Make ordering easier with simulation
Remaining profitable requires innovation. And at the heart of innovation is the factory’s equipment. To combat tight labor markets and keep operating costs low, many manufacturers will begin or continue on their digital transformation journey. It goes without saying that digitizing will require upgrades; however, even if implementing modern, more advanced equipment is not part of your goal, relying on simulation solutions may still help your factory cut costs.
During an episode of our Digital Transformation podcast series, Siemens experts Rahul Garg, Vice President for industrial machinery vertical software strategy at Siemens Digital Industries software, and Alex Greenberg, director in the digital industries software digital manufacturing division, discussed how both greenfields and brownfields alike can leverage simulation tools to cut costs and optimize their processes all while keeping costs low.
Simulate to order parts
Getting the right equipment is the first step to augment and optimize operations. Process Simulate is a simulation solution that helps order products for both automated and manual production processes. With Process Simulate, manufacturers can create virtual representations of their machinery and production lines, helping to validate robot programs before they are deployed on the shop floor, ensuring efficiency, and reducing errors.
Additionally, factories can leverage Process Simulate to guarantee safety on the shop floor, especially as many organizations look to integrate collaborative robots (cobots) into their processes. Cobots are primarily useful to older factories as they can increase automation capabilities without the full commitment of an entirely new system. Process Simulate eases the implementation of cobots by integrating human factors into factory optimization, including safety measures and ergonomic considerations.
Simulate to reduce costs
Besides Process Simulate, businesses can take advantage of the digital twin and its simulation capabilities to lower costs, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. Siemens electronics packaging factory in Erlangen, Germany reaps the benefits of the digital twin by using it to validate manufacturing processes. Using the digital twin, Erlangen and other factories can:
- Simulate, predict, and optimize performance in real-time.
- Validate processes before physical implementation
- Complete predictive maintenance on equipment to avoid/minimize downtimes
When integrated with AI, the digital twin can also help manufacturers train robots. AI solutions like Pick AI which rely on computer vision compliment the digital twin well, with the digital twin being able to create data sets automatically and create synthetic data to train the robots on.
Beyond industrial manufacturing
Talk of simulation tools may seem speculative, but there are already use cases in the real world. The automotive industry deploys simulation to verify their intricate production lines that integrate hundreds of robots and manual labor to maximize efficiency and ensure harmony between man and machine. Aerospace validates processes such as drilling and riveting to reduce the cost of damage due to wrong execution of the process. And many consumer product manufacturers leverage simulation to replicate human behavior and analyze potential ergonomic issues of their products.
Simulation is indeed versatile and can give factories across any space the competitive edge they need to stay ahead and keep afloat. To get a more in-depth look at how simulation tools and the digital twin can optimize your processes, listen to our experts on our Digital Transformation podcast.
Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens’ software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimize their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Accelerating transformation.
