eEngineering 2009-2012: Digitising the product process

In addition to industrial production, the success of Finnish industry is based strongly on the design and engineering of devices, working machines, manufacturing plants, power plants, process machinery and ships for global markets. At the same time, digitisation has become ever more vital to the success of industrial production and engineering and the volume, value and importance of the digital, virtual realm is increasing dramatically compared to physical plants and machines. At the beginning of the 2010s traditional heavy industry accounted for 75% of the total value of Finnish exports, up notably from 57% in 2000. To reduce the design and production ramp-up times by half, VTT's eEngineering spearhead programme (2009-2012) developed technology platforms for modelling and simulation, design knowledge management, life-cycle management, and human-technology interaction. The high- lights of the research carried out during the programme are presented in this publication. The most significant achievement of the programme is Simantics, an extensive operating system providing an open, high-level application platform on which different computational tools can be easily integrated to form a common environment for modelling and simulation. Programme also enabled successful integration of user's sound and noise experience and thermal comfort modelling to the design of machine cabins in a virtual design environment.