of this approach, most industrial HMIs tend to be pretty laggy.
Diagnostics
If you can't replace the HMI, you can create a diagnostics kiosk. For instance, graphically show faults on the machine, animate recovery actions, etc.
Information station
Building on the Diagnostics kiosk, additional information can be added such as: drawings, BOMs, safety and other relevant information that is typically trapped in an offline system.
Production planning
Potentially the most rewarding use for the customer is creating a production planning tool. It should allow the customer to run 'what if' scenarios. This is most useful if you've installed an entire line or a complex machine with variable sequences.
Summary of the revenue generation described above:
- create powerful diagnostic tools
- create powerful planning tools
The big difference between standard industrial sim packages and game engines is the ability to turn the sim into a tool for the customer. In other words, you can ship it. Being able to repurpose the sim for the customer's use adds significantly to the ROI of building a sim.
But...
Doesn't the actual machine deviate from the model quickly?
You can decide to keep it updated as the project progresses. But even if you don't have the resources to do this, the bulk functionality of the machine will not change that much near the end (in fact, that is the goal of the sim!). So, the machine that gets shipped will be close enough to be useful for discussions during the later phases.
Doesn't creating all these tools take a lot of time?
If you continually add value for each stage, you may find that you build a lot of functionality internally (for design and testing) that may be useful for the customer. For instance, when you're deciding on the logic of the machine, you may create dashboards that allow you to see the results of your ideas. If things change down the road, the customer may want to reconsider the implemented logic and make changes. Therefore, it may take very little time to turn an internal tool into a customer-facing tool.
Also, the nature of software development in general allows for significant reuse. So, as you create internal tools, each successive project will benefit.
Why would I change now if I don't have to?
As things get more digital and data and AI take over, factories in general may insist (contractually) that they are provided a sim of the machine to integrate into their facility's digital twin. It's very likely that it will become a requirement just as electrical drawings and manuals are a requirement today. With a few large competing platforms it will be difficult for a machine builder or integrator to accommodate them all. Game engines may well be a cost-effective middle ground (if they don't get adopted universally).
The transition to sim should be similar to the transition from paper drawings to CAD. One difference though is that it's not a straight line replacement (CAD was obviously a replacement for paper drafting). There is no "paper" sim today - you just use the real world. Which is still necessary, of course, but much less so and later in the process.
Another difference is, at this point, there is no clearly dominant platform. Hopefully, the articles in this series help guide this transition. But it's difficult to predict; architectural drafting software from the 80s (AutoCAD) is still used today for electrical drawings.
Wrap up
The main reason sim hasn't hasn't seen wide adoption is the cost in time and money that is, rightly, perceived and required. But the reality now (but not in the recent past) is that making a sim will increase ROI on a project by reducing communication and commissioning costs and by creating opportunities to increase revenue.
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