Virtual becomes reality at GM
by Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 12/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
General Motors has moved to 3D virtual reality for designing new vehicles, and for the production environment in which to make them. GM's Global Visualization Center (GVC), which opened last May in Warren, Mich., is part of a worldwide network of design and engineering centers that use the latest in virtual reality technology to cut costs and speed development of new models.
"Visualization and collaboration are crucial to revolutionizing GM's global product development," says Bob Kruse, executive director of vehicle integration. "We are creating a physical and electronic environment for our engineers to bring vehicles to the global market effectively and efficiently, and key to this is GM's commitment to math-based tools such as the GVC, which support virtual product development."
The GVC at the Warren Tech Center has integrated counterparts in Germany, Australia, Sweden, and Brazil—with plans to open others in both Korea and Canada—so design and engineering teams around the world can work collaboratively in real time. GM's VisualEyes global system led to the identification and resolution of 120 design issues in development of the GMT 900 truck platform that will serve as the foundation for heavy-duty crew cabs due to go into production in 2006—this before any costs were sunk in physical mockups or prototypes.
VisualEyes is being used to detect and resolve potential manufacturing problems arising from the design of die and stamping tools. Stamping engineers work with computer data to analyze the new designs for formability, then design the dies that eventually will press the sheet metal into assembly parts. The virtual reality environment also is being used to design production-floor layouts.
