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What I Learned: 3D Line of Sight, St. Paul's, and PLM
August 11, 2008
What I learned this week ... came from watching an episode of BBC program called Britain from Above, which made me think about the applicability of 3D Line of Sight to developing products and manufacturing processes. A strange line of thinking, I have to admit, but I thought I would share it.
St. Paul's
The show talked about the growth of London's financial district, and the challenges that they have in putting up new buildings. To say it nicely, London grew organically. There was no master plan or grid system in place as the city developed. Before this sounds like a pure history lesson, isn't that the case with a lot of manufacturing plants? Maybe there was a plan, but over time a new workstation or piece of equipment was added where it could be fit, etc. So hopefully we have a better starting place in our plants. The story talked about the importance of not damaging the line of sight in London to St. Paul's. It went further to show how 3D line of site was used by creating a virtual 3D model of London that shows the view lines to St. Paul's. Very interesting, but if you want more on that I would suggest you follow the link above. The program was worth the time to watch.
Applicability to Product Design
Line of sight and how a product looks is very important in many products. For any device that has a screen, there is a viewing angle that is ideal (and can be specified in the design as needed). For large, industrial equipment, the view to the work being done (and the controls) can play a large role in customer satisfaction and safety. For transportation or defense products, the ability to view the surrounding area is critical. Many of you have probably had a car with a "blind spot" and know the frustration from the customer perspective.
For the most part, physical prototypes have been used to determine line of sight. As product design moves to include more 3D design, there is an opportunity to use digital mockups and virtual prototypes to visualize line of sight prior to committing to a physical a prototype. Along with other "Design for X" topics, 3D models allow for early evaluation (and hopefully optimization) of visual factors prior to physical prototypes and far before release to manufacturing.
Applicability to Plant/Process Design
Beyond the product itself, line of sight is incredibly important to plant design and the development of efficient manufacturing processes. Digital Manufacturing solutions are helping companies evaluate issues such as line of sight for product workers (not to mention other human factors such as reach, lift, etc.) to design better processes and equipment.
Of course, this requires 3D models of both the product and the production environment. With the increased use of 3D in product design, as well as the improving ease of use of tools for both 3D modeling and simulation, I expect that we will see more investment in this area. It is a natural extension for companies that have already taken the first steps in 3D design and formal manufacturing process management (including concurrent design of product and production processes).
So the same use of 3D that is important to designing buildings so they don't interfere with the view of St. Paul's might help you design better products and process, I hope you found it interesting. I didn't, if you did let us know about it.
Posted by Jim Brown on August 11, 2008 | Comments (2)
