Digital Twinning for configure-to-order in product design and assembly

More and more manufacturing companies are shifting from a mass production strategy to production strategies that allow for more customer-specific products. The production of more customer-specific products requires production companies to be more flexible in the manufacturing of their products. This flexibility can be realised with the implementation of a Configure to Order (CTO) production strategy. With Configure to Order, the production is divided into several pre-engineered parts of a product. These parts, or building blocks, can be combined endlessly. This ensures a highly configurable product that can be tailored to the customer’s needs. A modular approach like this enables standardising customised solutions, while decreasing lead times and thus saving costs.

These benefits fit seamlessly with the vision of bike manufacturer Van Raam BV. Van Raam is specialised in the design, development, and production of special needs bikes, for people with a disability. One of their goals is to optimise customised solutions for their customers, as the demand for personalisation is ever-growing. Therefore, they apply the Configure to Order (CTO) production strategy. Besides that, the goal of Van Raam is to improve scalability, so that even more people can enjoy their products.

To deliver highly customised bikes with a CTO strategy, a lot of communication is required regarding the order information. The basis for this communication within the production environment lies within making the required information available and accessible. To prepare for this, it is advisable to start with optimising the digital infrastructure and information accessibility, as well as the production capabilities. And that was also the first step in the project Van Raam did with the University of Twente and the FIP-AM@UT to this end. This step laid the basis for future digital services and an increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of the production environment.

The project was funded by the TKI High Tech Systems and Materials (HTSM) via the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy’s PPS allowance scheme for Research and Innovation.

Industry partner

APPROACH

For this three-year TKI project, a research-by-design approach was applied to develop an approach that supports in the development and implementation of digitalisation solutions. This approach allowed for a broad understanding of the goals, needs, and challenges within Van Raam and an understanding of the organisation itself. Moreover, this approach enabled to explore the opportunities and solutions, and to also select the right solutions.

A generic blueprint was developed to map the current and future digital infrastructure of a company. This blueprint led to a good insight into where data and information is stored and what the most suitable solution would be for the digital infrastructure at Van Raam. Finally, a digital twinning approach for CTO environments was developed. With this approach, two digital twinning demonstrators were built to create insight into the welding process and to visualise the order flow throughout the production environment.

OUTCOME

As a starting point, the initial situation and vision for the future were thoroughly scrutinised. Based on that, a roadmap for digital transformation with a focus on a CTO production environment was drawn up, leading up to the following project results:

The development of VRIS: a scalable information system to connect all software and to make data available to whom, where, and when it is required
Digital Twins to validate and showcase the value and presentation of available information within Van Raam
A production flow demonstrator to visualise the real-time data of orders within VRIS, to provide the desired insights into the order flow
An approach and guide for digitalisation among SMEs, which helps understand how digitalisation can be of value and where to start

Based on the promising project outcomes, the objective is to keep improving the recent developments and continue the journey of digital transformation. Eventually, this will lead to optimised production processes and efficiency.

“FIP-AM@UT’s wide knowledge and experience in the area of Industry 4.0 and Digital Twinning combined in a mixed and international team of (young) professionals provided us the necessary tools to speed up our digital evolution process without losing track of quality and strategy.”

– Maikel Fraikin, Director Information
Management Van Raam

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VAN RAAM PROJECT, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT TO

Maaike Slot

Research Engineer

Can Ölmezoğlu

Engineering Support, Software Development

Cheng Guo

Research Engineer

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