Agile digitization is revolutionizing the way companies operate and adapt to the digital age.
For the development of a physical product, it is necessary and appropriate to develop more than one concurrent solution, to be presented to the customer and/or stakeholders for their evaluation.
Each design solution is analyzed from a variety of perspectives using an approach called design for X.
The combination of these two modes is the basis of hardware product development.
It costs money to build a product element because of the hours spent on it, the materials used, and its validation.
Validation is very expensive in terms of time and cost because it must be done either in a laboratory, on a test field, or at the customer’s site.
Equally expensive are changes or iterations of physical product developmentIn most cases of physical products, digital twins, allow a solution to be verified without having to build the product or any part of it, maximizing unnecessary work.
Digitization makes the development of physical products sustainable because it allows the construction of the product itself to be postponed to as late as possible.
Digitization in practice
There are multiple ways of digitization, and I report below those that I have experienced with my development teams.
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- The products are very accurately represented three-dimensional CAD models.
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- Static and dynamic structural verifications and related optimizations can be very accurate with FEM models.
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- Multibody dynamics simulation software enables the study of motion and forces in mechanical systems.
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- Discrete-event modeling software enables system simulations.
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- Immersive and augmented reality allow for a greater perception of the product’s footprint and some of its features, compared to the 3D model alone
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- Digital twins of numerical control (CNC) systems enable meaningful simulations early in the design process
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- Software interfaces can be effectively implemented with software applications that simulate their operation.
In all these cases we cannot speak of a working product but of information that brings value to the customer and stakeholders, and enough to allow them to direct development.
Unfortunately, not everything can be easily digitized.
In my experience, one of the biggest difficulties I have encountered with my teams is in the development of automation software.
In particular, software for PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), which are the most popular way to automate industrial machinery, is developed when the physical product is available.
The physical product is the most effective method of validating a machine’s automation software.
Virtual Commissioning software tools are available today that, with 3D CAD geometries of the product, other technical data, and PLC software, simulate machine behavior.
In questo modo lo sviluppo software di automazione può essere fortemente anticipato e avvenire quasi in parallelo con la progettazione meccanica.
Digitization is possible but it requires teamwork between hardware and software designers, and, I am sorry to admit, the results have been poor.
The cause is not to be found in technologies, which are really effective today, but in insufficient cooperation between hardware and software designers.
For years they have been working in watertight compartments, employing completely different and non-integrated development environments.
Once again the first of the values of the agile manifesto, which claims that individuals and interactions are more important than processes and tools, finds further confirmation.
In partial justification, it should be said that if the tools are onerous, it is natural for people to seek the path of least effort.
