BMW Group’s future plant Debrecen is the first facility to be planned and validated completely virtually. The concept was released in collaboration with its partner NVIDIA and is scheduled to open in 2025. The new facility is scheduled to produce the BMW Group’s next generation of all-electric models: the Neue Klasse.
BMW Group is taking a digital-first approach to validate and optimise complex manufacturing systems across its production network using NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise, a platform for building and operating 3D industrial metaverse applications, to run real-time digital twin simulations to optimise layouts, robotics and logistic systems virtually. Omniverse will be extended across the BMW product network around the world.
Virtualisation and artificial intelligence are accelerating and refining the planning. With the various planning systems consolidated within a digital twin, the teams around the world can now work together in real-time and make decisions faster and on a more solid foundation, Milan Nedeljković, AG Board Member, Production BMW explains. This makes the entire process much quicker and more efficient and saves on costs as well.
Digitalisation is moving fastest in the automotive industry and BMW has been a leader in advancing this vision, informs Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. They are partnering closely with BMW, using NVIDIA Omniverse to help streamline their manufacturing processes, enhance collaboration and further efficiency. The collaboration will continue to push the frontiers of virtual integration for the next generation of smart, connected factories around the world.
Consistent virtual planning of highly complex vehicle production processes represents the BMW Group’s next important step in the transformation to the BMW iFACTORY. First introduced in early 2022, the concept of the iFACTORY is described by Nedeljković as “a masterplan for the automotive production of tomorrow”.
Based on a completely new vehicle architecture, the Neue Klasse heralds the fundamental transformation of production to the BMW iFACTORY. It began in 2020, when all of the BMW Group’s vehicle and engine plants were 3D-scanned.
Meanwhile, virtual planning is under way for the roughly 1.4 km2 production hall for the Neue Klasse in Debrecen, where the success of the virtual start of production is a testament to the high standards that can be achieved through the digitalisation of the planning process. NVIDIA Omniverse allows production experts to use live data both in-house and with suppliers on the detailed planning and optimisation of processes and individual systems, without compatibility issues.
Layout options, for instance for robots in work cells, or for the various areas of logistics, can be played through in real-time, photorealistic simulations and adapted as required. The platform also will allow suppliers to be involved in decision-making and integrate the tried-and-tested design and planning tools that BMW has been using to date.