Predictive digital twins design satellite production line

Traditionally, satellites have been designed and manufactured manually on a small scale, with manufactures building a handful of satellites per year. OneWeb Satellites will produce hundreds of satellites in a year. 

Satellite production has never before been managed on this scale. OneWeb Satellites therefore needed to design a factory that delivered the necessary throughput, while accounting for the complex assembly process and supply chain.

OneWeb Satellites needed to be able to accurately predict satellite production to meet launch dates; to understand how production, automation, quality assurance and supply chain factors affected throughput. Importantly, they needed to account for a learning curve – because the first satellites take longer to make than later ones, due to efficiency increases over time. The model incorporated a vast range of variables.

Lanner started working with OneWeb Satellites in 2017, and since then the design team have used Lanner’s Witness Horizon model. Predictive simulation creates a ‘virtual factory’ to provide a comprehensive picture of precisely what the facility will look like, how it will operate under normal circumstances, as well as how it will respond to changes as they evolve. This view then allows planners to pinpoint exactly what processes and resources would be needed in order to ensure demand is met in the most efficient way possible.