Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
I recently attended the Siemens PLM World, their annual user conference in Orlando. This was the 40th anniversary of PLM world with an attendance of over 2,000 engineers, designers, partners, and manufacturers across all industries (423 companies). Major companies in Aerospace & Defense (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, etc.), Automotive (GM, Fiat Chrysler, Dana, Maserati, etc.), CPG, Life Sciences, Ship Building, Energy, and many others were in attendance. If I was to sum up the prevailing theme at this PLM World it was: Analytics and Simulation.
Chuck Grindstaff, Siemens PLM President, presented a keynote that focused on Siemens Digital Factory Division (formerly Siemens Industrial Automation (IA) business unit) strategy and illustrated how Siemens PLM is the center piece for the Digital Enterprise end-to-end design/manufacture/simulate/analyze/support/maintain lifecycle. Clearly, Siemens PLM is driving the overall Digital Enterprise strategy from an end-to-end perspective.
Grindstaff pointed out how the products being designed are smarter, and this will enable the digital thread and the digital twin concepts. Siemens is focusing on technologies like additive manufacturing, intelligent automation, advanced robotics, and machine learning as enablers of the smart factory and IIoT. What Siemens wants to do is to find better ways to monetize innovation and capitalize on technology disruption.
For Siemens PLM, the road to Digitalization is a business process transformation where connectivity and intelligence are essential components of product design and manufacturing. Grindstaff envisions a digitalization maturity path where the digital thread and the digital twin are each axis on a graph where the digitalization maturity slope moves upward from digitize, to organize, connect, simulate, analyze, predict, and prescribe. Siemens now has a portfolio of products that offer applications and solutions for all these areas. Siemens PLM has made acquisitions of over $4B since 2013 to address everything from advanced systems simulation to predictive analytics, including LMS for systems simulation, Camstar for MES, Omneo for advanced analytics, Polarion for application lifecycle management, CDAdaptco for product simulation, and others.
In the area of smart product design, Siemens PLM is focused on systems-driven product development and designing for systems of systems for the next generation of smart IoT ecosystems. Systems engineering is the “language” of IIoT. As is the case with all the of the leading PLM suppliers, Siemens PLM is providing strategies, applications and solutions for IoT and IIoT, and partnering with key technology providers throughout the IoT ecosystem.
One of the primary messages from Siemens at this conference was the concept of “Closed-Loop PLM”, where they want to provide tools to validate and verify the as-designed to the as-built. They maintain that the value of predictive analytics is in the domain knowledge contained in the production operations and quality records that can be analyzed and used to optimize the product and production, and drive operational excellence. Their Mindsphere platform connects and combines PLM, MOM, and TIA for a factory and machine analytics to enhance product and production performance. They have also integrated the Omneo analytics engine for a lifecycle predictive and prescriptive analytics approach.
Siemens PLM has an entire business unit devoted to Cloud/Big Data/Analytics. They now have a very well defined Cloud-ready solution. They offer infrastructure as a service (IaaS) as an on premise service; a managed service which is a personalized Cloud-based environment managed by Siemens PLM; and software as a service (SaaS) “subscribe and go” which is 100 percent on demand Cloud service. They offer a rapid start Teamcenter pre-configured PLM services for IaaS and SaaS from Amazon Cloud Services (AWS). Their lifecycle analytics Cloud service is an integration of Omneo and Mindsphere. Mindsphere functions as an IoT gateway for factories, plants, and machinery, where Omneo is a machine learning based analytics engine and operational visibility solution. The Omneo product intelligence solution is only offered on the Cloud. They also offer all of the NX product test simulation solutions on the Cloud, which was the first PLM solutions to offered on the Cloud.
A notable PR announcement was the Siemens/TCS partnership to deliver production performance analytics through Big Data analytics. Siemens and TCS both recognize that production systems are one of the largest repositories of Big Data in manufacturing and industry. Mining and analyzing these records will drive closed-loop PLM and operational excellence. The Big Data & Analytics market is forecast to be around $44B, and Siemens wants to leverage this.
The manufacturing engineering and operations session was led by Dr. Peter Weckesser, the newly appointed COO of Digital Factory and PLM, and Zvi Feuer, head of Digital Simulation for Production Systems (Tecnomatix). Siemens strategy here is to use the intelligence of the digital twin for both enhanced product development and manufacturing processes. Essentially, Siemens’ Digital Enterprise software suite is Siemens’ answer (realization) to Industrie 4.0. Siemens is all in on the concept of the digital twin from product design to support in the field. The strategy is to use manufacturing performance analytics, where digital information and analytics is used to optimize the overall design/manufacture process. Siemens believes that the concept of the digital twin is the “heart” of the smart factory.
Siemens has developed an additive manufacturing lifecycle process that starts with part design (CAD), simulation and test (CAE), and progresses to a hybrid additive and subtractive (3D printing and machining) process. All of this is tied together in a digital thread.
One of the cooler demos was Siemens’ technology partnership with the Microsoft Hololens environment, where a designer wears a pair of virtual reality googles and designs a part in holographic space using his hands in space to design the product. This is a combination of a holographic environment and 3D CAD.
Clearly, Siemens PLM and its parent business unit, Digital Factory have been very busy developing strategies, applications, and solutions to support the Digital Enterprise and the Digital Twin. Siemens PLM appears to be at the very center of Siemens’ Digital Enterprise vison. I left PLM World, more convinced than ever that the PLM suppliers are leading the charge into the actual implementation of IoT/IIoT with strategies for smart connected products, factories, analytics, and real business apps that will benefit the users.
Chuck Grindstaff, Siemens PLM President, presented a keynote that focused on Siemens Digital Factory Division (formerly Siemens Industrial Automation (IA) business unit) strategy and illustrated how Siemens PLM is the center piece for the Digital Enterprise end-to-end design/manufacture/simulate/analyze/support/maintain lifecycle. Clearly, Siemens PLM is driving the overall Digital Enterprise strategy from an end-to-end perspective.
Grindstaff pointed out how the products being designed are smarter, and this will enable the digital thread and the digital twin concepts. Siemens is focusing on technologies like additive manufacturing, intelligent automation, advanced robotics, and machine learning as enablers of the smart factory and IIoT. What Siemens wants to do is to find better ways to monetize innovation and capitalize on technology disruption.
For Siemens PLM, the road to Digitalization is a business process transformation where connectivity and intelligence are essential components of product design and manufacturing. Grindstaff envisions a digitalization maturity path where the digital thread and the digital twin are each axis on a graph where the digitalization maturity slope moves upward from digitize, to organize, connect, simulate, analyze, predict, and prescribe. Siemens now has a portfolio of products that offer applications and solutions for all these areas. Siemens PLM has made acquisitions of over $4B since 2013 to address everything from advanced systems simulation to predictive analytics, including LMS for systems simulation, Camstar for MES, Omneo for advanced analytics, Polarion for application lifecycle management, CDAdaptco for product simulation, and others.
In the area of smart product design, Siemens PLM is focused on systems-driven product development and designing for systems of systems for the next generation of smart IoT ecosystems. Systems engineering is the “language” of IIoT. As is the case with all the of the leading PLM suppliers, Siemens PLM is providing strategies, applications and solutions for IoT and IIoT, and partnering with key technology providers throughout the IoT ecosystem.
One of the primary messages from Siemens at this conference was the concept of “Closed-Loop PLM”, where they want to provide tools to validate and verify the as-designed to the as-built. They maintain that the value of predictive analytics is in the domain knowledge contained in the production operations and quality records that can be analyzed and used to optimize the product and production, and drive operational excellence. Their Mindsphere platform connects and combines PLM, MOM, and TIA for a factory and machine analytics to enhance product and production performance. They have also integrated the Omneo analytics engine for a lifecycle predictive and prescriptive analytics approach.
Siemens PLM has an entire business unit devoted to Cloud/Big Data/Analytics. They now have a very well defined Cloud-ready solution. They offer infrastructure as a service (IaaS) as an on premise service; a managed service which is a personalized Cloud-based environment managed by Siemens PLM; and software as a service (SaaS) “subscribe and go” which is 100 percent on demand Cloud service. They offer a rapid start Teamcenter pre-configured PLM services for IaaS and SaaS from Amazon Cloud Services (AWS). Their lifecycle analytics Cloud service is an integration of Omneo and Mindsphere. Mindsphere functions as an IoT gateway for factories, plants, and machinery, where Omneo is a machine learning based analytics engine and operational visibility solution. The Omneo product intelligence solution is only offered on the Cloud. They also offer all of the NX product test simulation solutions on the Cloud, which was the first PLM solutions to offered on the Cloud.
A notable PR announcement was the Siemens/TCS partnership to deliver production performance analytics through Big Data analytics. Siemens and TCS both recognize that production systems are one of the largest repositories of Big Data in manufacturing and industry. Mining and analyzing these records will drive closed-loop PLM and operational excellence. The Big Data & Analytics market is forecast to be around $44B, and Siemens wants to leverage this.
The manufacturing engineering and operations session was led by Dr. Peter Weckesser, the newly appointed COO of Digital Factory and PLM, and Zvi Feuer, head of Digital Simulation for Production Systems (Tecnomatix). Siemens strategy here is to use the intelligence of the digital twin for both enhanced product development and manufacturing processes. Essentially, Siemens’ Digital Enterprise software suite is Siemens’ answer (realization) to Industrie 4.0. Siemens is all in on the concept of the digital twin from product design to support in the field. The strategy is to use manufacturing performance analytics, where digital information and analytics is used to optimize the overall design/manufacture process. Siemens believes that the concept of the digital twin is the “heart” of the smart factory.
Siemens has developed an additive manufacturing lifecycle process that starts with part design (CAD), simulation and test (CAE), and progresses to a hybrid additive and subtractive (3D printing and machining) process. All of this is tied together in a digital thread.
One of the cooler demos was Siemens’ technology partnership with the Microsoft Hololens environment, where a designer wears a pair of virtual reality googles and designs a part in holographic space using his hands in space to design the product. This is a combination of a holographic environment and 3D CAD.
Clearly, Siemens PLM and its parent business unit, Digital Factory have been very busy developing strategies, applications, and solutions to support the Digital Enterprise and the Digital Twin. Siemens PLM appears to be at the very center of Siemens’ Digital Enterprise vison. I left PLM World, more convinced than ever that the PLM suppliers are leading the charge into the actual implementation of IoT/IIoT with strategies for smart connected products, factories, analytics, and real business apps that will benefit the users.