Virtual commissioning tests a machine's or line's control software against a digital model of the equipment before the hardware is installed. For a new line in a UAE free zone or industrial city, it means interlocks, sequences, recipes and HMI screens are debugged at a desk while the steel is still being fabricated, so site commissioning becomes confirmation rather than discovery.
The results reported by others are substantial. Machine builder Tronrud cut its design phase by 10% and commissioning time by 25% (ISA InTech). A field study reported by Visual Components saw software quality rise from 37% to 84% while real commissioning time fell by 75% (Visual Components).
How virtual commissioning works
- Model the equipment from CAD: conveyors, actuators, sensors, robots, with realistic motion and timing.
- Connect the controller. The real PLC program runs on a simulated PLC, or on the real CPU, and talks to the model as if it were the machine.
- Run scenarios. Normal production, start-up, shutdown, jams, sensor failures, emergency stops.
- Fix and repeat until every scenario passes, then record the results as the factory acceptance evidence.
- Reuse the model for operator training and later as the base of an operational digital twin.
| Result reported | Source |
|---|---|
| Design phase cut by 10%, commissioning by 25% (Tronrud) | ISA InTech |
| Software quality 37% to 84%, real commissioning time cut 75% | Visual Components |
| Real commissioning of machine tools up to 70% faster | Siemens |
| On-site commissioning cut by 70% on a brownfield engine assembly line | Siemens blog, Wipro PARI |
Siemens reports real commissioning of machine tools up to 70% faster with virtual commissioning (Siemens), and a Siemens case on Wipro PARI describes a 70% cut in on-site commissioning time on a brownfield engine line (Siemens blog).
Why virtual commissioning matters in the UAE
Many new UAE lines are built by machine builders in Europe or Asia and installed by local contractors, with the client's own engineers taking over afterwards. Every handover is a chance for problems to fall between parties. A shared model, tested before shipping, gives everyone the same reference. It also reduces the number of specialists who need to fly in for commissioning, and the time they stay.
Industrial zones such as those run by KEZAD Group in Abu Dhabi host many new and expanding plants. Under Operation 300bn, start-up dates matter: every week of late production is lost output against plan.
Tecnomatix Process Simulate: Machine Tending Demo with PLCSim Advanced
Siemens Software
This video is hosted on YouTube. Playing it loads content from Google, which may set cookies.
Watch on YouTubeHow detailed does the model need to be?
A common mistake is building a beautiful model that is too slow to run or too costly to change. The model only needs enough detail to exercise the control logic. For most lines that means:
- Correct sensor positions and actuator travel times, because sequences depend on them.
- Simple physics for product flow, enough to create jams and gaps.
- Every I/O point the PLC uses, mapped by name, including spares the program reads.
- Fault injection: sensors that fail on or off, actuators that stick, drives that trip.
Who owns the model?
Agree this in the contract. If the plant owner holds the model, it can be reused for training, later modifications and the operational twin. If the machine builder keeps it, every future change starts from nothing. Ownership of the model is worth as much to you as ownership of the PLC source code.
A virtual factory acceptance test does not replace the physical one, but it changes what the physical test is for. Instead of discovering logic errors at the builder's workshop with a delegation flown in from the UAE, the physical test confirms wiring, mechanics and safety functions. The software has already passed every scenario in the model, and the evidence is on file. The delegation spends its time on what only the physical machine can show, and the shipping date is far less likely to slip.
When it is worth it, and when it is not
- Worth it: multi-machine lines with handshakes, robot cells, high-speed packaging, process skids with complex interlocks, and any project where site time is expensive.
- Worth it: brownfield upgrades where the line can stop only for a short window.
- Less worth it: a single standard machine with proven software from its builder.
- Less worth it: very simple logic that a competent engineer can test with forced I/O in a day.
Planning it into a project
Start the model as soon as the layout is frozen, usually two to four months before shipping. Run the first software tests as soon as the PLC program covers basic modes. Hold the virtual factory acceptance test before the equipment leaves the builder. Then use the same model to train operators while installation runs, so they are ready for the first production shift.
Our engineers in the India centre build the model and the software, you review the results remotely, and commissioning on site is done by your team or a local partner with our engineers supporting remotely. See our digital twin service, the comparison of digital twins and SCADA, or send us your layout and schedule.
