When racing to meet aggressive production ramps in advanced manufacturing, traditional automation often becomes a bottleneck. The usual approach of designing in one tool, simulating in another, ordering parts separately, and hoping everything works on the factory floor takes too long and leaves too much to chance.
We sat down with Briault Atemazem, a Tooling Engineer at Solestial, to understand how his team manages rapid production schedules. His experience with Vention highlights a rapidly evolving trend: integrated automation platforms are turning fragmented and costly workflows into seamless and reliable operations.
Role of Simulation to Validate Automation Builds
Ask Briault where he spends most of his time, and his answer reflects a core reality in tooling: the majority of manufacturing automation work happens during the design phase, with simulation embedded in the iterative process rather than treated as a disjointed step.
At Solestial, this approach proved critical for their material handling system for delicate solar wafers. Precise simulations enable Solestial to answer critical questions before ordering a single component.
Four ways Solestial uses simulation to validate their design:
- Throughput validation: Visualizing how many cassettes the system could handle
- Kinematic verification: Confirming the robot’s full range of motion
- Virtual debugging: Running automation recipes to catch errors before physical build-out
- Process optimization: Sequencing and positioning multiple tasks for optimal flow
By confirming these aspects early, Briault and Solestial are minimizing risk and making more effective automation investments.
Fragmented vs. Unified Design and Simulation
Briault’s previous experiences without Vention highlight the challenges many tooling engineers face. A typical manufacturing automation project required designing parts in SolidWorks, simulating each actuator individually, and manually positioning virtual components to check for collisions. Code couldn’t be executed until hardware arrived, so feasibility analysis relied entirely on visualization. Even small errors meant hours or days of rework on the production floor.
Vention’s platform changes this dynamic by combining design and simulation in a single environment. For the wafer loading project, Briault used the no-code interface in MachineLogic to program and test automation recipes virtually.
*An Example of No-Code Interface in MachineLogic
“You can recreate your virtual environment with the same exact tools you’re building and see results immediately,” Briault explains.
Validating designs virtually eliminated rework cycles and caught errors that saved hours of factory floor debugging. Most importantly, parts arrived exactly as simulated, with no translation steps, no manual bill of materials, and no uncertainty about component integration.
Collaboration in a Common Environment
Vention’s platform-based manufacturing automation software transforms how teams work together. Briault identifies several ways the integrated environment improves collaboration at Solestial:
- Easy access: Team members view progress without navigating complicated, laggy platforms
- Version control: Everyone sees the latest revisions automatically, without exchanging files
- Parallel work: Adjustments can be made independently without version conflicts
- Unified context: Mechanical design, simulation, and control logic exist in a shared workspace
“It just makes it really accessible to join and see what others are working on and even be able to make adjustments on your own,” Briault points out.
This accessibility eliminates typical friction points. Traditionally, mechanical designers work in one CAD tool, control engineers in another, and collaboration depends on exported files and status meetings. A cloud-based platform simplifies this workflow through improved transparency, accessibility, and version control. This shift also influences team culture. When everyone contributes within the same digital space, silos dissolve, and collaboration becomes continuous rather than episodic.
Maximizing the Manufacturing Automation Platform’s Potential
After completing several automation projects on the platform, Briault has developed a clear view of where integrated environments can evolve next. His advice offers realistic considerations for experienced tooling engineers switching to the platform-based approach for manufacturing automation.
1. Runtime control matters.
On the factory floor, engineers often need to pause, test, and adjust automation recipes in real time. Briault believes tighter runtime control, such as the ability to stop a sequence mid-run and tweak parameters on the spot, would make optimization cycles faster and more efficient.
2. Component libraries define flexibility.
When a specialized component has to be imported from outside the system, engineers lose some of the accuracy and confidence that unified simulation provides. Expanding native libraries, he says, keeps workflows simple and builds more trust in the digital twin.
3. Customization drives efficiency.
User experience may seem secondary, but for engineers running multiple projects, it directly impacts productivity. Being able to customize the interface in Vention’s MachineBuilder, for instance, helps engineers reduce the time needed to familiarize themselves with the platform. For teams managing several projects, those adjustments add up to significant time savings.
For Briault, the bigger story is what this shift means for the role of the engineer. As more design and validation move upstream into virtual environments, tooling engineers are evolving into system architects who build automation that is efficient, adaptable, and ready to deploy from day one.
“I think this is a place where any engineer would want to go, if they’re looking to build systems and machines. It makes the whole design and simulation phase significantly quicker because when you’re done, you can just click order and your part comes in, and you’re ready to roll”.
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