Various industries use computer simulation for verifying product properties in early phases of development. Traditionally, such properties include the stability of mechanical structures or the efficiency of aircraft turbines. More recently, research also focuses on the mountability of industrial products using virtual assembly. While research on virtual assembly already started in the mid-1990s, the applicability in different industries remains largely unclear today. To advance the state-of-the-art, in this paper we present learnings from developing a virtual assembly environment for cooling cabinets.

Innovation plays a vital role in ensuring sustainable mining operations. Electrification and autonomy are two significant trends, but their implementation brings complexity at vehicle and site levels. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how these technologies impact the overall site value creation. This paper suggests a hybrid approach that combines Agent-Based Simulation and vehicle dynamics modeling to explore site configurations. By regarding a mining site as a System-of-Systems, designers can concurrently test different designs to find the optimal combination for a specific scenario.

This study presents a search method for a solution space that aligns with a designer's design intent. The proposed method uses multiobjective optimization to determine the size of the narrowed solution space and the weakness of the constraint relationships between the design variables. The suitability of the proposed method is tested by applying it to the design problem of an electric motor for an EV, aiming to provide designers with solution spaces that offer a high degree of freedom in the later design stages and that have weaker constraint relationships among the design variables.

Design of software in the automotive domain often involves simulation to allow early software parametrization. Modeling complex systems or components impacted by the software in an analytical way can be time-consuming, require domain knowledge and executing the analytical models can result in high computational effort. In specific applications, these challenges can be overcome by applying machine learning based simulation. This contribution presents results of a case study in which powertrain components are modeled data-driven with artificial neural networks to support design space exploration

A digital twin (DT) relies on a detailed, virtual representation of a physical product. Since uncertainties and deviations can lead to significant changes in the functionality and quality of products, they should be considered in the DT. However, valuable product properties are often hidden and thus difficult to integrate into a DT. In this work, a Bayesian inverse approach based on surrogate models is applied to infer hidden composite laminate ply angles from strain measurements. The approach is able to find the true values even for ill-posed problems and shows good results up to 6 plies.

Supporting product developers in early design phases with Live-Simulation can enhance the quality of early product designs. Live-Simulation can also facilitate a democratization of simulation and puts away pressure from simulation experts. In this paper, a machine learning based quick evaluation tool is proposed to support product developers in interpreting Live-Simulation results. The proposed tool enables a quick evaluation of the Live-Simulation results and enables product developers to further enhance their simulations. The tool is shown within a use case in bike rocker switch design.

This paper presents an interview study aiming to understand the state of the art of how ergonomics designers work in the vehicle development process within the Swedish automotive industry. Ten ergonomic designers from seven different companies participated in the interview study. Results report the ergonomics designers' objectives, workflow, tools, challenges, and ideal work performance tool. We identify four main gaps and research directions that can enhance the current challenges: human behavior predictions, simulation tool usability, ergonomics evaluations, and integration between systems.

Boundaries between products and services vanish and companies increasingly offer hybrid solutions known as Product Service Systems (PSS). Thereby, a holistic view that includes both the product and service parts must be taken. This paper presents a discrete-event simulation of a PSS as a method for the specification of the product part. Besides product and service, the application scenario and the decision-making are also modeled. Based on the results for a case study, the customer requirements could be guaranteed as the essential product specifications were optimized to minimize total costs.

Companies struggle with identifying relevant sustainability aspects strategically, assessing alternative solutions quantitatively, and making trade-offs. This paper reports results from a prescriptive study with an aerospace company, and presents the Sustainability Criteria And product life-cycle Data Simulation (SCADS) approach. Based on strategic integration of sustainability indicators, this approach aims to enable visualisation and comparison of the sustainability implications of different concepts in early design phases of product development.

A Digital Twin as a virtual representation of a physical system is becoming a key technology. While potential benefits are evident, there is no approach in literature or practice comprehensively supporting its introduction. In an industrial case study, a generic procedure model for the conception and implementation of a Digital Twin was developed. The relations between use cases, usage data, and virtual models resulted in a target concept as well as requirements for the implementation. Thereby, companies can access the potentials of a Digital Twin taking into account their specific situation.