Project
The Virtual Reality glasses and the hand held controllers made it possible for the Cérélia employees to view the different elements of the new batter room from a series of different angles.
When the multinational food company Cérélia needed to expand and improve the capacity of their site in the Netherlands, the company turned to NIRAS to get a solid 3D model and support for detailed engineering.
Cérélia is an international manufacturer of pancakes, cakes, pizza dough, and other flour based products, and the company has facilities in seven countries on three different continents. Due to increased demand Cérélia wanted to increase its production by adding a new batter room with a flour attic to its factory in its headquarters in the Netherlands.
To guarantee the best possible solution, Cérélia hired NIRAS to carry out the detailed engineering design and to undertake a Virtual Reality session. The VR process would permit Cérélia’s employees from different technical disciplines to ‘walk through' a virtual version of the new production facility before it was built.
The virtual version of the new batter room facility was made as accurate and realistic as possible due to the use of Point Cloud technology and detailed 3D BIM models.
This was achieved by collecting data from both the client and the suppliers and by integrating the engineering solutions and pipeline routes into one model.
Due to the Virtual Reality glasses and the hand held controllers, it has been possible for Cérélia employees to view the different elements of the new batter room from a series of different angles. This has created the opportunity to pay even closer attention to quality, hygiene, and safety.
By this means the VR sessions served to validate design solutions, since the employees could come up with suggestions for improvement. Thereby NIRAS secured that the new equipment of the future batter room and flour attic will be able to integrate seamlessly into the factory’s existing facilities.
Due to the project, Cérélia optimizes its capacity and production process. Furthermore, NIRAS’ innovative engineering and automation solutions will improve the end product.
Regarding capacity, the company will be able to use the two production lines at the factory in a more simultaneous manner than previously, once the new building is completed.
NIRAS is applying Point Cloud technology and 3D models to a wide variety of brownfield projects. By integrating 3D models and Point Cloud together in a Virtual Reality environment, it makes reviewing and adaptation to new ideas a lot faster and easier, which contributes to creating value for food and beverage companies.
