Virtual commissioning lets manufacturers test and validate the functionality of new equipment and systems integrated with their software in a virtual environment—before being physically installed on the production line. This approach helps minimize downtime and ensure new systems work seamlessly with existing equipment.
Virtual commissioning is central to advancing the entire engineering process—no matter the industry. ATS Industrial Automation experts bring decades of automation knowledge to various sectors, including eMobility, energy storage, nuclear facilities, life sciences, and industrial and consumer products.
The virtual commissioning process begins by creating a digital twin of the existing equipment, a virtual model replicating the physical system. Changes are then made to this virtual model to reflect the planned upgrades. The new equipment’s logic and controls software are integrated into the virtual environment, allowing for simulations to test the interactions and movements of the integrated systems. Does the controls logic in the software produce the right action on the machine at the right time? How does this interplay with the physical attributes of the machine and system? By interfacing the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) with the Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) and the virtual machines, teams can verify the new system will operate correctly when installed.
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Virtual commissioning can also test a new system’s performance, such as takt time and throughput, in a simulated environment. This helps to identify and resolve any potential issues before the physical installation, reducing the risk of costly downtime and ensuring a smoother transition to the upgraded system. Manufacturers can optimize production processes and improve overall efficiency by using virtual commissioning.
When performing system upgrades or changes, automation partners can also leverage virtual commissioning to interface existing and new PLCs. They can also run simulations to validate that the new process station, for example, will operate correctly within the pre-existing production line.
Virtual Commissioning Helps
Reduce Lead Time
Offline development and commissioning by pulling ahead software integration and debugging tasks.
Improve Quality Control
Through simulated production with comprehensive system components (including HMIs, PLCs, virtual machines, and more).
Minimize Project Risk
By detecting and resolving faults early.
Reduce Prototype Part Consumption
By testing product iterations virtually.
Benefits of Virtual Commissioning
Concurrent Schedule
Virtual commissioning enables a concurrent schedule that allows manufacturers to preserve maximum production time while lines are being built or upgraded. An automation partner can identify any system design or integration issues while the machine is being built. Virtual commissioning also allows teams to test and anticipate issues with system integration—including machine-level software, PLCs, manufacturing execution system (MES), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and conveyance system integrations—using existing machinery the customer has on their shop floor.
A strong automation partner won’t address this work independently. Instead, they will share insights as they build the system and work with the customer to help ensure a seamless handoff from the point of the build (Factory Acceptance Testing, or FAT) to the point of the installation (Site Acceptance Testing, or SAT).
Communication & Validation
Virtual commissioning helps improve communication between the many specialists and teams involved in upgrading an automated manufacturing line. The visualization of the line, the fine tuning of the kinematics and engineering details, combined with the real software code, allows these different disciplines to work toward the same end goal using the same tools. Bringing all the teams and technologies, software, and machines together is a complex challenge. Digitalization helps combine these elements, which results in cost savings.
The System Stress Test Now
Sometimes manufacturers request a system “stress test”. This is a physical test performed on the real system to see what errors may happen as the machines operate over a specific period of time. This is now a bit of a “luxury” for a few reasons. First, many customers are eager to begin production and want an automation partner to ship their systems as soon as they are built to achieve FAT status. Secondly, the sample or prototype parts required to run a high-speed manufacturing line for a week or more present a high cost to customers. The higher the value of the product they are manufacturing, the more expensive it is to perform a stress test. For EV batteries, this cost is so high that a stress test is simply not considered.
Finally, the stress test depends on mechanical and electrical execution. When an issue is detected and a part of the system fails, the system must be powered down to keep people safe. This is important, but it also creates wait time. Then there is the cost to repair the system, perhaps new wiring or engineering, and the time it takes to reset before continuing the stress test.
The System Stress Test with Virtual Commissioning
But now, the system stress test is no longer a luxury. An automation partner can perform a virtual system stress test alongside the building of the physical system. The virtual system stress test allows teams to simulate the operation of the line that has already been virtually commissioned. The line can run in simulation using virtual parts at no cost, enabling teams to observe what may happen with the line or what failures could occur, over weeks of operation.
Because the virtual system stress test does not need to physically reset after each failure, manufacturers can avoid delays from electrical and mechanical dependencies. Because the test operates independently from physical parts, an automation partner can optimize the virtual operation to show weeks of line performance in only hours. This allows for the correction of issues or the planning of routine maintenance schedules before installing the equipment on site.
“In our experience, when ATS catches integration issues in the virtual space, we save 10 times what it would have cost if we had not identified the issue until the physical machine was on built on site.”
Roland Echter,
Director of Digitalization at ATS Industrial Automation
