Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Virtual Private Cloud
Applicable Industries
- Packaging
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Intelligent Packaging
- Manufacturing Process Simulation
Services
- System Integration
- Testing & Certification
About The Customer
Unilever is a multinational consumer goods company with a wide range of products including food, beverages, cleaning agents, and personal care products. The company is committed to reducing the environmental impact of their products and was seeking a solution to minimize the material used in its packaging while maintaining its strength and durability. Unilever has a talented team of CAD engineers but lacked computer aided engineering (CAE) users, which was necessary for the implementation of advanced virtual simulation technology for optimizing packaging designs.
The Challenge
Unilever, a consumer goods giant, was faced with the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of their products. The company needed to find a way to minimize the material used in its packaging while ensuring that it remained strong enough to withstand transportation loads and a variety of use conditions. The challenge was to optimize Unilever’s packaging designs using advanced virtual simulation technology. However, at the time, Unilever did not employ many computer aided engineering (CAE) users, instead having an extremely talented team of CAD engineers at their disposal.
The Solution
Altair ProductDesign collaborated with Unilever's team of CAD engineers to develop the ‘Atlas’ system, a highly customized primary, secondary and tertiary packaging virtual test lab encapsulated in a user-friendly common interface. The Atlas system was powered by Altair’s own virtual simulation suite, HyperWorks, which utilized its modeling, automation, and optimization technologies. This was integrated with Unilever’s existing design tools and testing environment. Modules were created for manufacturing simulation (ISBM and EBM) and to explore the effects of usage, accidental and transportation loadings on the new pack designs. The system also had the ability to automatically report results in-line with Unilever’s own working practices to further reduce manual workload.
Operational Impact
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