Circular Economy at Speed and Scale
#Sustainability #VirtualTwin #NewProductDevelopment #DassaultSystèmesTo build sustainable products, the Engineering & Design team needs to be well equipped with all the digital tools to innovate consistently, while reducing the administrative tasks of validating whether the product is meeting the regulations criteria
January 2022: As companies chart out a roadmap to outperform in the market by building their sustainability credentials, sustainability has emerged as one of the critical considerations for the Engineering & Design team during the New Product Development process, explains Jonathan Dutton, Sustainability Director at Dassault Systèmes, in this exclusive interview with Niranjan Mudholkar, Editorial Director, Pro MFG Media
What are the key aspects that the engineering and design (E&D) team needs to take into consideration while innovating during the New Product Development (NPD) process?
During the new product development process, traditionally an E&D team would take into consideration cost, functionality, supplier relationships, and manufacturing capabilities. However, as companies chart out a roadmap to outperform in the market by building their sustainability credentials, sustainability has emerged as one of the critical considerations for the E&D team during the NPD process. To build sustainable products, the E&D team needs to be well equipped with all the digital tools to innovate consistently, while reducing the administrative tasks of validating whether the product is meeting the regulations criteria.
Virtual twin technology is the underutilized lever in operationalizing sustainability and the circular economy at speed and scale. A virtual twin is a real-time virtual representation of a product, platform or ecosystem that can be used to model, visualize, predict and provide feedback on properties and performance. Virtual twin technologies provide an untapped opportunity to reduce operational costs and drive sustainable, circular, end-to-end disruption in value chains.
For example, Italian manufacturer AMF used the Dassault Systemes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to facilitate closer collaboration between designers and engineers and by replacing the most polluted steps in its production processes with circular alternatives, AMF could reuse more than 97% of water in its closed-circuit system1.
Further, the E&D team needs to constantly innovate and adapt their products to meet geographical regulations which are evolving constantly. Digital technologies such as virtual twins enable designers to make projections and critically assess the design’s true purpose: that of the wellbeing of people and the planet, while deploying solutions at the shortest time. This time-to-market speed and risk-reduction of complex projects explains why virtual twin technologies have been used in the development of 85% of the world’s electric vehicles, and more than 75% of global wind power2.
Today, all responsible organizations are putting sustainability at the center of everything they do. How is the E&D Team enabling this?
If we want to prevent the worst damage caused by climate change, business cannot progress as usual. There is a need to define sustainable goals and coordinate efforts across industries. The linear manufacturing model has exhausted available resources and companies are rethinking their product cycles. The E&D team has the power to design and develop products for selling or offering as a service within the sustainability goals of companies.
Using virtual twin technologies, the E&D team is able to collaborate more, and create easy and cost-effective solutions. Virtual twin technologies can adapt regulations into parameters which can be traced in a product, enabling R&D teams to factor-in evolving regulations, real-time and design to meet the highest standards of sustainability possible.
A joint Whitepaper released by Accenture and Dassault Systemes, in 2020, analyzed five uses cases of virtual twin technology for sustainability goals and revealed that these cases alone can deliver combined incremental benefits of US$ $1.3 Trillion of economic value and 7.5 Gt CO2e emissions reductions between now and 20303.
Hence, by using virtual twin technologies, companies are able to transform towards new business models to develop products using circular design principles, adopt advanced digital solutions to perform lifecycle assessments throughout all phases of product development and facilitate creative collaboration virtually. Though the market has only achieved 10% adoption globally (as technology is not fully mature), virtual twin technology can accelerate the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals4.
3. Manufacturing success is always driven by quality and productivity. What role does the E&D Team play in ensuring quality as well as productivity?
Quality and productivity have always been extremely important for manufacturing. But in today’s market realities, their role cannot be limited to QA and productivity, the E&D team plays an ultra-critical role in Sustainability Assurance, as 80% of the ecological impact of a product are locked in at the design phase5.
With virtual twin technologies, we equip E&D teams to manufacture ultra-light weight components, develop different ways of manufacturing, and create a smooth integrated system. Using our offerings, the E&D teams are able to undertake sustainable design, test their product simulations on as many as 16 KPIs including CO2, toxicity of soils, water usage etc., in real-time, constantly innovating and designing at every stage of product development.
For example, as Governments are mandating aircraft industry to reduce their GHGs by 50% before 2050, the industry is at the cusp of the next big revolution as it explores electrification, alternate fuels and aerodynamic craft designs. One such brave move was by Solar Impulse, a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project. By using Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Solar Impulse engineers were able to determine the best weight-size configuration for the plane, the optimal cockpit design and to avoid assembly issues before building the plane6.
Several OEMs are also reimagining aircraft design and engine specs to test viability of hydrogen as the new fuel, using our 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Similarly, across multiple industries, Virtual twins are being used to model complex systems and simulate their functioning so accurately that it can go directly from a virtual model to creation, without spending the years it normally takes to prototype and incrementally improve on existing set-ups.
Hence, the E&D teams are playing a critical role in producing green-first products and Virtual twin technology is a pragmatic tool for designers and engineers, in the 21st century realities.
References
1.https://www.3ds.com/sustainability/ft-report-reinforces-sustainable-innovation
2.Dassault Systèmes Estimates
5. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/sustainable-product-policy
6. https://www.3ds.com/sites/default/files/2020-03/SOLAR_IMPULSE_DS_HD.pdf
