Removing Trial and Error: Nonstop Simulation in Production

消除试验和错误：在生产中不停的模拟

Trying something new has always been a gamble for manufacturers. Developing new products or coming up with a new processes often involves a fair amount of costly trial and error, but not anymore. A new generation of simulation tools is providing manufacturers with the ability to come up with new ideas and make their processes far more efficient.

对制造商而言尝试新事物就是一场赌博。开发新产品或采用新的生产流程往往需要大量投资，反复试错，但现在这一情况可能有所改观了。新一代的仿真工具使得制造商能够想出新的点子，也使得他们的生产过程更加高效。

Simulation used to be something done by a few industries that needed to test products before they released them to the market, often for safety reasons, but all that has changed.

工厂一般是在产品投入市场前进行仿真测试（通常是为了保障安全性），但现在一切都不一样了。

Delphine Genouvrier, Product Portfolio Manager at Solidworks, who produces simulation software, explains: “Years ago, only a few types of industries such as automotive and aerospace used simulation, and they would only use it as a validation tool, to check that their products would meet the stresses of the real world.”

Delphine Genouvrier，仿真软件Solidworks的产品经理解释道：“几年前，只有少数产业比如汽车和航天会使用仿真软件，它们也只是当作验证的工具，用于用来检查他们的产品能够承受真实世界的压力。”

“We are now seeing a big change,” continues Genouvrier. “All product designers use it, and not for validation but as a means of testing ideas and concepts before production.”

“我们正在经历巨大的变革。”Genouvrier继续说道，“所有产品设计师在使用它，不是用于成品的验证而是在生产前测试想法和概念。”

Three layers to simulation

仿真的三个层次

Yet, simulation has uses beyond just prototyping. A new breed of product lifecycle management tools (PLM) is enabling simulations during all stages of production, allowing the modeling of new ways of doing things, helping manufacturers to change and improve efficiency.

现在，仿真已经不再限于原型。一种新的产品生命周期管理工具（PLM）能在生产的各个阶段模拟，通过一种新的建模方法来帮助制造商改变产品和提高效率。

“Simulation in production offers the ability to design out process inefficiency, eliminate costs, and maximize revenue and profits,” says Aaron Frankel, Siemens Director of Product Marketing for Manufacturing Engineering Software.

“通过仿真，可以在设计过程中就避免低效率的生产环节、降低成本，最大限度的提高收入和利润。”西门子制造软件工程部市场总监Aaron Frankel说。

He says there are now three layers to simulation: new product simulation that helps with design and ensures you do a good job from the start; simulation that can help you model different processes so you find new ways of doing things; and simulation to support continuing processes, helping to make them more efficient.

他说现在有三层模拟：新产品仿真辅助设计师进行设计，确保新产品有一个良好的开端；流程仿真可以对不同的生产流程建模，帮助你发现新的生产模式；生产流程的持续仿真，可以使得现有的生产流程更高效。

And the benefits can be huge. “Without simulation, if you want to try something new you may have to take part of your factory offline. This is costly and you can never fully evaluate a new system this way,” says Frankel.

这样做的好处是巨大的。“没有仿真，你就只能停下你的部分生产车间、设备来尝试新的东西。代价昂贵而且你没办法评估一个全新的系统。”Frankel说。

He adds: “Process simulation enables you to model and predict entire new production systems and evaluate how long new processes will take. You can also take existing processes and look at different ways to reduce costs such as energy consumption, it can give you a better understanding of how you can optimize things.”

他补充道：“流程仿真使你可以建模和预测全新的生产体系，并且你可以预期新的体系下的生产周期。你也可以看看现有的流程是否有不同的方式降低成本，比如能源的消耗，它使你更加知道如何优化你的产品。”

Information Flow

信息流

Frankel says that with the latest PLM systems, information now flows backwards, right down the production chain, enabling changes to be made at each stage of production, so everything can run more efficiently.

Frankel说最新的PLM系统，生产过程中的信息会反馈给系统，系统再发送给各个生产环节，从而使得每个生产环节都可据此做出改变，所以能更高效的运转。

“You can make all sorts of predictions,” says Frankel. “If you have a sudden high demand for your products, you can forecast whether or not your existing processes can handle it. You can also come up with new ways of doing things better.”

“你可以做各式的预测。”Frankel说，“如果你的产品需求突然增长，你可以预测你现在的生产流程是否能够搞定。你也可以想出更好的生产方案。”

He adds that you can simulate everything from shift patterns and how machines will behave under extra stresses, right through to the building of new factories.

他补充道，你可以仿真任何事情，从改变花纹到机器在极端压力下的表现，再到建设新的工厂 — — 什么都可以。

“We’ve had customers that run simulations before they build a new plant because they understand the value of this sort of modeling,” says Frankel.

“我们有客户在建造新厂前仿真，因为他们懂得这个建模的价值。”Frankel说。

Cost Reduction

降低成本

Their customers certainly claim they are seeing the benefits. Bühler, manufacturer of ship loaders and unloaders, have been using Siemens Tecnomatix Plant Simulation for some time.

他们的客户非常肯定地看到了他的好处。卸船减压机的制造商Bühler，已经使用西门子的Tecnomatix仿真技术一段时间了。

“It allows us to easily test different scenarios with little effort,” says Dr Mukul Agarwal, Head of Intelligent Process Operations. “When implementing the suggested sequence identified using Plant Simulation, we found there was a significant reduction in the overall production time and the number of delayed order deliveries was minimized. When translating the expected improvements into an economic benefit, we found an impressive cost reduction.”

“他让我毫不费力就能方便的测试到不同的场景。”智能化操作主管Mukul Agarwal博士说，“在我们执行Plant Simulation软件给出的建议时，我们发现总生产时间大大缩短，延迟交付的订单极少。我们发现通过这种方法，可以将期望的改进转化成经济效益这一过程的成本明显降低。”

Siemens believe this sort of simulation is going to be increasingly important for the factory of the future, enabling greater adaptability and flexibility. “Production is always evolving and it can be difficult to keep up. Simulation helps you make changes,” says Frankel. “I think in the future, we will see the merging of simulation and the physical system. We will see plants starting to make decisions on their own.”

西门子相信这种仿真技术在未来的工厂中将会很重要，它带来了更好的适应性和灵活性。“生产工艺一直在进步，很难一直保持跟进，但是仿真技术可以帮助你改变，来跟上产品的进步。”Frankel说道，“我认为在未来，我们将看到仿真系统和真实系统的融合。我们将看到工厂开始为自己作决定。”

Delphine Genouvrier agrees. “We are entering a simulation-driven era. Development is being driven by an increase in computing power and I think we will see simulation become more intelligent, perhaps even taken from the hands of the user.”

Delphine Genouvrier赞同这一观点：“我们正在进入仿真驱动的时代。不断增长的计算能力正驱动仿真技术的发展，我认为经过用户之手，仿真技术将变得更加智能。”

Originally published at medium.com on September 17, 2014.