Innovator Spotlight: Vestas

Vestas did not have a well-established product architecture, which resulted in a lack of modularization oversight, design accountability, traceability, reusability, complex configuration logic, and ultimately, tremendous BOM complexity. By implementing a smart platform architecture, Vestas will be able to deliver design and configuration scalability for greater levels of customization. Discover the key areas where Vestas alleviated bottlenecks and unleashed innovation.

Hear a more in-depth explanation of how Vestas meets customer needs with modularization and a configurable product structure by watching their session from LiveWorx.

Vestas has embarked on a journey to streamline their platform design to modernize their product architectures with features like product families. Their main challenge was to quickly and seamlessly deliver configuration information upstream to sales and downstream to manufacturing. Vestas uses Windchill as the single source of truth to automate the merging of the product architecture with their product configurations. This way, engineers can govern their overloaded EBOM for optimal performance.

Windchill Smart Platforms streamlines Vestas' design process by decreasing the amount of work done in CAD to position components. Instead, assemblies are created in Windchill with all components positioned correctly. This greatly decreases the amount of CAD work needed, as well as BOM complexity for highly complex products that need to be customized for specific performance requirements. Smart Platforms allows Vestas to save 30% in engineering time using dynamic positioning associated with an overloaded EBOM. Vestas engineers can now focus on modularization, which improves the quality and lowers the costs of their products.

Vestas needed a dynamic way to generate variants, visualize configurations, verify designs, and enable stakeholders’ reviews both up- and downstream. The challenge for Vestas engineers is that today the variants of each product are created manually. This problem is growing exponentially as each turbine must be customized for customer and site-specific performance requirements. With Windchill, engineers create overloaded EBOMs and generate variants dynamically so they can focus entirely on the quality and modularization of the design.

Learn more about variant management and why it’s important.

Configuration management is an important tool for Vestas because it allows engineering to track all the changes and implementations of new products. Having a single source of truth to execute configuration management is critical for stakeholders up- and downstream. This allows everyone to review the impact of any changes with full traceability between engineering, manufacturing, and service. Thus, everyone has access to information in a single connected digital thread.

Learn more about product configuration management and why it’s important.

With an overloaded part-centric EBOM, Vestas can link all kinds of documents to a part while offering greater design flexibility and efficiency. Each part can contain valuable data such as specifications, drawings, master data, simulations data, and quality information. Now up- and downstream stakeholders can access all associated part information within a single system. This has many advantages, including impact analysis from any changes and reducing the number of approvals needed to finalize changes.

Learn how another global manufacturer, iRobot, is enabling versatility and innovation with a part-centric approach.

A bill of information is a single source of truth for all the information relevant to a specific assembly. This is like the part-centric approach but from an assembly perspective. With this approach, the engineering, manufacturing, construction, or service BOMs can all be included in the bill of information. In addition to BOMs, other information can be included, such as technical specifications relevant for traceability or production proposals.

See why other global manufacturers are adopting a parts-centric approach to managing their bill of information.

When a part is made, Vestas engineers define the classification of the part. This is important information for procurement or logistics, but it is also relevant to the value chain. It gives the value chain a head start to prepare the commodities and materials needed, and to execute procurement strategies. Having this information as a single source of truth can accelerate these activities to help Vestas deliver products to the customer swiftly. Additionally, it helps to increase reusability.

Read this infographic to learn how to quantify the value of parts classification.

Vestas is moving away from 2D drawings as they add more complexity. Instead, 3D models are annotated with dimensions and tolerances relevant for manufacturing. The model-based definition is used to annotate 3D models with everything related to manufacturing, quality, and service. Vestas' vision is to use model-based definitions as the single source of truth in a connected digital thread both up- and downstream through Windchill. End users in design, manufacturing, quality control, and field service can use model-based definitions to collaborate and make accurate decisions.

Explore how reusing rich 3D models can help you manage complexity, maximize customer value, and move ahead of the pack.

The model-based definition is the foundation of the model-based enterprise. In the model-based enterprise, the 3D model is not only used for designers and manufacturing, but throughout the whole enterprise. 3D models are used up and down the whole value chain in a connected digital thread via Windchill, which enables a model-based enterprise. Vestas wants a model-based digital thread powered by Windchill to facilitate a new way of working with suppliers through 3D models—complete with dimensions and specific characteristics.

Learn how to accelerate innovation through a model-based enterprise.

Vestas has established sustainability performance as a core priority across the entire Vestas value chain, including its supplier network, circularity road map and governance structure, and digital technologies, used to engineer, manufacture, and service products. This is done through architecting solutions where the product structure and product offering enable Vestas to deliver environmentally friendly products—especially if there is a price difference. With Windchill, it is easier to design, manufacture, and service products to achieve sustainability targets internally and externally with customers and the Vestas value chain.

Learn how to utilize Windchill’s digital thread capabilities to support your sustainability initiatives.

Vestas wants to offer a more optimized product to their customers by utilizing a modular product architecture for larger customer projects. Thus, Vestas needs an integrated requirement management solution to drive modular product architecture configuration. This is critical during the certification process to ensure that all requirements are met and to check if any changes would impact the certification. To support greater complexity for large customers, an integrated requirements management system is needed for the seamless flow of information up-and downstream through a connected digital thread in Windchill.

Learn how to specify, define, verify, and validate requirements across the product lifecycle.

To successfully deliver products at a global scale, Vestas must execute product development and manufacturing engineering in parallel, which requires collaborative development of the engineering and manufacturing BOMs at the same time. With Windchill as the single source of truth, Vestas has accelerated the process of preparing data for manufacturing and reducing errors in the manufacturing BOM with increased traceability. Vestas has also automated processes such as data integration with ERP and generating work instructions.

Learn more about how to access a continuous flow of product data and work concurrently with design using PLM in manufacturing.

For Vestas, a manufacturing BOM is extremely important to make sure they have all data synchronized in a single source of truth and ready for manufacturing. Vestas has implemented their manufacturing BOM in Windchill to connect up- and downstream users through a digital thread. Vestas also uses Windchill to create and manage the construction BOM. Having a single source of truth increases data quality, traceability, and efficiency by avoiding errors from manual updates. Vestas has implemented interfaces to transfer the manufacturing BOM to their ERP environment.

Learn how to connect manufacturing and engineering by establishing associative BOM links between the two views of the BOM.

Vestas uses Windchill as the single source of truth for all process data that describe how they want to manufacture a product (e.g., flow charts, 3D visualizations, storyboards, and performance requirements). All this data can be integrated and transferred to their ERP system, as well as their MES, enabling Vestas to trace designs to the manufactured product. There are also a lot of efficiency gains through reusability, automatic generation of work instructions, and quality gains.

Learn the value of ensuring a seamless flow of information between engineering and manufacturing.

Vestas has implemented a connected digital thread between Windchill PLM, SAP ERP, and Vestas MES. This has many benefits such as traceability and smarter management of data. Integrating multiple data sources through a closed-loop quality system allows Vestas to run full lifecycle analysis, including data on parts, assemblies, construction equipment, transportation systems, and field service analyses, which is shared upstream with designers for faster resolution to design and engineering changes, higher quality, and shorter time to market.

Download our guide on how to align PLM, ERP, and MES for digital transformation success.

Using the Connected Work Cell (CWC) technology allows Vestas to aggregate critical data from engineering, manufacturing, and other data silos to automate the creation of manufacturing work instructions into a simplified visual application. A shop floor technician can get instructions in multiple formats such as AR, videos, assembly animations, or text, or they can also get updates up- and downstream through the CWC platform within minutes. As a result, Vestas can deliver higher-quality products at scale globally with shorter time to market.

See how to optimize your workforce with digital work instructions.

Vestas uses Windchill as a single source of truth to connect processes with required resources, such as tools, equipment, and consumables, to build a complete data set for what is needed to manufacture a product. This allows up- and downstream stakeholders to synchronize the engineering and manufacturing BOMs in parallel, giving manufacturing a head start. It also improves design for manufacturing, which decreases time to market, increases quality, and boosts efficiency for Vestas’s execution in manufacturing preparation.

Vestas has implemented an engineering change management system for up- and downstream stakeholders connected through a digital thread in Windchill. This helps Vestas to better understand the impact of proposed changes across design, manufacturing, service, and construction data. The big benefit is ensuring higher quality and consistency in all product data. There is increased traceability for stakeholders throughout the digital thread via synchronized tracked changes. It also boosts efficiency through change automation, identifying change impacts, and synchronized change plans.

Learn how to master the manufacturing change management process.

Vestas' vision is to extend its use of the ThingWorx Connected Work Cell (CWC) platform to include IoT data generated during manufacturing. This will increase the qualitative value of the data and provide more insights into how a product or process is performing in the physical world. In addition, creating augmented reality experiences for quality inspections and work instruction scenarios derived from CWC will greatly increase product quality. Vestas will greatly benefit from a full-scale adoption of CWC implementing a digital thread that connects up- and downstream stakeholders.

Learn how to use connected monitoring to reduce overhead costs.

Performing quality inspections of highly complex wind turbines is a difficult and critical process in manufacturing. Inspecting hundreds of different parts and assemblies with just the naked eye can be exhausting and leaves room for costly errors. Vestas uses PTC Vuforia’s Step Check solution powered by artificial intelligence and computer vision technology to display pass or fail alerts in an augmented reality experience when visually inspecting a part or assembly. As a result, inspections are more efficient, accurate, and can save Vestas time and money by being able to scale quality inspections.

Learn how AI-enhanced visual inspection improves quality control and reduces the chance of errors.

Vestas wind turbines are so large that they must be assembled in “pop-up” factories at the customer site. Multidisciplinary stakeholders assemble, test, inspect, and certify the turbine for the performance requirements under varying conditions. To provide these stakeholders with all the information they need to execute assembly of the turbine on-site, Vestas uses Vuforia Expert Capture to connect stakeholders through a digital thread. Using an iPad or HoloLens device, 3D or 2D data can be visualized and overlayed with metadata from PLM, MES, and ERP, in addition to any videos or work instructions.

Learn more about increasing your workforce efficiency by capturing the knowledge of experts and leveraging 3D CAD to easily create, deliver, and scale interactive work instructions and AI-enhanced inspection.

For Vestas, quality is critical because even the smallest defect can cause the whole blade to fail. With ThingWorx IoT data, Vestas is using real-time data to increase the precision of their manufacturing process for every blade they produce. By monitoring and recording live production data through sensors, it’s possible to see all the pressure data on the blade and follow progress during production. This continuous, closed-loop quality process gives Vestas more insights with each iteration and contributes to a thorough understanding of the blade production process. As a result, Vestas can continuously improve blade engineering, manufacturing, quality, and service.

Vestas has implemented service information management to connect up- and downstream users through a digital thread in Windchill. It simplifies the process of creating illustrations and publishing content in real time through a connected digital thread. As a result, Vestas can synchronize updates with the latest engineering data to increase quality, and stakeholders can release illustrated parts catalogs with accurate information that prevents human errors. Now when any Vestas turbine is undergoing any kind of field service, the right content is available on time—decreasing downtime for the customer.

Learn more about product information structured for service here.

Vestas uses a single source of truth in Windchill to create technical 2D/3D illustrations directly from CAD engineering data. Using Creo Illustrate connected to Windchill, Vestas can create accurate content enriched with additional information to support field technicians globally. This helps Vestas to greatly reduce human error and downtime when the wrong parts are ordered. Connecting up- and downstream stakeholders through a digital thread in Windchill allows access to a single source of truth with accurate 2D/3D illustrations, minimizing customer downtime during field service.

Learn more about the most advanced technical illustration tool.

Vestas authors content using a modular content strategy with Arbortext Editor connected to Windchill, using documentation from smaller modular blocks that are self-contained. A modular content strategy allows Vestas to reduce content in the source by building and configuring the information structure customized to the customer. This allows faster delivery of content configured at the source and huge cost savings. Additionally, all the documents are authored in XML, which is compatible with many platforms and ensures that finished documents can be styled easily.

Learn how the team creates, manages, and delivers content efficiently here.

Vestas uses Windchill to automate delivery of illustrated parts catalogs to customers in electronic format. A digital thread connects the engineering and service BOMs, automating the creation of the parts catalog from the parts list and ensuring that data delivered to customers is synchronized with data from engineering. Connecting up- and downstream stakeholders through a digital thread in Windchill ensures field service technicians and customers get timely updates to documentation. In addition to greatly increasing the accuracy of documents shared with customers, it ensures compliance with all safety and performance requirements.

Learn more about the service BOM.