RTE Meal Producer Uses Digital Twin for Process Simulations
Ready-to-eat (RTE) meal producer Uitgekookt is using Visual Components’ digital twin technology to simulate production processes, helping the company foresee logistical problems and increase efficiency.
Uitgekookt's meal processing automation was made easier with Visual Components' digital twin simulation.
Uitgekookt
Imagine nearing the end of a production line, and instead of a case packer boxing 80 prepared meals per minute, it handles 55 due to unforeseen adjustments made father up the line. Digital twin technology helps manufacturers test entire production processes via virtual simulation, and Uitgekookt, a Dutch company that prepares and delivers custom-made, RTE meals, remedied problems like the aforementioned one by taking advantage of such technology.
Uitgekookt is working with Visual Components to make use of a digital twin simulation that allows the company to see its factory processes, counter potential production issues, and reduce downtime. Before scaling production, Uitgekookt says it previously performed certain components of its meal preparation process manually, but with the help of the digital twin tech, the company saw an efficient path to automate more.
Visual Components’ tool helped Uitgekookt simulate and implement automatic meal storage in large warehouses, retrieve correct meals from the warehouses, sort meals per consumer by address, pack meals in boxes for the consumer, and place boxes in delivery bags for transport, according to Jarron Middelhuis, Project Manager Robotization for Hollander Techniek, a systems integrator who helped Uitgekookt setup Visual Component’s technology.
How the digital twin technology works
The digital twin technology is used to virtually design and validate real-world processes.Visual Components
Visual Component’s digital twin technology allows manufacturers to use dropdown menus embedded in software and an eCatalog of industrial robots, machines, and automation components to plan each detail and phase of a new operation or process. Once a process is designed and defined, the manufacturer can run it in the virtual world and then validate, revise, and further optimize it.
Moreover, virtual reality (VR) technology via a VR headset allows machine operators and production personnel to perform their tasks in the virtual world, such as packaging, quality control, or interacting with other components of the system, to validate ergonomics and workflows. This allows companies to envision the entirety of the production process, from conveyors, to pressing a start button on a control screen, Visual Components explains. Every aspect of the production line can be re-imagined, designed, and validated.
Furthermore, simulation software allows engineers to program, configure, test, and prove the performance of specific robots in operations with offline programming (OLP), which helps eliminate production downtime. The robots can be programed and taught on computers using 3D computer-aided design (CAD) data that is then downloaded to the physical robot. In addition to cutting downtime attributed to robot commissioning, Visual Components informs that manufacturers can reduce actual programming time by up to 80%.
Results and insight for the future
Uitgekookt was able to use Visual Component's technology to simulate a week’s worth of production in one hour, one benefit among several.Visual Components
Uitgekookt used Visual Component’s technology to reimagine and redesign its custom meal preparation model. The company prepares, packages, and delivers thousands of fresh meals weekly, so being able to foresee logical issues in processing and make them more efficient is vital.
Uitgekookt began its design process with order fulfillment to ensure that packing, stacking, and labeling were all optimized before moving upstream in the operation. By designing in reverse, Uitgekookt could visualize the entire automation system and optimize storage and conveyor dimensions to hit the optimal balance between capacity and cost-effectiveness.
Middelhuis says the digital twin technology allowed Uitgekookt to test various concepts and answer questions concerning (1) the capacity of all prepared meals that had to be stored in warehouses, (2) the number of operator actions required to keep the business profitable, (3) the number of box-packing robots needed to handle capacity, (4) how many bag-packing robots needed to handle capacity, (5) space is required for the new installation, and (6) if order sorting can be made more efficient to prevent the system from becoming overloaded.
As mentioned, Uitgekookt simulated and evaluated different physical layouts across its whole production process. The digital twin tech helped the company validate production flows and projected capacities with data to ensure its system could handle actual workloads. The tech also helped the company identify and remedy bottlenecks before any equipment was purchased or installed.
Uitgekookt says it was able to simulate a week’s worth of production in one hour. As a result, the company conserved time and resources in the planning process, avoided over-engineering, and minimized costs all while proving the system would accomplish its goals.
In addition, the virtual tools helped the company retrain employees as operators, Middelhuis shares. The virtual world helped employees gain insight into operations, order flow, material inventory, and spatial awareness in the new work environment.
As for Uitgekookt’s future, Middelhuis says the company has already asked its system integrator to investigate how it can double the facility's capacity over the next two years, and the digital twin technology looks to play a significant role in this.
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The digital twin technology is used to virtually design and validate real-world processes.Visual Components
