Digital Manufacturing Tools | HSSMI: A Sustainable Manufacturing Consultancy

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DIGITAL MANUFACTURING

Our experts in digital manufacturing tools can support your business in ensuring that the right digital capabilities are in the hands of engineers to make their jobs and tasks easier. We can also assist your manufacturing business in improving productivity and enhancing the quality of output through the use of digital technologies.

KEY SERVICES

Digital Readiness Review (DRR)

Immersive Reality Development for Collaboration & Training

Enterprise IT System Selection

Factory Scanning

Factory Modelling & Virtual Commissioning

KEY PROJECTS

Intelligent Naval 4.0 | Past Project

The IN 4.0 project aims to improve the competitiveness of naval sector companies through the adaptation of the traditional productive model towards the Industry 4.0 – guaranteeing the sector’s endurance in an increasingly demanding market where technological innovation is a key factor of strategic advantage.

CO-VERSATILE | Recent Project

CO-VERSATILE is a pan-European project to deploy concepts for repurposing and scaling up flexible and sustainable production methods and supply chain solutions to rapidly address Europe’s demand for essential medical equipment and supplies. CO-VERSATILE project members will leverage their expertise and network to repurpose existing technologies and services for elevating the adaptability and resilience of the manufacturing sector.

5GEM-UK | Recent Project

5GEM-UK aims to demonstrate the value that 5G will bring to the manufacturing industry by creating testbeds at Ford and TWI, which will enhance shop floor monitoring – from enabling real-time monitoring and control of machines and processes to improving data collection. As part of the project, HSSMI will develop new productivity enhancing digital tools and applications.

PET Full Loop | Recent Project

PET Full Loop seeks to improve the state of recycling in the UK by developing the country’s first dual PET bottle and tray recycling facility. HSSMI will leverage its expertise in applying digital tools in various industries to create a digital twin of the recycling facility. This is understood to be a novel approach for the waste industry.

openMOS | Past Project

Opendynamic Manufacturing Operating System (openMOS) was a European project with a consortium of 15 companies which developed a modular plug-and-produce equipment. The objective of openMOS was to allow quick integration of machines and automation systems in production environments, a prerequisite for the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions. HSSMI delivered a genetic algorithm optimiser for dynamic product routing in a manufacturing plant.

SymSim | Past Project

The aim of this project was to improve the speed at which simulation results of an automotive manufacturing line can be delivered by significantly reducing time to build the models and interpret the results. A discrete event simulation is a model that replicates the real world into an ordered sequence of events in digital form.

Holistic Immersive Collaboration | Past Project

The project creates an environment for holistic immersive collaboration i.e. connecting multiple visualisation options to a central, company-wide digital knowledge pool. The objective of the project is to shorten the time to ramp up automotive manufacturing and reduce time to market whilst decreasing the cost of machine maintenance. The focus of the project is to develop number of augmented and virtual reality technologies along with a platform.

Factory Symbiosis | Past Project

FactorySym project is an analysis of the workflows used to create Digital Twins, focusing on breaking the concepts down into parts, and using interchangeable software packages, rather than complete all-in-one solutions. The consortium included an automotive manufacturer, and simulation and IoT solutions providers. The aim is to make Digital Twin technologies more accessible to manufacturers, and integrate with existing systems, not replace them.

SELSUS | Past Project

The vision of SelSus was tobuild self-aware devices through synergetic relationships with their human operators and maintenance personnel based on pro-active communication. This ensured targeted and timely repair, renovation and upgrading, thereby maximising performance and lifetimes. It also drastically improved the resilience of highly complex manufacturing facilities to foreseen and unforeseen disturbances.

AM Reality | Past Project

The AMReality (Augmented Manufacturing Reality) project involved the creation of an integrated virtual and physical manufacturing environment which overlayed digital data (e.g. CAD, simulations, video, etc) with information about the physical environment (e.g. size, temperature, power usage etc). It was envisaged that the proposed system will help improve efficiency, enable optimization, and enhance decision making in a manufacturing environment through providing greater access to information.

CASE STUDIES

Building a Digital Platform to Solve Inbound Logistics Challenges

HSSMI worked with a British OEM, specialised in electric vehicle manufacture, that was looking to launch a new product. Through collaborative analysis of relevant processes, HSSMI was able to design a bespoke and customisable digital solution, which helped the OEM tackle challenges related to inbound process standardisation and control, visibility and traceability of stock, and delivery planning and scheduling.

Using Simulation to Plan New Product Introduction

HSSMI used simulation tools to model the body assembly area at LEVC, in order to develop and optimise flow parts and minimise disruption of the ongoing production of the TX5 (Taxi). Many vital decisions needed to be made for the area, such as what investment is needed, where stations should be placed, and when and how parts should feed into the system.

Implementing Digital Tools to Facilitate Ford’s Facility Refit and Support the Transition to EV Manufacture

Leveraging HSSMI’s experience in digital manufacturing, Ford was able to anticipate and plan for the necessary changes in a virtual environment and then enact them in real life. Digitalisation also brought the added benefit of ensuring a single source of truth in communications throughout the entire company.

Virtual Reality Support for Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company announced that they were looking to introduce the use of Virtual Reality (VR) into the manufacturing side of their business, on a trial basis, in order to understand the benefits of adopting this technology into their wider organisation. HSSMI therefore provided a short-term project with a set of defined deliverables to enhance the experience of using VR.

Proving and Delivering the Benefits of Digital Tools for Ford Motor Company’s New Electric Drive Programme

HSSMI supported Ford in defining a digital manufacturing workstream, which would form part of Ford’s electric drive units (EDU) programme. The goal has been to achieve a flawless product launch by using digital tools to anticipate and minimise risks with regards to timing and cost overrun.

Developing a Digital Strategy and IT Infrastructure for One of UK’s First Gigafactories

HSSMI designed a roadmap, which advised on the selection and roll out of the digital systems and processes required to manage the product, process and Gigafactory overall.

Material Flow Simulation for Ford Motor Company

Material Flow Simulation was a commercial project which established the current state of the material flow for the trim line at the Ford Valencia plant through the generation of a simulation model.

Virtual Reality for Factory Cell Comparison for AGM Batteries

Virtual Reality (VR) for Factory Cell Comparison is a project which envisioned the generation of a virtual reality environment to facilitate the comparison of a newly designed battery cell, incorporating RF technology against a traditional battery cell design.

Augmented Manufacturing Reality

The Augmented Manufacturing Reality project (AMReality) involved the creation of an integrated virtual and physical manufacturing environment overlaid with digital data (e.g. CAD, simulations, video etc.) alongside information about the physical environment (e.g. size, temperature, power usage etc.)

INSIGHTS

Pan-European Effort to Strengthen the Manufacturing Industry’s Response to Emergencies

A consortium of 21 forward-thinking institutions from nine European countries have joined forces to innovate and deploy concepts for repurposing and scaling up flexible and sustainable production methods and supply chain solutions to rapidly address Europe’s demand for essential medical equipment

CO-VERSATILE Digital Technopole to Unlock The Power of European Manufacturers in Response to Urgent Societal Needs

CO-VERSATILE today launched the ‘Digital Technopole’, a single-entry easy access to tailored services, technologies and consulting expertise for European manufacturers in crisis situations.

Pioneering Digital Tools in the Waste Industry to Improve Recycling

HSSMI is a partner in the recently announced PET Full Loop project. Together with Veolia, Unilever and Charpak, HSSMI will seek to improve the state of recycling in the UK by developing the country’s first dual PET bottle and tray recycling facility over the next three years.

HSSMI Simulation Expertise to Help Increase the Sustainability of Aquaculture Vessels

The new Seafood Innovation Fund awarded project LEWAS (Low Emission Workboats for the Aquaculture Sector) will identify viable and cost-effective methods for improving fuel efficiency of aquaculture workboats and contribute to decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions.

HSSMI Helps Ramp Up Ventilator Production Using Its Digital Tools

HSSMI has supported Ford Motor Company to accelerate the scale up of ventilator production by developing a series of 3D, digitally animated work instructions using 3D PDF, which enabled operators to be trained remotely under the constraints of social distancing.

CO-VERSATILE – Strengthening Resilience of Manufacturing Operations

HSSMI is working with CO-VERSATILE project partners on designing training packages for crisis situations. The training packages will provide the workforce remote access to digital work instructions and engineering data through the use of digital manufacturing tools.

Moving Workforce Training into Virtual Environments with the Virtual Training Creator

By providing a plug-in with user-friendly templates and pre-developed functions for Unreal Engine, the VTC tool can help manufacturers take their training approach from the physical to the digital environment.

Harnessing the Potential of Digital Tools to Boost Business Operations

This report aims to describe the high-level trends in the application and spread of digital technologies and HSSMI’s concept of “orchestration” which leads to the establishment of a successful digital ecosystem. As an example of such an ecosystem, the use case of digital twins is described.

New 5GEM-UK Project to Leverage 5G for the Manufacturing Sector

The newly launched 5GEM-UK (5G-Enhanced Manufacture – UK) project will aim to demonstrate the value that 5G will bring to the manufacturing industry by creating testbeds at two sites – Ford Motor Company’s site in Dunton and TWI’s facility in Cambridge.

Photogrammetry Using Drones for Manufacturing

At HSSMI we often look at innovative ways to improve existing workflows for the manufacturing engineering sector. One of the more recent interests was in the development of a workflow to implement the use of photogrammetry using drones for manufacturing.

A Digital Transformation Journey: Implementing Digital Technologies to Unlock New Opportunities

This white paper explains each step as part of a digital transformation journey, as well as presenting insights from industry on the challenges, drivers, applications, and potential benefits that can be achieved by adopting digital technologies.

Digitalisation in the UK Maritime Sector: A Stakeholders’ Pulse Check

This paper aims to present the IN 4.0 project, aiming to ease the adaptation and adoption of I4.0 practices and technologies in maritime sector companies in order to improve their competitiveness, especially targetting SMEs.

eManuals: An Effective Way to Improve Machine Maintenance and Productivity

At HSSMI we develop interactive digital maintenance manuals that combine machine information with 3D CAD data to aid maintenance engineers on the shop floor. The eManual integrates 3DPDF features with multiple data sources.

Industry 4.0 Summit. Panel Discussion: Industry 4.0 in the Context of Manufacturing Engineering

HSSMI’s Executive Director, Axel Bindel chaired the panel discussion on the topic of “Industry 4.0 in the context of Manufacturing Engineering, with an example of an electrification project”, focusing the session around the E:PrIME project.

Chihuahua or Muffin: How the Automotive Industry is Using Autonomous Technology and Data in Manufacturing

Chihuahua or a muffin? Easy for us to see but for machines it’s a challenge. With the help of neural networks, machine vision has developed considerably in the past decade. With so much data at their disposal, todays machine vision systems can classify and detect objects at a high level of accuracy.

Let’s Talk Immersive Collaboration

The Holistic Immersive Collaboration project started with the intention of supporting the production ramping up processes and cost efficiency of machine maintenance, since these are the key pin points industries are trying to address.

Factory Simulation: Exploring the Links with Symbiotic Simulation and Digital Bill of Process

Real and virtual manufacturing is growing closer and faster. Manufacturers recognise the importance of enabling new technologies, real-time data sharing and visualisation within their organisations and across their supply chains. HSSMI is helping companies start to integrate these technologies.

Is Distributed Manufacturing Right for Your Business?

Why Distributed Manufacturing? Conventional manufacturing models are struggling to keep up with the demands of modern consumers. The 21st century customer wants originality and uniqueness at a competitive price while keeping up with the latest trends.

Overcoming Limitations of Additive Manufacturing through Advances in CAD Technology

The technology minimises design restrictions, overcomes design complexity and supports green manufacturing initiatives. However, there are a number of technical limitations that hinder its widespread commercial exploitation, particularly a lack of suitability of conventional CAD.

Update on Digital Readiness Level (DRL)

We have adopted the term value as we feel it is important to identify a value-based system for the application of new technology – particularly important as scale-up starts to happen.

Research into a Virtual Tool to Perform Risk Assessment for Collaborative Applications

The Risk Assessment for Collaborative Environments (RACE) project aims to develop a virtual tool to perform risk assessments for collaborative applications, using inputs such as the robot’s program, the operator’s program and a CAD model of the production part and the environment.

Digital Readiness Level

Digital is such a rapidly changing environment the DRL needs to reflect this, so we will introduce a dynamic cadence aspect to our work. We have tested the model with a few major automotive OEM’s and the response has been very positive.

Industry 4.0 Held to Ransom – The Destructive Combination of IoT and Ransomware

IoT devices do not hold much data themselves for them to be worthwhile paying a ransom to unlock, but they do have access to real world systems; be that locks on the door or assets on the production line. This has a potential to do far more damage than just locking some data.

HSSMI’s Adoption of Cloud Technologies

Although these storage solutions are a key component, the cloud is much more than just simple distributed storage. In this blog post, I’ll present my current views as a web developer, having previous experience of working in IT services and outsourcing.

The Lovelace Test or Can Machines Take Us By Surprise?

As part of my work in the Data Analytics for Resource Efficiency team and my interest in Machine Learning, I’m interested to know when machines can be considered intelligent. Over the years, the Turing Test has been regarded by many (definitely not by all) as THE definitive test for consciousness.

Digital Readiness Level (DRL)

Over the last 18 months we at HSSMI have been talking to a lot of our customers and academic partners about digital manufacturing, or industry 4.0 or Factory of the Future; the names vary but the intent is the same; how can we increase productivity, quality, flexibility and reduce cost.

openMOS: The Project

The main objective of the openMOS project was to allow quick integration of machines and automation systems in production environments – a prerequisite for the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions.

Digital Readiness Level

DRL-Tool benchmarks your readiness to make the most of digital technologies and helps you determine the steps along your journey to digital maturity. You can compare your digital readiness with other companies of similar size, sector and region, all in an anonymised way.

Transforming Manufacturing Businesses with Industry 4.0

Good data flows, clear visualisations of information, and concise KPI tracking are all key to staying competitive in this market. Having the required interface and one central and accessible location means advanced analytical tools can be used to optimise the process.

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