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Siemens and TDK Electronics bring AI to the real world

At their plant in Deutschlandsberg, Austria, Siemens and TDK Electronics show how AI comes to life through digital twins, autonomous infrastructure and software-defined automation, built on a standardized shopfloor integration layer that connects data across the plant.

Not data generation, but data handling

TDK Electronics operates the Group’s largest European plant in Deutschlandsberg, Austria, covering 70,000 square meters. Together with Siemens, the company implemented a secure shopfloor integration layer to better integrate and utilize production data across the site. What began as a solution to increasingly complex data handling has since turned the plant into a Center of Competence for integration projects, enabling production sites worldwide to benefit from standardized, scalable and future-proof digitalization approaches.

Turning data silos into connected information

The plant is characterized by a high degree of automation and the presence of around three generations of control systems from different manufacturers. TDK's Business Solution Manager and his team needed a way to intelligently link data from different sources. Siemens Connectivity Solutions experts assessed the hardware landscape and developed a tailored solution based on WinCC OA:
"Firstly, we were already familiar with the standard WinCC software," explains Sascha Peter Neumeister, Business Solution Manager within the Piezo and Protection Devices Business Group at TDK Electronics, "and secondly, we realized that WinCC Open Architecture (WinCC OA) is ideally suited to both of our 'worlds' – maintenance and facility management on the one hand, and operations and operations IT on the other."

When it comes to shopfloor integration layers, TDK Electronics has been in favor of a standard platform that will be maintained by the manufacturer for the next 15 to 20 years.
Andreas Platzer, Siemens

Link data completely and correctly

Andreas Platzer, Siemens Digital Industries, emphasizes that the shopfloor integration layer is not an analysis tool. Instead, the solution represents the interface to these tools. With the standard platform, the generated data can be prepared in advance in terms of completeness, accuracy and relation to each other, which also increases the potential of the analysis tools. At the same time, not "only" process data is processed: if a fault occurs, for example, this can be linked to an order number, a serial number or both, including the relevant process data. This means that process technicians can immediately call up all the data for a particular batch: all the relevant data is already linked.

Two engineers reviewing production data on Siemens SIMATIC HMI touchscreen panel
With the central development library, other locations can benefit more or less immediately from our innovative strength and vice versa.
Sascha Peter Neumeister, Business Solution Manager, TDK Electronics

A library tailored to TDK's specific needs

"We have implemented many functions together with the customer so that they can be used not only here, but also worldwide at TDK," says Adrian Pinter, Head of Horizontal Cybersecurity at Siemens. "As the site produces ceramic components, we have started with a module for monitoring the kilns, for example. A module stored in the library can be called up again and again; a manual data search for a report is then no longer necessary. In addition, the library can be shared with any other location and used there immediately." The shopfloor integration layer currently supports 15 languages, and the system is being rolled out in China, Malaysia, Croatia and the Czech Republic, among others.

Neumeister summarizes the advantages from his Business Group's perspective: "With the shopfloor integration layer and the central evaluation system, standardized data is now part of the process and no longer the result of time-consuming and, above all, manual data searches and processing. In addition, processes that are not running optimally or as expected can be reset without major downtime. We have realized that we will probably never reach our limits with the system. This enables us to help shape the success of our company in the best possible way."

robotic arm operating within automated ceramic production process

State-of-the-art hardware and software

Electronics plants generally consist of two areas: production and facility management (FM). "Our task in production is to collect and process data in order to create analysis options and interfaces to other systems. FM is primarily about monitoring the functionality of the relevant systems and devices," explains Andreas Platzer. To this end, TDK Electronics is gradually replacing old control systems. "This was a challenge in the clean room, the actual heart of production, due to the very tight time frame, but we were able to successfully master it together with the TDK team," adds Adrian Pinter.

Future-proof together

Building on the design phase, Siemens spent around three years refining requirements in an iterative process, including rollout to other systems, database integration and evaluation systems for future data analytics. The layer already delivers clear benefits: data provision time, e.g. during a quality issue, has dropped sharply to just seconds after entering the batch number. Employees have also been trained to carry out project steps themselves. This linked data lays the groundwork for future digitalization steps, including algorithms and artificial intelligence. "With the shopfloor integration layer, which we planned and developed together with TDK Electronics, we are creating incredible flexibility and contributing to future-proofing," agree Andreas Platzer and Adrian Pinter.

Team discussing kiln monitoring equipment on the production floor