The automotive industry wants a faster, better and more flexible training of their assembly line operators to adapt to a changing business environment where new models and variants are rapidly introduced, and shifts in the market conditions happen much faster.

The automotive industry is undergoing rapid digital transformation but training of the millions of assembly operators is still mostly handled through face-2-face training. Opel wanted to take a leap forward by taking advantage of their existing engineering data to automatically create fully interactive 3D training simulations.

We developed a solution (now acquired by Sentio Simulations) that automatically re-purpose the digital twin data to be used in fully interactive 3D training simulations. Either as a traditional standalone solution with mouse/keyboard or an even more immersive VR experience with hand controllers. The solution is built with a tight instructional design, where operators are led through the training experience with increasing difficulty level, and finally certified.

The solution repurposes engineering data from the PLM system, transferring both geometry and process data automatically to a 3D interactive simulation that can be used either with a mouse/keyboard or Kinect/Wii interface.

The operator logs in to a custom LMS and gains access to the appropriate training plan. Training is divided into stations, and the operator carries out the right actions with the right objects and using the right tools. The operator is guided step-by-step through the assembly with decreasing assistance as proficiency increases. Finally, there is an assessment level that is saved to the LMS.