The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way most businesses operate. It’s likely that many are never going back completely to working the way they did before making adjustments for the better part of a year-and-a-half. Many companies were forced to accelerate their adoption of remote work and virtual teams and projects due to the pandemic, but two companies that were already well on their way to adopting new technologies and methods before the pandemic were Volkswagen do Brazil and ESI Group. The duo teamed up to develop the prototype of the new VW Nivus, a subcompact crossover SUV designed specifically for the Latin American market. They handled the entire process digitally.
To grasp why it’s so important and exciting that VW and ESI developed their prototype 100 percent in virtual reality (VR) and in the digital realm, it’s crucial to understand how the vehicle prototyping process has worked for decades. Designing a new concept vehicle has always been a labor- and material-intensive process, costing millions of dollars and taking years to complete. For starters, there are reams and reams of paper used to draft and review plans and drawings. Then there’s the physical material required to produce miniature models to present and distribute—not to mention the time needed to create a physical model. Building a single physical model can take up to five months, and that whole process must be repeated every time significant changes are made. All those steps go away when the prototype process goes digital.
Development of the Nivus prototype was done in ESI’s IC.IDO platform, an immersive VR experience designed with the modern engineering team in mind. With IC.IDO, teams aren’t constantly generating scrapped materials every time they tweak a model. Designers working in ESI’s virtual world are given the chance to put themselves up close and personal with a 1:1 scale model that is totally digital. Workers can circle their prototype in full size, share it with their clients, and make changes on the fly without time-consuming rework.
Going virtual in the development process accelerated the design of the new vehicle by making it possible for teams across different disciplines and companies to continuously access the model and implement changes quickly. Product developers, operations managers and QA reviewers were all able to collaborate across departments. Ultimately, working this way got the concept across the finish line in under 10 months and reduced costs by nearly 65 percent.
By going digital, the team was also able to produce multiple variants of their vehicle at once, rather than being forced to focus on one version at a time. While developing the Nivus, Volkswagen was able to produce nine variants of the vehicle and optimize each of them with assembly line constraints and simulations. Instead of developing over 50 physical prototypes, the team was able to significantly reduce that number because small changes could be made quickly and without requiring the team to come to a full stop to build a new model. Many more iterations of the vehicle could be compared and tested. All of this led to a final design where every aspect of production could be trialed and designed for.
“We designed 100% of the Nivus with digital processes using, among others, ESI’s technology without the need to assemble a single physical prototype. In addition, with the drastic reduction of the development time, this solution helps us to integrate all our different teams, from various departments in the same decision-making process. It was a more efficient but also [a] more collaborative process,” said Francisvaldo Gomes Aires, the prototyping development manager at Volkswagen do Brazil.
ESI touts the following benefits for teams considering the world of VR engineering and design:
- An immersive interface—engage with your product virtually without barriers
- True-to-life interaction with product, assembly cells and tools and maintenance environments
- Fast turnaround results—from data acquisition and preparation to analysis and sharing
- Real-time collaborative decision-making—make decisions and evaluate corrective actions with your team regardless of physical location
- Performance—gain access to large and complex datasets in real time to see your complete products in interactive contexts
The entire prototyping process took place at VW’s Virtual Prototype Laboratory in Brazil and went far and beyond the model-making exercise that has been typical of vehicle design and conception. The lab is also experimenting with 3D printing parts and implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning on the factory floor. An entire simulation lab worked in lockstep with the prototyping team, optimizing assembly on the production line, performing product validation, analyzing ergonomics, and simulating various additional processes. Because the model is entirely digital, information can be quickly exchanged and accessed by teams across different locations within the company.
“It’s a shift in the industrial production. For the first time, all phases of a car release, before the effective production, has been fully made virtually, making the production feasible during COVID-19 times. While allowing Volkswagen to take all its design and manufacturing decisions virtually, we helped them produce faster, cheaper and in a more sustainable way. This was possible due to a strong support of our local Brazilian team and a mutual collaboration between ESI Brazil and Volkswagen do Brazil. We all feel proud to be part of this world-premiere alongside with Volkswagen and its partners,” said Andreas Renner, the Volkswagen Global Account Manager at ESI, as he touted the success of the digital process.
VW kicked off its virtual development of the Nivus before the coronavirus pandemic upended the nature of work and collaboration. So, there was little to no impact on its ability to prototype the new vehicle during the pandemic and shifting away from in-person work.
“I highlight the teams’ commitment to follow the schedule and maintain the launch in the midst of the pandemic, because even during the suspension of activities, a group of employees remained at the factory focused on the Nivus project—respecting the new hygiene and health protocols—to comply with the pre-established program and, even in the return of production, the Nivus continued to be the main focus of everyone,” said Mario Rodrigues, director of the Volkswagen Anchieta Production Unit.
For its part, the Nivus is already drawing solid reviews for its functional, sleek design and quality details and finishing. No doubt, VW would have landed on a similar vehicle had it gone the typical prototyping route, but this new car was conceived months ahead of schedule, entirely virtually, with no sacrifice of quality. Competitors will be forced to take note if they haven’t already embraced the shift to digital prototyping.
Seeing automakers and manufacturers embrace digital prototyping and VR has far-reaching implications for businesses and consumers alike, making this initial foray by Volkswagen a huge win for everyone. New products can be brought to market more quickly and with less up-front costs, potentially spurring a wave of innovation as barriers to entry are lowered. Specifically, companies may begin seeing a greater upside to creating products geared directly toward developing parts of the world, like Latin America, for example. Additionally, products can be made safer because the teams working on their design are able to test parts and evaluate their response to different environmental conditions more efficiently and earlier in the production process.