Workstation design in VR makes digital workstation design in production planning tangible. You experience layouts as walkable 3D models, check distances, grasping areas, and fields of view at full size, and spot collisions early. This lets you avoid long routes and expensive change rounds and make reliable decisions before rebuilds tie up cost and time.
Target values provide orientation, for example a RULA score of no more than 2, a REBA score of no more than 3, walking routes per cycle under 10 to 15 m, a collision-free layout, and floor space that includes reserves for service and peak loads. A scenario shows the effect: at the changeover station, after the check in VR, routes per cycle drop from 24 to 12 m, cycle time from 57 to 49 s, and the RULA score from 5 to 2, without any additional floor space.
In Halocline, the planning platform for production layouts and workstations, you build shopfloor layouts and workstations as walkable 3D models, check ergonomics and material flow, and run through workflows in VR. This sharpens your judgment of scale: aisles, turning radii, grasping areas, and swivel ranges are immediately visible, as are lines of sight to displays or inspection aids. You spot early whether walking routes collide with milk run routes, whether doors open freely for service, or whether too many grips are above shoulder height.
Metrics complement this spatial impression. RULA and REBA serve as quick posture screenings, MTM building blocks provide standard times, the recording in Halocline provides routes and times from the real layout, and the collision check documents that critical movements stay clear. This creates a technically sound basis for ergonomics, cycle time, and space utilization.
VR doesn't replace detailed CAD design, FEM calculation, or material flow simulation. It complements them: you clarify layout, ergonomics, and workflows early, work with simplified geometries for fast iterations, and pass only stable variants on to CAD and simulation for detailed design. In Halocline, you start with no training required and without CAD data, purely with library objects or with optional CAD import, for example as STEP, FBX, or OBJ. One person walks through the model in VR while the others follow the walkthrough in spectator mode on screen or keep working on the desktop. You record assumptions with labels directly in the model, and for documentation you export screenshots and the material list. This speeds up decisions and avoids rework.
Only the combination of tangible geometry and clear target values makes the check reliable.
Ergonomics: Align working heights and grip positions with your team, usually from the 5th to the 95th percentile, and avoid grips above shoulder height. In Halocline, grasping area avatars show the optimal and maximum grasping area for gender and body height, calculated according to DIN 33402-2 and DIN EN ISO 14738. You assess critical postures with RULA or REBA. With the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), 1 to 2 points are acceptable, and from 3 a closer investigation is needed. With the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), a score of up to 3 stands for low risk. If you record the workflow, the ergonomics analysis in Halocline also marks problematic object movements in yellow or red based on the key indicator method. Countermeasures range from height-adjustable tables and shorter reach distances to turntables and rolling aids.
Routes and cycle time: Layout and material flow have a direct effect. Keep walking routes per cycle under 10 to 15 m, place frequently used parts in the comfort zone between hip and chest, and position replenishment points so that they don't cross walking routes. You size containers according to grip frequency and takt. You derive standard times from MTM, and via the MTMmotion export (add-on) also directly from recorded workflows. Add realistic allowances and balance the stations so that bottlenecks don't shift.
Safety and floor space belong firmly in the review. Check aisle widths, visibility at crossings, turning areas, and whether grasping and swivel ranges are free of collisions. While you walk through, Halocline displays the minimum passage width. You set up reserve areas for buffers and service cases as fixed objects in the model so that they don't get lost in later iterations. Technically, you base the measures on established standards such as ISO 11228 on manual handling and ISO 6385 on ergonomic principles for work systems. This creates a small, robust set of metrics that makes walkthroughs in VR measurable and keeps decisions traceable.
A variant comparison becomes reliable when the task, assumptions, and metrics stay the same. Set the same target values for each variant, document routes, RULA or REBA score, cycle time, and occupied floor space, and capture deviations with screenshots. In the walkthrough with industrial engineering, occupational safety, and the shopfloor, you discuss the critical spots directly on the model and record notes with labels on the objects. This saves alignment loops and makes trade-offs transparent: you see the effect of every measure directly, from the moved rack to the adjusted working height.
Halocline supports this approach without barriers to entry. You start without CAD data, sketch the space with library objects, check grasping areas for different body heights, record workflows, and compare routes and times with the takt. You create variants as copies and walk through the most promising ones together. The tabular report per recording and the material list can be exported as Excel files, the material list optionally with two variants compared directly. At Siemens in Karlsruhe, workstation design with Halocline became 4x faster. This lets a lean pilot grow into a standardized process for virtual factory planning that covers ergonomics, route optimization, and variant comparison.
Want to validate your layout faster? Get started for free with Halocline Free and build your first workstation in 3D. For process analysis and the ergonomics check, get in touch and we'll show you the right scope.
