Användningsområden för virtuell verklighet i tidiga faser av produktutvecklingsprocessen för modulära produkter

Sammanfattning: There is an ongoing technological shift with electromobility, automation and connectivity, which affects the development of heavy vehicles such as excavators, wheel loaders and pavers. These vehicles can be referred to as cyber-physical systems (CPS). The development entails changes for companies' product development, which leads to higher complexity which is a challenge to manage. To develop heavy cyber-physical vehicles, the company uses an X-methodology in the product development process (referred to as X by confidentiality). The challenge for the company is to develop the X-methodology to combine systematic working methods where modularization and Virtual Reality (VR) are combined in early phases of product development. The purpose of this thesis was to develop the company's work processes in the early phases of product development utilizing modularization with the support of VR. This is to find improvement potential in their existing modularization methodology to achieve improved efficiency and complexity management in the product development process. To answer this, two research questions were formed: RQ1: What can modularization combined with VR be used for in early phases of product development? RQ2: How can the development of a modular cyber-physical subsystem be improved with the help of VR in the early phases of the product development process? Due to the lack of VR in the early phases of product development in the X-methodology, a literature study and a case study were conducted around a specific subsystem. The early phases of the company correspond to the literature’s Planning- and Concept Development phase. For this study, interviews, internal documents, and physical artifacts were used as empirical evidence and then compared with the found literature. In the analysis of data, it was noted that the literature's findings estimated a reduction of 50% of the product development time, a time reduction of 65% in sketch production and a 95% cost reduction for prototypes. The data found in the case study argued that lead times and costs for prototypes in scale 1:1 can be reduced with the help of virtual prototypes. The reduction in lead times was 95–97.5% of the current value, while the cost reduction was 100% for virtual prototypes in 1:1 scale compared to physical prototypes in 1:1 scale. Limited to the case study’s subsystem, it was estimated that it is possible to reduce physical location required for reviewing the subsystems, reach infinite workspace, increase visibility of the product architecture, allow more degrees of freedom for interaction with the subsystems, and infinite size scale. The study's data for research question 1 suggest that the combination between VR and modularization forms a synergic improvement of the early phases in the product development process. VR supports complexity reduction by evaluating the modularization. VR has the ability in early phases to reduce costs and time. This is achieved by working with VR early on with cross-functional feedback together with virtual models that reflects the final product. The study's data for research question 2 suggest that VR has the potential to improve the product development of modular cyber-physical systems by reducing time and costs, as well as providing access to reference architecture. With delimitation to a subsystem and its variants, it was demonstrated that VR can reduce the physical space required for prototypes and facilitate/ease visualization and interaction with the prototypes.