BMW Group is on the forefront of a key new manufacturing pattern — going digital-first by utilizing the digital world to optimize layouts, robotics and logistics programs years earlier than manufacturing actually begins.
The automaker introduced as we speak with NVIDIA at GTC that it’s increasing its use of the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for constructing and working industrial metaverse functions throughout its manufacturing community world wide, together with the deliberate electrical automobile plant in Debrecen, Hungary, that can solely begin operations in 2025.
In his GTC keynote, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang shared a demo during which he was joined by BMW Group’s Milan Nedeljković, member of the board of administration, to formally open the automaker’s first solely digital manufacturing unit, powered by NVIDIA Omniverse.
“We’re excited and extremely pleased with the progress BMW has made with Omniverse. The partnership will proceed to push the frontiers of digital integration and digital tooling for the following technology of smart-connected factories world wide,” Huang mentioned through the GTC keynote.
Omniverse — the fruits of over 25 years of NVIDIA graphics, accelerated computing, simulation and AI applied sciences — allows manufacturing corporations to plan and optimize multibillion-dollar manufacturing unit initiatives solely just about. This implies they’ll get to manufacturing sooner and function extra effectively, bettering time to market, digitalization and sustainability.
The keynote demo highlights a digital planning session for BMW’s Debrecen EV plant. With Omniverse, the BMW staff can mixture knowledge into large, high-performance fashions, join their domain-specific software program instruments and allow multi-user reside collaboration throughout places. All of that is doable from any location, on any gadget.
Beginning to work within the digital manufacturing unit two years earlier than it opens allows the BMW Group to make sure easy operation and optimum effectivity.
Digital Integration for Actual-World Efficiencies
BMW Group’s digital Debrecen plant illustrates the facility and agility of planning AI-driven industrial manufacturing crops with the Omniverse platform.
Within the EV manufacturing unit demo, Nedeljković invitations Huang into an replace during which the BMW staff seeks to incorporate a robotic in a constrained ground house. The staff solves the issue on the fly, with logistics and manufacturing planners in a position to visualize and determine the best placement.
“That is transformative — we are able to design, construct and check fully in a digital world,” mentioned Nedeljković.
It’s a lens into the way forward for BMW Group’s journey into digital transformation. It’s additionally a blueprint for lowering dangers and making certain success earlier than committing to large development initiatives and capital expenditures.
This type of digital transformation pays off. Placing in change orders and stream reoptimizations on current services is extraordinarily expensive and causes manufacturing downtime. So being able to pre-optimize just about eliminates such prices.
BMW Group Reworking Manufacturing Worldwide
BMW Group’s manufacturing community is poised to learn from the digital transformation alternatives introduced by Omniverse.
With factories and manufacturing unit planners all around the world, BMW has a fancy planning course of. The automaker makes use of many software program instruments and processes to attach folks throughout geographies and time zones, which comes with limitations.
With Omniverse, a growth platform primarily based on Common Scene Description (USD), a 3D language that creates interoperability between software program suites, BMW is ready to bridge current software program and knowledge repositories from main industrial computer-aided design and engineering instruments reminiscent of Siemens Course of Simulate, Autodesk Revit, and Bentley Methods MicroStation.
With this unified view, BMW is powering its inside groups and exterior companions to collaborate and share data and knowledge from current factories to assist in the planning of latest ones.
Moreover, the BMW staff is creating a set of {custom} functions with Omniverse, together with a brand new utility known as Manufacturing facility Explorer, primarily based on Omniverse USD Composer, a customizable basis utility of the Omniverse platform. BMW used core elements of USD Composer and added custom-built extensions tailor-made to its factory-planning groups’ wants, together with discovering, establishing, navigating, and analyzing manufacturing unit knowledge.
Omniverse Platform Accelerates Digital Twin Collaboration
The Omniverse platform allows BMW groups to collaborate throughout digital factories from all over the place. A unified strategy to knowledge, permitting international modifications in actual time, lets BMW share updates throughout its groups.
With these new capabilities, BMW can now validate and check solely in a digital world, accelerating its time to manufacturing and bettering effectivity throughout all of its crops.
To be taught extra in regards to the newest in digitalization, watch NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote and these periods that includes audio system from BMW:
Be taught extra about NVIDIA Omniverse