People send about a dozen press releases per day to me, only slightly fewer on weekends. Many boast innovation in products, services, or pricing models. The word comes dangerously close to over use.
Siemens, however, consistently shows how users in a large variety of settings use the fruits of its own innovation of bringing together PLM, IT, automation, and industrial control for their own innovation.
My last post from the recent Siemens Innovation Forum discussed design and manufacture digitally using Siemens PLM and 3D printing. I also discussed a young woman using Siemens CAD and her own hard work to engineer a new prosthetic foot for a veteran of Afghanistan.
Next up at the Forum was Mayor Buddy Dyer of Orlando speaking on smart cities and the many places technology—principally from Siemens—were helping build infrastructure, water/wastewater controls, microgrids, and other elements of his administration’s smart cities work. Orlando has progressed far from its sleepy tourist-town roots.
Dr. Norbert Gaus, Head of R&D in Automation and Digitalization, AI at Siemens presided over an interlude with an example of robot picking utilizing AI + Digital Twin. Both are important components of an innovative manufacturing future.
The program jumped a level from travel by prosthetic foot to highways to aircraft carriers. Bharat Amin, VP & CIO of Newport News Shipbuilding discussed the entirely new way of building large ships using Siemens PLM, digital twin, digital thread, and electronic devices. This new workflow eliminated carrying huge piles of drawings to the site. The armloads of blueprints were replaced by a digital tablet.
People who have accomplished a digital turnaround always have timely advice for those of us beginning projects. Amin’s list: Start with people; Cultivate disruption; Nurture trust and relationships; Cut through bureaucracy; Go against the grain; Have an entrepreneurial spirit; Be willing to take risks.
Chester Kennedy, CEO Bridg—a microelectronics manufacturer, took Digital Twin from huge war ships to silicon wafers—microelectronics. He began with an MES to track through the entire process. The idea being that if they could find a flaw maybe at step 14 and scrap the part before investing more time and process only to find it at a later stage, they would save a ton of money. The digital twin idea is developing for work on security. At the beginning, Bridg just wanted an RFP for MES. Siemens came in and offered to go beyond Camstar (MES) to work in partnership to look at the system from design to physics and material science to workflow. The company needs security confidence by its customers, so it’s adding blockchain to help catch any potential sabotage within the microelectronics at manufacture.
