Schaeffler Group: Transforming Production With Digital Twins and Physical AI
Schaeffler Group
Schaeffler Group built a digital twin platform using NVIDIA Omniverse and OpenUSD to plan, simulate and optimize plants, machines and workflows across its global manufacturing operations, in collaboration with NVIDIA and robotics partner Wandelbots. The platform reduced commissioning times through virtual commissioning and facility layout planning, and cut robotic task development time from hundreds of hours to half a day using AI-driven simulation and training. At its Germany inverter assembly line, Schaeffler achieved reliable robotics performance after 24 hours of training and, with Wandelbots' virtual controller and reinforcement learning, refined robotic movements to within 5-6 centimeters for gearbox assembly tasks. Pilot projects are underway in China and Germany, including e-motor assembly and Vehicle Lifetime Solutions warehouses, with plans to integrate digital twins into more than half of Schaeffler's 100+ global manufacturing sites by 2030.
Overview
Schaeffler Group built a digital twin platform using NVIDIA Omniverse and OpenUSD to plan, simulate and optimize plants, machines and workflows across its global manufacturing operations, in collaboration with NVIDIA and robotics partner Wandelbots. The platform reduced commissioning times through virtual commissioning and facility layout planning, and cut robotic task development time from hundreds of hours to half a day using AI-driven simulation and training. At its Germany inverter assembly line, Schaeffler achieved reliable robotics performance after 24 hours of training and, with Wandelbots' virtual controller and reinforcement learning, refined robotic movements to within 5-6 centimeters for gearbox assembly tasks. Pilot projects are underway in China and Germany, including e-motor assembly and Vehicle Lifetime Solutions warehouses, with plans to integrate digital twins into more than half of Schaeffler's 100+ global manufacturing sites by 2030.
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Inspect the highlighted sourceThe challenge
Schaeffler faced rising labor costs and workforce shortages, increasing product complexity demanding more sophisticated assembly and quality control, pressures for accelerated simultaneous development cycles, and intensifying sustainability and regulatory compliance demands across its global manufacturing operations.
The solution
Schaeffler built a digital twin platform using NVIDIA Omniverse technologies and OpenUSD, in collaboration with NVIDIA and robotics partner Wandelbots, to plan, simulate and optimize plants, machines and workflows. The platform supports physics-based digital twins for facility layout planning and virtual commissioning, and simulation/training of robot fleets (manipulators, autonomous mobile robots, and humanoid robots) using synthetic data; Wandelbots' virtual controller and reinforcement learning were used to refine robotic movements for real-world deployment.
Reported business value
The platform reduced commissioning times and accelerated facility layout planning, and cut robotic task development time from hundreds of hours to half a day. At its Germany inverter assembly line, Schaeffler achieved reliable robotics performance after 24 hours of training and refined robotic movements to within 5-6 centimeters for gearbox assembly tasks. Schaeffler plans to integrate digital twins into more than half of its 100+ global manufacturing sites by 2030.
Sources
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