Digital Process Twin

Digitalization is at the core of the industry’s push to reduce costs and lead time. Automakers must develop faster and manufacturing must be successful from the very start. Industry 4.0 calls for new and innovative solutions, which require the digital transformation of processes. Automotive planning and engineering departments carry out extensive process engineering for stampings and BiW assemblies for their tryout and production activities. These engineering activities are driven by digital process models which reveal all of the important causalities and dependencies in the process.

In practice, various correction loops are required to produce failure free stamped parts and assemblies within geometrical tolerances. In these correction loops, the adjustment made to the tools are carried out manually, which is an extremely costly and time-consuming task. Reducing the number of tryout and quality loops required is key to a successful production process. This can be efficiently achieved through the use of a digital process model or “digital twin”.

Although in practice minor discrepancies between the digital twin and the physical representation of the process or “physical twin” are to be expected, the key to success lies precisely in dealing with these discrepancies. The goal of digitalization and Industry 4.0 efforts is to systematically identify and eliminate all discrepancies between digital and physical twins, i.e. digital and physical twins must match.

AutoForm software provides users with a digital process representation which serves as the blueprint of the physical process in the tryout and production of stampings and BiW assemblies. If there are problems in the physical world, the digital process model enables users to determine which adjustments need to be made to the physical process. The software allows them to predict, control and solve the problems efficiently. In this way, they can significantly reduce the number of physical tryout and quality loops which results in lead time and cost savings.

AutoForm’s product portfolio allows for full digitalization of the BiW process and satisfies the Industry 4.0 requirements. Automotive OEM’s and suppliers worldwide can greatly benefit from AutoForm’s excellence and know-how in their drive to implement state-of-the-art Industry 4.0 strategies in the BiW process chain.