Pictures of the Future Spring 2008
Tailored Solutions – Mass Customization
The Road to Personalized Production
As the world market leader for automation systems, Siemens is addressing the next challenge on the path to super-flexible production systems: achieving complete integration of all product lifecycle data so that information can flow optimally. A live demonstration with the VW Tiguan at the 2008 Hannover Fair offered an example of the company’s work in this area.
At this year’s Hannover Fair, Siemens illustrated the entire process chain for the VW Tiguan in both the real and virtual worlds. The goal was to highlight the benefits of linking these two environments
These days, it’s hard to imagine there was once a time when people had to wait up to two years for a new car ordered with special features and options. "Today’s customers want to have their dream car the very next day and be able to change options right up until the last minute if possible," says Harald Gmeiner, Siemens Global Account Manager for Volkswagen.
Customers’ wishes for quick, tailor-made solutions place substantial demands on automakers, which need to be able to alter products and production processes at more or less the same time and flexibly adapt them to changing requirements. They are therefore working hard to keep up, and are being assisted by Siemens as a key systems supplier to the automotive industry.
Siemens and VW provided a look at today’s challenges and the state-of-the-art technology required to meet them at the Hannover Fair, the world’s largest industrial fair, which took place in Hannover, Germany, in April 2008. Using the VW Tiguan as an example, Siemens presented the range of complementary products and solutions offered by its Industry Automation (IA) and Drive Technologies divisions at a stand measuring 160 m in length.
The focus here was on linking real and virtual factories. "We depicted the entire factory process chain at the Hanover fair," says Tino Hildebrand, who helped organize the trade fair presentation and is also responsible for VW at Siemens IA’s Automotive Competence Center. "Some of the things shown were real, while others—like the press plant, paint shop, and powertrain assembly line—were presented only virtually."
Use of the word "only" betrays a certain modesty here, since the virtual aspect is exactly what Siemens is working on so intensely at the moment as it moves to integrate the former UGS software company (now Siemens PLM Software) into the services offered by IA (Pictures of the Future, Fall 2007, Scenario Materials). The importance of all this has to do with the fact that an accurate virtual depiction online of all data pertaining to a product’s lifecycle enables a company to more rapidly and effectively incorporate product and manufacturing process changes even if production has already started. "That’s the ultimate vision—to obtain a comprehensive digital depiction of the complete product lifecycle in order to turn a serial process into a parallel process," says Gmeiner. "This would save time and money, and also prevent errors."
Spotlight on Software. Mid-2008 will see the launch of a milestone in the effort to integrate virtual product development, production process planning, and simulation, as provided by Siemens PLM Software, with production automation as provided by the Simatic-line solutions.
"Our Simatic Automation Designer tool suite creates conditions that make digital engineering possible within the framework of the digital factory," says Dr. Wolfgang Schlögl, product manager for the new system. "Engineers will thus be able to take data directly from the planning phase, adapt it without any intermediate conversion process to the automation system, and even carry out virtual commissioning. Another benefit offered by the Automation Designer is that it can be individually integrated into existing system environments. This makes all data across the board accessible, thereby allowing continued use of existing software tools." Automation Designer also makes it possible for all planners and developers, regardless of their area of expertise, to work on projects together.
Although Siemens presented a setup in Hanover that’s the only one of its kind anywhere, a lot of work still needs to be done. "We need to further align the individual data worlds for mechanical, electrical, and automation systems," says Schlögl. Data still doesn’t always fit together. Specialists in Nuremberg are therefore working closely on this issue with Dr. Ulrich Löwen and his Systems Engineering department at Corporate Technology.
Teamcenter, Siemens’ universal software for product data management, collects all data from the product-development process and digitally manages it in a standardized manner. "Teamcenter is a collaborative network that establishes a seamless link between all data," Gmeiner explains.
The software thus makes it possible to network various units at a company, such as product development, with a digital representation of production using Siemens’ Tecnomatix digital manufacturing software solution. Third-party solutions can also be integrated via the open PLM concept and other standards. Siemens experts are already working on the next step, which will be to incorporate supplier management systems and after sales units.
Transparent Production. "Teamcenter," says Gmeiner, "will form the heart of the intelligent factories of the future." It will enable each component in the process chain—in other words the entire value chain from product development to process and factory planning, the raw materials chain, suppliers, and production departments—to access centrally managed data, which will make the entire process truly integrated.
Teamcenter software is already being used by many leading automakers (including Volkswagen since 2007) to make product-development processes more transparent, and thus enable legally binding information on the degree of product development and on productivity and costs to be received at any time. The project at Volkswagen, which will last for several years, will result in a system that will be used by up to 45,000 people when completed.
These solutions will enable Siemens to move much closer to its vision of mass customization. "While it’s true that passenger car customers currently have the greatest tendency to request product alterations until shortly before delivery," says Gmeiner, "we’ll definitely soon be seeing this phenomenon in other sectors as well."
Although Siemens is essentially concentrating on developments for the automotive industry at the moment, other sectors that need to deal with rapid product alterations and a high degree of flexibility could also profit from its systems.
Just imagine, for example, customers at a department store being able to design and order a personalized pair of pants using a computer. They could select fabric and button types, have their body shape scanned in to determine measurements, and be able to make minor alterations right up until one day before scheduled delivery—all at a price only slightly higher than that of a pair of pants off the rack. High fashion would then no longer be a luxury.
Klaudia Kunze
Half a Century of Simatic Success
Simatic, the world’s most successful automation system, has made its mark on industrial processes like practically no other technology. Its success story began in 1958, when Siemens launched its first fully wired electronic regulation and control systems under the name Simatic (Pictures of the Future, Spring 2005, SIMATIC). The system’s second generation was introduced in the mid-1960s. This was equipped with silicon transistors that made the system faster, more reliable, and less temperature-sensitive than its predecessor. The early 1970s marked the beginning of the fundamental transition from hard-wired programmed controllers to programmable logic controls. The first PLC, the Simatic S3, was as big as a wardrobe cabinet—but the development of microelectronic systems quickly made memory storage and logic devices much smaller. A breakthrough was achieved in 1979 with the Simatic S5, and the next milestone was reached in 1996 with the Simatic S7. The latter device marked the step from PLC to totally integrated automation, which focuses on integrated solutions rather than the performance features of individual devices. At the same time, the foundation was laid for integrating process control technology, and with the launch of Simatic IT in 2002, information technology became a fundamental component of automation systems. The Simatic Automation Designer, which will be introduced in mid-2008, represents yet another key advance in digital engineering.