Siemens is offering a digital twin from Germany-based DMG MORI for machine tool processing on its Xcelerator marketplace for industrial-change applications. The announcement is significant, arguably, because it brings together two of the leading Germany-based protagonists in the global Industry 4.0 game, in the form industrial juggernaut Siemens and machine tool manufacturer DMG MORI. The latter, it might be noted, has been a long-time champion of collaborative operating technology (OT) solutions through its work with the Software AG-led ADAMOS collective.
The ADAMOS project, which corralled a stable of industrial progressives around novel co-creation practices (ADAptive Manufacturing Open Solutions), has since morphed into the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, with the likes of Beckhoff, Busch, Fujitsu, KUKA, Microsoft, NTT Data, SAP, Schneider Electric, TRUMPF, and Weber. Siemens is also engaged in the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, and the firm’s Xcelerator platform, launched last year, is in line with its ethos to collaborate on new OT solutions – albeit with Siemens as the gatekeeper.
As of March 2023, the platform had over 70 “portfolio elements”, totalling more than 400 offerings from Siemens and partners, according to ARC Advisory Group; in a undated research note, it states that the total number of partner offerings had since increased to 88, with 20 partners in the process of onboarding and 230-odd requests from partners in the pipe. It said the ecosystem has been expanded to include small and mid-sized firms, as well (divided into three categories: ‘build & sell’, ‘consult & service’, ‘enable & run’).
NVIDIA was among its highest-profile early-partners on the Xcelerator platform; its Omniverse software for artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics is being plugged into Siemens’ own digital twin tools. DMG MORI is the first machine tool maker to join; it is part of its Industrial Operations X suite of applications for manufacturing. At launch last year, the Xcelerator portfolio was geared towards food and beverage, healthcare, and commercial buildings; it has since opened to cover pharmaceuticals, data centers, power utilities, higher education, and water management.
ARC Group says Siemens will expand the offering to include vertical solutions for automotive, oil and gas, chemical, and electronics manufacturing, plus for airports, ports, logistics, and other sectors – to the point the entire Industry 4.0 discipline is covered. The plan from Siemens is to offer a curated portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware and software as “modular, cloud-connected [applications] built on standard application programming interfaces”, it said. ARC Group called it “an important step in the growing array of platforms available to industry users”.
Over 60 percent of production output from Germany’s machine-building industry is exported, noted Siemens;DMG MORI is a key player in the sector. The partnership between the firms combines a virtual copy of DMG MORI’s “customer-specific” machine tool, a virtual copy of Siemens’ popular Sinumerik One computerized numerical control (CNC) system, and a virtual copy of the customer’s workpiece. DMG MORI’s digital twin “allows up to 40 percent faster ramp-up times”, it said, and “significantly reduces” energy consumption.
Siemens went on: “This offering helps minimize unproductive testing on the machine by up to 75 percent, by shifting non-productive tasks to the virtual realm. It helps customers avoid programming errors that can lead to defects and damage on the real machine and thus makes the production 100 percent collision free. The significance of this achievement lies not only in the technology itself, but also in the partnership… Siemens and DMG MORI have brought their… expertise and technologies into a… solution that paves the way for a connected industrial future.”
Roland Busch, president and chief executive at Siemens, said: “We are shaping the future of an open ecosystem that seamlessly links domain expertise with cutting-edge technology… This collaboration exemplifies our dedication to competitiveness, sustainability, and the industrial metaverse… It not only transforms the manufacturing landscape, but also makes a digital twin of an entire process accessible for small and medium-sized businesses embarking on their own digital transformation.”
Masahiko Mori, president at DMG MORI, said: “Digital transformation will have a significant impact on the manufacturing process chain in the future. With the end-to-end interaction of intelligent machine tools and digital products and services, DMG MORI is creating unique data transparency across the entire shop floor for our customers as part of our ‘machining transformation’. The DMG MORI Digital Twin is a significant part of the digital transformation process – [which] will be accelerated further by the partnership with Siemens.”
