Enhanced Facility Planning with Virtalis VR Solutions

Many customers utilize Virtalis' Visionary Render to strategize their manufacturing facilities, importing entire assembly lines for modification and viewing in Virtual Reality (VR). This technology has been instrumental in planning new or upgraded facilities, as seen in the Siemens Congleton case study. While traditionally used for industrial machinery and robotics in manufacturing lines, Virtalis faced a new challenge in applying VR to the layout of highly complex medical operating theatres, where surgeons and anesthesiologists operate on patients. The challenge included optimizing equipment placement for space efficiency, ensuring uninterrupted sight lines, quick reconfiguration for different scenarios, and addressing human interface aspects.

The problem arose when a leading medical equipment supplier struggled to communicate the design and layout of surgical rooms to their customers. The existing process involved using 2D architectural plans overlaid with symbols for equipment, manipulated in PowerPoint to show different layouts. This led to misunderstandings, lack of clarity, and costly rework.

Virtalis proposed a solution using Visionary Render, incorporating animated and controllable complex medical equipment with exact movements and control points. This allowed the clinical design team to check operating procedures in various scenarios. They also utilized a library of components for quick room layout changes, saving layouts as presets. Additionally, the sales teams used visuals and videos produced from Visionary Render in presentations, as well as immersive headsets for surgeons and anesthesiologists to experience the room layout at a 1:1 scale.

The process involved a discovery workshop, agile development, initial project support, online working sessions, and customer presentations. The benefits included clearer internal and client understanding, higher-quality discussions, quicker sales cycles, fewer problems during construction, and reduced costly adjustments. The next step could be making the solution available on Virtalis Reach for wider accessibility. Overall, Virtalis' visualization tools have greatly aided in planning, designing, and communicating complex surgical room layouts, resulting in reduced sales cycles and project risks.