Next stop: Metaverse?
The development of technological capabilities has reached a point where even the most advanced methods of factory planning are being surpassed at an unprecedented pace. While Building Information Modeling (BIM) has so far been able to unfold its potential only in parts of industry, the Industrial Metaverse is already emerging as the next evolutionary stage. To better classify the differences and new potentials, it is worth taking a brief journey through the evolution of digital factory planning.
More than 50 years ago, the first CAD applications entered commercial practice with the digital creation of design drawings. Increased precision, time and cost savings, as well as improved suitability for documentation and allocation, laid the foundation for success and subsequent adoption across further fields. Against this backdrop, factory planning also became increasingly digital, and established CAD tools such as AutoCAD evolved into the new standard. As industrial complexity continued to rise, simulation solutions subsequently gained increasing importance. They enabled a new way of anticipating system behavior not only statically, but also dynamically. In order to make the results of numerous workshops and analyses more tangible, digital planning was later extended by a third dimension. The visualization of planning states in 3D became an important tool for decision-making and was made experiential through AR and VR applications. At this evolutionary stage, however, these were often still purely visual representations of plans created in 2D. As a result, a consistent integration of geometric and alphanumeric planning layers had not yet been fully achieved.
This is precisely where the next stage of evolution begins. With the BIM methodology, a central information carrier for managing all geometric and alphanumeric data is integrated into the planning process. The gradual mandatory introduction of BIM for public construction projects has acted as a catalyst for its broader adoption and has led to increasing recognition of its benefits in adjacent disciplines, such as factory planning. The resulting framework sets new standards for the collaborative planning of increasingly complex factory systems. The most recent developments now place the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the transition into the Industrial Metaverse—an immersive environment for real-time collaboration—at the center of attention. Enormous potential emerges here, as end-to-end data continuity helps to further close the gap between planning and operation.
So, what comes next?
On the one hand, the immense potential of technological progress fuels great expectations within industry. On the other hand, it opens up a wide range of possibilities that often also create uncertainty. As a technical consulting company, we see it as our responsibility not only to master the most advanced methods and tools in application, but also to identify an appropriate entry point based on the individual initial situation and to support the development of the required expertise. Digital factory planning for a Greenfield or Brownfield scenario should rather be understood as the starting point for digitally supported factory operations in the next step.
We are keeping an eye on the following five core technological developments for you so that we can continue to put together the optimal toolkit for your application in the future.
Core technological developments in factory planning at a glance:
Further standardization of the BIM methodology for factory planning
The role of simulation in an increasingly complex world
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into factory planning
The Industrial Metaverse as an immersive planning environment
DThe digital twin as the final coupling point between factory planning and factory operation
