Also, we\u2019ll take a close inspection of the improvements smart manufacturing brings to manufacturing execution management, including the Manufacturing Bill of Process and Manufacturing Bill of Materials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We welcome again our expert in this series, Bill Davis, who has over 30 years\u2019 experience in the industry, and 20 years as an engineer, and is currently the Director of Industrial Machinery and Heavy Equipment Solutions at Siemens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Below,\nis the transcription from our third\naudio podcast<\/a> on smart\nmanufacturing<\/em>, sponsored by Siemens Thought Leadership team. For\nthe full audio podcasts or blog series, refer to the links at the bottom of the\npage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blake:<\/em><\/strong> Siemens obviously has a very comprehensive approach to smart manufacturing. So, when you look at the greater global Siemens and their approach to smart manufacturing, could you give some of the things we have learned in our approach, and how that’s changed as it has been a dynamic process of learning and improving. What is our general philosophy in approaching smart manufacturing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill:<\/em><\/strong> At Siemens AG, and the PL side\nof our business, we have a combined approach. We learn from each other and\nexecute our software solution to tell us exactly how it works and how it\ndoesn’t work for them. So, by having that feedback loop, we can do things that\nare forward-looking. Our own Siemens PL tends to be a little bit conservative,\nbut our manufacturers are always looking for ways to take advantage of the next\nbig thing. So, it kind of pulls us in that direction for how we can provide and\nbe forward-thinking when it comes to the manufacturing execution. Companies are\ntrying to squeeze every ounce of profit out of the manufacturing process. There\nare not many the size of Siemens with both the manufacturing capability and an\nindustry breadth of knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re able to show\nour capabilities in various industries, in different ways, and they are\nsupported by what is executing in the factory at Siemens. Therefore, we sell to\nourselves well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are different\nscales from a volume perspective when you’re building PLCs, HMIs or motor\ncontrollers, so you’ve got enormous volume. Therefore, every ounce of weight\nand every second that is spent in dwell time is an opportunity for saving\nmoney. So, by being able to have an operations control management execution or\nmanufacturing execution management tool that lets me get down to that\nfine-grained analysis level helps me drive value into the manufacturing\nprocess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is essential\nwhen we begin talking about the low volume of highly complex operations, to\nrealize we have unique manufactured order machinery and the correlation between\neach one of the variants of the machinery. The common thread is being able to\nlook at how the assembly is orchestrated in a fine-grain manner to feed that\ninformation back into the engineering space and provide a closed-loop\ncontinuous improvement. That’s a lesson learned from our relationship with our\nSiemens AG partners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another piece of\nthe competitive advantage of manufacturing execution management is that we know\nthe Bill of Process<\/em>. It\u2019s basically\nthe recipe for building a machine. It’s not necessarily the components that we\u2019re\nbuilding, but the methodology used to construct each part and roll that into parts\nmanufacturing assembly where it\u2019s optimized. As a result, we get a picture of\nwhat can be imported into the schedule because we have all the assembly setups\nnecessary to create it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, it\u2019s crucial\nto have the ability within our data management products to pull apart the bill\nof material and reconfigure it to fit the manufacturing operation more\neffectively. The grouping of parts in assembly necessary for manufacturing the\nparts, common part requirements or assembly of the machine in a different order\nthan the engineering bill are essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically,\nthere\u2019s a delicate balance between engineering and manufacturing and a throw-it-over-the-wall<\/em> mentality. We leverage\nthe capability with manufacturing execution and still retain the connection\nback to the engineering bill of materials, eliminating the conflict and allowing\nthe manufacturing side to customize how they want to view the bill of materials.\nThe result is a more efficient operation management process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill of\nprocess can also build in quality steps to drive the operation of the process\nand product. One of the challenges in a machinery build operation is how to ensure\nthat the bolts needed for assembly are correctly torqued. The quality control\nmeasure was to have the assembler accountable to indicate what bolt to tighten\nby a paint marker, though not scientific, it held the person accountable. Therefore,\nnow with many advanced tools, we can take the torque measurement off the torque\nwrench and bring it back into the manufacturing quality process. This is\nanother example of value delivered from smart manufacturing which reinforces the\nquality delivery of the machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you start\nputting these various pieces together, Siemens is the only solution provider\nthat has the end-to-end solution, from manufacturing, design, service and back into\nthe business system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blake: <\/em><\/strong>When you spoke of quality, and\nbuilding the highest quality parts for the lowest amount of labor content in\nthe fastest time, what are the differentiators that Siemens provides in parts\nmanufacturing? Also, what kind of technology are we inputting to make sure that\nhappens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill:<\/em><\/strong> From a parts manufacturing\nperspective, most parts require several different machining operations to\nperform. You know what the finished piece looks like and build quality. So, you\nneed to ensure that you have a process that’s capable of meeting the quality\nrequirements. Seldom considered is the software for any given part that’s\nmachined, or fabricated in any manner, which must accommodate the conditions of\nthe machine shop or manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are four to\nfive different types of machining centers that are involved and possible to create\nthe part. We need to guarantee that each one of these processes \u2013 the CNC code\nand the CMM data traceability \u2013 can take that information that we’ve qualified for\neach one of those methods. Once we begin to lay across that part in the shop,\nthe best way to make it is putting it on machining\ncenter one<\/em> and have it do everything. This is a more complex machine, which\nis required to have the flexibility in the process to place it on various machining\ncenters to meet the timing and sequence schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, it’s vital\nfor the part manufacturing operations to trace and track the optimal manner to\ncreate the part and other options, so there is no reinventing the wheel every\ntime there\u2019s a scheduling conflict. Also, in the process of making the part and\nextending it out, there\u2019s the capability of being able to extend our factory\ninto the supply chain partners. So, we know that a part goes out for heat\ntreating and plating, and we need to extend that manufacturing process and\nmanage it through the shop to include them as part of the operations\nmanagement. Therefore, there needs to be a toolset that takes the manufacturing\nof the part and entire operations for part execution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another crucial\nfactor in making the part is the critical components in scheduling and the tools\nthat fit into the machine. You need to be able to trace these machining\ncomponents and tooling so that it becomes part of the schedule. This adds another\nlevel of complexity to the entire process if the tool is being allocated to a\ndifferent machine to make a different part. When I need it to be doing\nsomething else for the part that I’m introducing, I must have another way of\nmaking it with another tool. Therefore, it’s important that the processes and\nsoftware solutions allow us to manage the machining center, visualize the\nworkflow and trace it to the specific CNC code and tools required to\nmanufacture it. All of these are connected to the part manufacturing bill of\nprocess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are trends discussed\nwith respect to part manufacturing and how to take advantage of it. Additive\nmanufacturing is an investment that part manufacturers, as well as machine\nbuilders, can take advantage of in the design space; however, this an\ninvestment in new hardware, new machining centers that have additive and\nmachining capabilities or additive and subtractive capabilities. So, the CAM\nprograms and files you send to the machining centers are important to the\nsoftware that you’re building \u2013 CAM software, design software \u2013 to have the\nability to handle those different technologies. Siemens is active on the CAM\nside and leverages the capabilities of additive in terms of how we can support\nmachine shops and machinery manufacturers with technologies like additive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another piece that\u2019s\ntrending in the differentiating capabilities is that Siemens CAM solutions have\nmany experiences in aerospace and automotive, moving away from a single-purpose\nmachining center toward higher capacity multi-functioning machining centers. So,\nthe more complicated the center, the CNC code will require more complexities to\nsimulate multiple machining centers. For\nexample, in a mill-turn operation where you\u2019re cutting with multiple spindles simultaneously,\nyou need an advanced set of in taking advantage of the capabilities from CAM\nsoftware to simulate that and drive individual code through the machining.\nOtherwise, you\u2019re merely creating a more complex simple machining center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, to take\nadvantage of that, you need to have software like our CAM software, where we\ncut our teeth on high-capacity multi-function, very complex, five, six and\nseven-axis machining centers, and now roll that knowledge down into the\nconventional machine shops in an unmatched way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, in addressing the skilled labor shortage, the baby boom generation is moving out of the workforce and being replaced by more technology-savvy individuals who have less experience in conventional machine shop and machining center operation. So, the reliance on the digital twin and digitalization<\/a> strategy that a manufacturing company or machine builder has is becoming crucial to younger workers who understand how the technology fits. However, what they’re trying to learn is how to turn this cool technology into real parts. So, fortunately, we have the suite of products from the digitalization process that helps to fill that gap that’s being provided by the exiting skilled labor workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blake:<\/em><\/strong> When you’re talking about these\ncomplex machine centers and being smarter with the challenges of manufacturing\noperations to maximize quality in assembly and in commissioning, what are the\nright solutions that we use to implement it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill:<\/em><\/strong> Good question, but let\u2019s first\ndiscuss quality solutions that are important to manufacturers. Whether it’s an\nassembly processor running a machining center, the quality we care about\npertains to people, process and product. Those are the three overarching\nprinciples in the quality scheme. Also, to ensure the process can handle the\nrequirements specified by our part and know the product can meet its\nrequirements from a performance and durability perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However,\nregardless of the manufacturing process, we need quality on the people side and\nprocess side. These are ingrained in your processes so that it isn\u2019t just an\noutput, quality is about maximizing throughput and quality in the assembly and\ncommissioning phase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, with the digital twin we leverage operations as an essential part of finding solutions and driving out waste and cost. A portion of it is the bill of process and the manufacturing bill of material. Also, there\u2019s a need to build quality into the bill of process as it\u2019s the recipe for manufacturing or assembling the components in preparation for commissioning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We need an\nassembly process and material list from the manufacturing bill of material\nlinked to the engineering bill of material, allowing us to look backward to drive\nback into the machine shop and supply chain for delivery requirements. This prevents us from starting over with every\nconfiguration and variant. It\u2019s crucial to link the bill of process and the\nmanufacturing bill of material back to the engineering bill that created it, to\nprevent this process for every new machine on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blake: <\/strong>Great insight. Again, we thank Bill Davis for informing us about the smart manufacturing<\/em> industry and its effect on parts manufacturing. We look forward to the next and final podcast in this series when we discuss how to make your factory smarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To learn more\nabout the competitive advantages of smart manufacturing for industrial\nmachinery, listen to all of our smart manufacturing podcast<\/a>s<\/a> or begin reading the first blog<\/a> in this series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This concludes the seventh blog in a series on smart manufacturing and the trends affecting the industry. Our final blog will continue to spotlight the last excerpt from the transcribed conversation of the original podcast, providing solutions for where today meets tomorrow. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n About our expert:<\/strong> Industrial machinery in manufacturing is witnessing dynamic technological advancements. 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Bill Davis<\/em><\/strong> is the acting Industrial Machinery and Heavy Equipment Industry leader for Siemens Digital Industries Software. His experience and insights have been acquired from a career spanning 30 years in engineering and operations management with machinery and heavy equipment companies. Bill holds a master\u2019s degree in Business Administration from Marquette University, with a concentration in Operations Management and Strategic Marketing<\/a>, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Milwaukee School<\/a> of Engineering.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"