Renault accelerates digital drive with first industrial Metaverse

The Renault Group is accelerating its digitalisation with the first industrial Metaverse. At present, 100% of production lines are connected (8,500 pieces of equipment), 90% of supply flows are constantly monitored and 100% of supply chain data is hosted in the Renault Group Metaverse, a true replica of the physical world controlled in real time.

Engaged in Industry 4.0 since 2016, digital technology has already led to savings of 780 million euros (Rs 6,528 crore). By 2025, it will enable 320 million (Rs 2,678 crore) in various savings, which will be added 260 million euros (Rs 2,176 crore) in savings on inventories, a 60% reduction in vehicle delivery time and a 50% reduction in the carbon footprint of its vehicle manufacturing, as well as a significant reduction in innovation cycles and a contribution to the 60% reduction in warranty costs targeted by the Group.

"Every day, a billion points of data are collected within the Renault Group's industrial sites. The Metaverse provides real-time supervision that increases the agility and adaptability of industrial operations as well as the quality of production and the Supply Chain. Renault Group is becoming a pioneer in the sector,” says Jose Vicente de los Mozos, EVP, Industry Group and Head of country Iberia

The Industrial Metaverse: four dimensions
It all starts with data. To collect data from all its industrial sites, Renault Group has developed a unique data capturing and standardisation solution. A platform has been developed to collect mass data which feeds the industrial Metaverse, therefore providing the levers for performance of the production process in real time. This solution is now marketed in partnership with ATOS to other industrial players, under the name of the ID@Scale project.

Renault Group then modelled its physical assets into digital twins. Each factory has its replica in the virtual world. Like the factories, the Supply Chain has its own digitised universe. It is an integral part of the industrial Metaverse and is also controlled in real time by a control tower.

Integration into an extended ecosystem. The use of digital twins is enriched with supplier data, sales forecasts, quality information, but also exogenous information such as the weather or road traffic, etc., as well as Artificial Intelligence allowing the development of predictive scenarios.

The acceleration of this digital transformation is enabled by the convergence of advanced technologies (Cloud, real time, 3D, Big data...). Renault Group has developed a unique platform for the convergence of technologies needed to run the digital twins and their ecosystems in a resilient way.

Together, these four dimensions constitute a complete, persistent, and real-time industrial Metaverse.

Enables speedy decision making
The supervision offered by the Metaverse through a better visibility of the work environment allows actors to gain agility and autonomy in decision making. Technologies from the world of gaming make user experiences more immersive. This is the case of painting training carried out in virtual reality. AI algorithms allow employees to anticipate, as do flow optimisation and management functions for Supply Chain experts.

"The technological maturity of Renault Group allows the company to reach an important step in its digitalisation and transformation: the control of our data, the choice of advanced technologies, and the expertise of our teams are all levers to accelerate towards a tech company,” said Frédéric Vincent, EVP, Information Systems and Digital

To illustrate its industrial Metaverse in concrete terms, Renault Group presented 32 case studies at its Tech Industry Days. Here are a few examples:

The Industrial Data Management Platform 4.0 (IDM4.0), developed by Renault Group, collects all the industrial data of Renault Group. Stored in the cloud (Google Cloud platform), this data feeds the industrial Metaverse, and allows to correct or improve the production process in real time. Since 2019, 300 alerts have been detected and 300 production stoppages avoided.

The Control Tower of the extended Supply Chain is the point of convergence of the Supply Chain professions in a dedicated space: the Control Room. This global supervision tool, which concentrates information flows, alerts to risks in real time and anomalies in all transport operations and, thanks to Artificial Intelligence, proposes optimised crisis management solutions.

Decarbonisation of industry as a lever for energy independence. Renault Group is committed to being Net Zero Carbon by 2025 for the ElectriCity division and the Cléon plant, by 2030 for manufacturing sites in Europe, and by 2050 for all industrial facilities worldwide. Real-time carbon footprint monitoring of the equipment and transport capacity will be an important lever for achieving the trajectory and a 50% renewable energy mix in France by 2026 and 100% by 2030.

"This industrial Metaverse is unique and enables us to activate previously invisible efficiency and performance levers, to the benefit of people and the environment. The management of data at Group level allows us to monitor, for example, the energy consumption of all our industrial and non-industrial sites in detail, and above all to optimise them in real time when a plant is stopped,”
said Patrice Haettel, VP, Industrial Strategy and Engineering