Replacing physical prototypes with virtual iterations in Virtalis Visionary Render

We used immersive visualisation to link Leyland’s designers with its manufacturing engineers and helped to cut both design rework and time-to-market.

Leyland Trucks Design Team built physical mock-ups of trucks to ensure the parts fitted together as the designers intended and to be certain there were the requisite clearances during the manufacturing process. Prototypes now roll off the production line designed entirely with the use of advanced simulation and visualisation. The change from physical static build to VR stage-by-stage build was radical for Leyland Trucks. Two days before the new truck variants were scheduled to go down the production line, workers from the shop floor were shown the model and taken through the 40 stage manufacturing process. This familiarised them with the new parts and their new roles in a single session.

“Even though we employed a full-time engineer to keep the physical model as up-to-date as possible, there was necessarily a lag between when the changes were made and when we could see the implications of those changes. Now we have instant feedback. Not only that, but we can share the design with our manufacturing colleagues. All their doubts melted away when they realised that they could see the model, review it and use the MockUp tools to rehearse the various manufacturing processes. With Virtalis’ help we were able to build up the entire manufacturing process stage by stage. They installed a passive stereo system, which allowed us to carry out design reviews with our manufacturing colleagues weekly. As we were able to work on how the design was to be built at the same time as the design itself, the manufacturing engineers quickly realised the advantages to them and their team on the production line.” - Doug Holmes, the Lead Engineer of Leyland’s Configuration Group