Machine builders manage complexity with Intelligent Performance Engineering
In a recent article in engineering.com by Rahul Garg, Vice President for Industrial Machinery & SMB Program Digital transformation at Siemens Digital Industries Software, he discusses the digital transformation enabling machine builders to address evolving customer requirements for increasingly customized products. Complexity is where it’s at, with machines and equipment becoming smarter, lighter, more robust and personalized to end-user needs. There are challenges to effectively compete in a broadening landscape where industrial machinery companies must adopt advanced design and simulation practices through
Intelligent Performance Engineering (IPE).
>Read the article in engineering.com
Machine builders leveraging complexities
Innumerable pressures are driving machine builders to adopt the new design, simulation and testing methods. There is a strong demand for machines with customized requirements. Furthermore, competition is global, and the industrial equipment and machinery industry requires product differentiation. There is an all-consuming need to serve customers faster and more economically than their competitors.
Technology is stoking this process, pushing companies to find out how to meet customer needs through digitalization. Increased customer demands result in greater complexity, pushing the boundaries of the machine-building design process. Subsequently, there is a need for flexibility and sophistication to evaluate machine behaviors and performance and put that data back into the machine model and development process.
Design-level simulation provides only a baseline assessment of a machine’s design. Rahul Garg says, “basic simulations do not always reflect the interdependency of electromagnetic interference, structural loads, heat, and vibration inclusively.” And, another issue is smarter equipment with complex wiring, electronics and software. Therefore, it’s not just creating a safe design but one that also yields high-performing results. “Consequently, designers tend to be overly cautious, resulting in added weight, cost, or reduced performance to meet safety requirements,” continues Rahul.
There is a strong need for simulation experts familiar with the criteria and can identify issues at a granular level without waiting on physical prototype testing.
Intelligent performance engineering provides new methods
IPE incorporates advanced digital simulation and analysis tools to help machine builders analyze the impact of specific design choices on the performance and failure modes of a component, assembly, or the complete machine. It improves reliability and addresses risk by helping machine builders construct highly accurate models that assist in predicting product behavior during the lifecycles of a machine. “IPE’s principal goal is to promote a continuous connected digital thread to share information between simulation, design, and production, thus enabling machine builders to evaluate the capabilities and limitations of advanced machines early in the design cycle,” says Rahul.
Learn more about IPE’s differentiators that impact the Intelligent Performance Engineering process to provide positive attributes by supporting a multi-domain simulation upfront, fostering an integrated design and simulation approach to support custom variants and enable closed-loop validation.
Siemens Digital Industries Software and IPE is driving transformation to enable a digital enterprise where engineering, manufacturing and electronics design meet tomorrow. The Xcelerator portfolio helps companies of all sizes create and leverage digital twins that provide organizations with new insights, opportunities and levels of automation to drive innovation.
For more information on Siemens Digital Industries Software products and services, visit www.sw.siemens.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Siemens Digital Industries Software – Where today meets tomorrow.
Related links
Listen to the IPE Podcast on leveraging machine complexity.
Learn more about Intelligent Performance Engineering.
Rahul Garg is the Vice President for Industrial Machinery & SMB Program, responsible for defining and delivering key strategic initiatives and solutions and global business development. He and his team are responsible for identifying key initiatives and developing solutions for the industry while working closely with industry leading customers and providing thought leadership on new and emerging issues faced by the machinery industry. Rahul’s experience and insight are derived from 25 year career delivering software-based solutions for product engineering and manufacturing innovation for the global manufacturing industry, spanning a career in R&D to program management, sales and P&L management and having focused exclusively on the industrial machinery and heavy equipment industry since 2007.
