How Siemens and SAP are Building a More Sustainable Future for Energy

Editor’s note:   We’re excited to share an update from ADIPEC 2023 where Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP highlighted our joint offering for capital asset project and lifecycle management at this premier energy industry event. 

ADIPEC 2023, hosted by ADNOC from 2 – 5 October 2023, brought together 2,200+ businesses along with 184,000+ thought leaders and energy professionals from 160 countries. The theme was “Decarbonizing. Faster. Together.”  Enjoy this latest update!

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As concern over climate change grows, the energy sector faces growing pressure to operate more sustainably. Governments and other public entities increasingly use regulations, policies, taxes, and other incentives to spur energy companies to reduce their carbon footprint.

To comply with these new directives, companies must find more operational efficiencies to minimize their environmental impact, for example, by standardizing a pipeline inspection schedule. That would ensure equipment is maintained and performs at its peak, which, in turn, proactively prevents harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

But a single process change won’t be enough. To make the most meaningful change, companies must look for ways to optimize all their capital assets, from buildings to drilling rigs to wind turbines.

That’s why combined solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP bring great value to the energy and utilities sector. This approach enables managing capital-intensive operations and the many large-scale assets found in energy production and distribution throughout the lifecycle—from planning to development to operations and then disposal. Companies use these combined solutions to increase transparency across their assets. Then, teams can make better-informed decisions and optimize operations to be more eco-friendly.

The Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP joint offering

This blog takes a closer look at the advanced capital-intensive projects and asset lifecycle management solutions made possible via the integrated software solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP.

• Siemens Digital Industries Software provides lifecycle management to help customers in asset-intensive industries establish a lifecycle digital thread, connecting information across functional domains and operational disciplines.
• SAP ties lifecycle management together with enterprise resource planning (S/4HANA) for capital asset-intensive industries and with solutions including SAP Intelligent Asset Management (IAM) and SAP Enterprise Portfolio Project Management (EPPM), delivering a single digital thread.

Together, Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP integrated solutions provide capabilities that set up energy companies for leaner operations, which ultimately leads to more sustainable outcomes.

Crossing silos

It’s an unfortunate fact that energy and utilities companies work in silos. That means operations don’t always work closely with maintenance. Engineering can impact manufacturing in unintended ways. Project handoff coordination is limited when organizations operate in silos with different toolsets and data models that weren’t designed to connect. This blinkered approach helps teams remain focused on their immediate goals but leads to inefficiencies for the overall company.

Siloed companies struggle to access information coming from across the company. No common thread can reliably tie together all the data related to one or more capital assets, their history, or their operating data. This incomplete view leaves decision-makers without the tools they need to accurately analyze or optimize operations for sustainability.

How do these companies streamline the delivery of capital projects, improve operational efficiency, and reduce execution risk? When teams fail to share vital information, companies can make risky decisions, scramble to react to change orders, and lose valuable time.

Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP partnership provides the bridge 

A combined solution offering by Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP can resolve these issues. The integrated solutions combine powerful capabilities collectively known as SAP Capital Project Engineering Management (CaPEM), including:

• Teamcenter for CALM (Capital Asset Lifecycle Management)
  Teamcenter is well-known for its ability to manage product data, processes, and collaboration throughout a product’s lifecycle, whether that product is a hearing aid or a jet plane. This same expertise, when applied to energy and utility companies, is crucial for capital assets to ensure optimal performance throughout design, production and operations.
• SAP S/4HANA, SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management, SAP Intelligent Asset Management and SAP PLM Systems Integration
  These solutions manage business processes and bi-directional data transfers with and between other platforms.

The integration means that real-time, bi-directional updates can flow between the solutions. These include digital engineering artifacts—such as CAD models, bills of materials (BOMs), and requirements—as well as operational plant data. The result is that siloed operations no longer hold back the company as it works to create leaner processes and more optimized assets. Team members have the information they need to make better-informed decisions, streamline asset delivery and improve productivity and efficiency.

Digital twins break down silos, promote asset visibility

Siemens Digital Industries Software offers lifecycle management with Teamcenter for CALM, which allows teams to collect and monitor data from capital assets using digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual replicate of any asset that maintains a connection to the physical item—so that any change that takes place in real life is reflected in the virtual model.

Here’s how that can benefit energy companies: Imagine a situation where a plant uses boilers to produce steam to drive manufacturing processes. The company outfits the boilers with sensors that monitor the pressure and temperature inside the tanks, as well as the flame used to heat the boiler. The company creates a digital twin that uses that sensor data to maintain a dashboard with the boiler’s current and historical conditions.

The system alerts managers when urgent conditions arise. But it also gives engineers data to maintain and optimize the system’s health. For example, sensors can pick up slightly higher-than-necessary output in the boiler. If technicians lower the flame, they could conserve significant energy with no negative consequence to the overall plant operation.

Companies can also add maintenance schedules, downtime events, part changes, and new specifications. When all this information is centralized, companies can more easily optimize asset performance.

Sustainability matters

When companies need to find energy savings and operate more sustainably, the Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP combined solutions help companies accurately plan and optimize capital assets. Engineers use these tools to quickly identify poorly performing equipment, parts needing updates, and processes that have decayed over time. This increased visibility into operating systems, as well as access to aggregated engineering data, means companies gain new insights to choose more responsible designs, materials, equipment, and sourcing options—and can do so earlier and with greater confidence.

Optimized processes throughout the capital asset’s lifecycle

In the energy and utilities sector, expensive plants and equipment must last for decades. Companies need methods to keep their investments maintained and running. At the same time, they must remain flexible enough to adapt to change—such as when a more efficient replacement part or a better energy-saving material becomes available. The Siemens and SAP solutions help companies deliver projects more quickly—and then optimize and maintain those projects throughout their lifecycle.

The digital twin provides the backbone that connects capital assets throughout the company and improves visibility. Engineers use this constant real-time data to refine and improve performance, making the energy sector more adaptive, no matter what the future holds.

Integration of Teamcenter for CALM within SAP CaPEM improves sustainability with visibility throughout the supply chain of aggregated engineering data that facilitates responsible design, materials, equipment and sourcing decisions early in the planning stage. Once in operations, companies can draw conclusions relating to maintenance, production, and quality—reducing costs and preventing disruption and resource waste.

It’s time for data-driven decision-making

For a more efficient, sustainable future in the energy and utilities sector, companies will benefit from using the joint Siemens Digital Industries Software and SAP solutions. With a comprehensive digital twin at the center of the technology, companies can look forward to a more efficient and adaptive future. This data environment is organized, structured, and available to all stakeholders, breaking down silos between departments. The result is better use of company assets and improved decision-making throughout the enterprise.

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