About Siemens India

Siemens India manufactures steam turbines, turbo compressors, high-voltage switchgear (circuit breakers, disconnectors and gas-insulated switchgear), switchboards, remote monitoring systems (RMS), fire detectors and suppression systems, motors and generators, relays and Smart Grid systems, transformers, and advanced medical imaging equipment. The factories replicate global, best-in-class manufacturing systems and practices, with a facility to overhaul and repair gas turbines, compressor blades and rotors.

Siemens India is a leader in technology solutions for intelligent (smart), sustainable cities, smart grid, building technologies, mobility and power distribution. Siemens is involved in the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) of the Government of India for installing Smart Grid solutions in many cities in India. Siemens India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to be the Lead Industry Partner in a consortium for the conceptualization and development of Smart Cities in India.

For over six decades, Siemens India has been the preferred technology solutions provider, conceptualizing and implementing various flagship projects in Mobility, Energy Management, Power and Gas, Smart Cities, Intelligent Infrastructure, Industrial Applications, Healthcare and Smart Financing. Siemens India is also strengthening its digitalization portfolio and working on select applications in the country.

Siemens India develops skills with Corporate Citizenship initiatives like ITI upgradation, faculty development, Technical Skills Development Centre and Scholarship Programs for meritorious Engineering students. The company has signed Memorandums of Understanding with the Government of Gujarat and Steel Authority of India, and works with industry bodies, such as Automation Industry Association, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association and CII, to impart technical education. Siemens also has initiatives for sustainable and integrated community development in rural areas.

Case in Point: Transforming the Warehouse and Material handling industry with Siemens Digital Enterprise approach

About the Company

This is a leading robotic company based out of India. Their product offering covers the entire spectrum of Manufacturing & Warehouse Automation as below

• Conveyor solutions for material movement with various load weight and high throughput rates.
• Shuttle system -offers high density storage, better space utilization.
• Robotics solution with vision system and conveyor Tracking.
• Mobile Robot and AGV’s.

Existing challenges/ problems faced

There was no digitization implemented for their own manufacturing line. Customer want to digitalization for their own factory and then showcase it to their set of customers as a Role model of Digital factory

Customer was using various design software which were working in isolation. All software’s were not connected and was not having any common database on account of which following objectives were not possible to meet

• Faster Development of prototype of the machine.
• Connection of real world with virtual world for seamless integration.
• Integrating it with supply chain for generation of document for own team, suppliers and their vendors.

Commissioning time of equipment’s are high on account of hit and trial, as most of third generation machines are developed first time for customers in intralogistics.

Lack of synchronization between Sales, Design, Purchase team and numerous stakeholders.

Unavailability of data from machine (cloud connectivity) installed at their client place which can act as trigger for future improvement/ optimization of their equipment from R&D point of view.

Data Transparency issue: the end customer has opted for rental model wherein the end customer pays per machine. As such Downtime is critical along with tracking of other parameters like OEE, productivity and production data.

Remote connectivity of machine was not possible.

About Industry 4.0 solution

In this dynamic market scenario, customer was looking for complete industry4.0 solution, in order to have faster implementation of products from Design to Delivery phases. Our Digital Twin approach is instrumental in providing this solution so that all the plant and process parameters can be accurately simulated. This inspired the customer to go for complete Digital Enterprise Suite from Siemens.

Complete value chain of digitalization was explored and delivered starting from product design, production/product engineering, project management, production execution, digital twin, virtual commissioning and services which include connectivity to cloud. We have also extended digitalization value chain to Remote connectivity to their end customers for trouble shooting and for ease of operations.

Presently all batch data resides in the database of MES eBR. The process data resides in the control system. Once we have historical data from all the plants of the customer, we plan to use cloud-based Business Intelligence tools for data analysis to derive valuable plant insights for the customer.

Benefits achieved

• Shorten time to market- By centralizing control over data, it means that product development can be completed more quickly
• Decrease Cost- Utilising the potential of collaborative design opens up the opportunity to reduce both material and production costs, as up to 70% of a product’s cost is decided through the design stage.
• Increase productivity- With collaborative Project management, productivity will increase as all teams will work with close coordination.
• Drive innovation- Digital twin (Virtual machine) allow companies to increase their innovation, without having to compromise on their flexibility or agility.
• Enhance Product Quality- With proposed software through which, the customer is able to implement all the processes and procedures necessary to maintain both product quality and customer satisfaction

Resource allocation and Change Management

We are creating value by addressing the challenges of Indian manufacturers with an integrated Digital Enterprise approach. We formed a cross functional team cutting across verticals and ensure that all our projects are agile and customer centric. The Siemens’ team stepped in to realize the customer vision of digitalization and drive the transformation by kickstarting their i4.0 journey.