Virtual Commissioning for Scalable Production Systems in the Automotive Industry: Model for evaluating benefit and effort of virtual commissioning

An uncertain market demand for electrified vehicles leads to the establishment of scalable production systems. Their capacity can be extended step by step depending on the market development. A challenging aspect within this environment is the re-ramp-up of the production system after the implementation or adaption of production facilities. This paper demonstrates how virtual commissioning can be used to shorten and improve the commissioning phase of new production facilities and thereby ensure the re-ramp-up of production systems in time. Despite high cost and time saving potential, the development of a virtual model and the commissioning in the simulation environment causes a lot of effort. The paper identifies basic requirements as well as other factors of influence on virtual commissioning and provides an evaluation model which can be used by production engineers. The focus is to identify projects with a high potential and support the decision for or against using virtual commissioning within the expansion of a scalable production system.