Siemens Management Updates

Roland Melzer managing the Manufacturing Operations Management updated ARC on the roadmap and development in the domain of Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM or MES). Progress behind the scenes becomes visible in the Maserati showcase, a model for digitalization in the automotive industries. Torsten Beste, of Manufacturing Engineering Software within the Siemens PLM Software Business Unit, commented the Maserati implementation. The company implemented Teamcenter as a central data hub to access product and production information and enable concurrent engineering. Using NX to model the car and its components and systems, Technomatics to design and simulate the assembly, and TIA portal to design the production automation. After this digital track, the bill of material (BOM) and routing is transferred to SIMATIC IT where the model is completed for real-time execution in the physical world. Along the various steps in this process there are many opportunities for optimization and creating savings. Product designs are optimized for manufacturability, manufacturing is optimized for speed and energy consumption, virtual commissioning of plant automation shortens time to operational readiness, the transfer of information to the SIMATIC IT saves time in creating the MOM application, and the full system is fast to adapt to changes. MOM also tracks production and quality, gives opportunities for proactive continuous improvement, thereby reducing costly recalls.

With Chuck Grindstaff, who heads up PLM in the Digital Factory Division, ARC discussed the trend of merging IT and OT in manufacturing companies. Different models have been implemented in manufacturing organization, with variable success. The success factors are related to how the collaboration between departments, or disciplines is put in place. But IT and OT must collaborate for a scalable and interoperable result. If IT leads and neglects business needs, problems are not solved and needs remain unfulfilled. When OT leads, there is a risk that architecture is neglected and solutions are difficult to maintain, to scale or to connect. Collaboration is therefore needed to combine sound architectures and future proof IT approach, and fulfill business needs at the same time. This results in a balance of long term and short term needs of the company.

Chuck Grindstaff believes there are several parallel exponential developments that together could lead to disruption. He mentioned the rapidly decreasing cost of 3D printing capabilities of increasing quality, industrial data analytics, and leaps of intelligence occurring when technologies are combined, for example in the case of the combined use of 3D product and factory modeling and 3D laser scanning to model the factory building. 3D product models could be calibrated and products could be improved effectively with real-time sensor data from the product in use, for example car suspension data.