Siemens and SAP have agreed to offer each other’s industrial production software as complementary solutions in an integrated Industry 4.0 offer, enabling a digital thread between lifecycle management and business operations.
SAP will offer Siemens’ cloud-based Teamcenter software to customers as the core foundation for product lifecycle collaboration and product data management. Teamcenter allows industrial users to edit product data and processes, including digital designs, embedded software, documentation, and bill of materials, in a live format, effectively, to cascade changes across design, production, and supply chain.
By turn, Siemens will offer SAP’s asset, project, and portfolio management solutions, bundled into its SAP S/4HANA enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for large enterprises, to enable “new collaborative processes between manufacturers and operators”.
The pair have billed the integrated offer as the “first truly integrated and enhanced” solution for product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain, service and asset management. “This will enable customers to form a true digital thread integrating all virtual models and simulations of a product or asset with real-time business information, feedback and performance data over the entire lifecycle,” they said.
The pair said in a statement: “Silos between engineering and business have existed in enterprises for decades. This new partnership will help customers to break down these silos so manufacturers, product design teams, and service managers have the information needed to quickly create and manage customer-centric product and service offerings.”
Klaus Helmrich, chief executive of Siemens’ digital industries division, said: “This collaboration is about more than just interoperability and interfaces; it is about creating a truly integrated digital thread that unites product and asset lifecycle management with the business that enables customers to optimize production of products.”
Thomas Saueressig, head of product engineering at SAP, said: “Bringing together expertise from SAP and Siemens to offer Industry 4.0-enabled business processes allows enterprises to create a digital thread for the entire product and asset lifecycle. With this end-to-end solution, teams across the business network can efficiently work together to design and deliver innovative products productively, profitably and sustainably.”
Bob Parker, senior vice president of industry research at IDC, said: “The IT benefits of pre-integration of PLM, ERP, asset management and supply chain applications and the business benefits from having a more resilient response to changing market demand make this a compelling consideration for companies seeking a competitive advantage in the digital economy.”
Meanwhile, Siemens and US-based industrial software company Bentley Systems, in which Siemens has a minority stake, have announced they will develop the first petrochemical digital twin in Indonesia for Chandra Asri, the country’s largest integrated petrochemical complex. Capacity at Chandra Asri’s petrochemical complex in Cilegon City is set to double in the next five years,
The digital twin will show data about plant assets and engineering to improve site management and reduce risk. The digital twin will use Siemens’ COMOS plant engineering software and Bentley Systems’ AssetWise asset management software, as well as its OpenPlant and ProSteel engineering design tools. PlantSight is the digital twin solution for the process industry jointly developed with Siemens.
Development and implementation of the digital twin will take place in phases through to 2025. FKA Global is signed up as systems integration partner for the project.
Erwin Ciputra, president director at Chandra Asri, said: “Having a trusted and reliable partner will set us apart from others and bring strategic advantage to our position in the market, as we embark on our digital transformation journey, aligned with Indonesia’s Industry 4.0 outlook. Our petrochemical complex expansion to meet Indonesia’s growing demand will benefit from digitalised end-to-end operations.”
Eckard Eberle, chief executive of process automation at Siemens, remarked: “Our COMOS brownfield enablement methodology supports Chandra Asri to transform their disparate, analog plant data into an automated digital twin framework, making the plant more efficient and cost-effective. This will help Chandra Asri to further enhance its digital transformation journey.”
