The BMW Group Vehicle Plants To Be Digitised With 3D Laser Scanning Technology By Early 2023

For extensive modelling of the existing and future plants, the BMW Group is working with NavVis to obtain photorealistic images of all plants that will enable virtual planning. 

The BMW Group Takes A Futuristic Step For Vehicle Manufacturing Plants

The BMW Group will acquire digital scans of every vehicle plant they possess worldwide by early 2023. The automobile company aims to merge the real and virtual worlds, providing flexibility to structure and plan future plants. They are trying to make simulation and planning of the production system virtual, save capital expenditure & planning effort, and overcome geographical barriers, providing rapid information flow and recruitment of strategies before implementation. 

The Vision Of BMW Group

The vision of BMW production is to create the BMW iFACTORY, backed by data science, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. 

The future production structure depends upon the cooperation of NVIDIA and the Omniverse Software Platform. The digital scans are created using the technology of NavVis, a Munich startup renowned for reality capture and digital twins. 

Leveraging The Potential Of 3D laser scanners

The mobile 3D laser scanners will create photorealistic images of every detail of the plant, from building structure and floor plans to facilities and outdoor areas. It allows the cutting of different 3D scans for external purposes. Re-scanning enables quick upload on the cloud. Around 15,000 BMW employees are using the BMW Factory Viewer, where all the digital scans are available virtually for inspection. 

Until now, Spartanburg, Munich, and Regensburg plants have been scanned through other inefficient systems. The Dingolfing, Leipzig, and Tiexi plants in China will be scanned using the technology by September 2022. By 2023, the digital data of every plant will be provided to the NavVis IVION Enterprise platform to be created into digital twins.