Digital Transformation

More than a dozen places to accelerate industrial digital transformation

The Siemens Automate 2024 booth included an array of automation hardware and software designed to accelerate digital transformation efforts, the company said at the Automate 2024 event by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago.

Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering
Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering

 

Learning Objectives

  • Learn about automation technologies and innovations that help digital transformation.
  • Understand ways automation helps digital thread, smart manufacturing and other manufacturing optimization initiatives.
  • Explore new software as a service offerings for engineering design, manufacturing operations, simulation announced after the Automate 2024 show.

 

Automate 2024: Digital transformation insights

  • Automation technologies can help digital transformation, as demonstrated in the Siemens booth at Automate 2024.
  • Automation helps digital thread, smart manufacturing and other manufacturing optimization initiatives.
  • New Siemens software as a service (SaaS) offerings for engineering design, manufacturing operations, simulation announced after the Automate 2024 show.

Industrial automation and software can accelerate digital transformation in more than a dozen ways, as demonstrated in the Siemens booth, at Automate 2024 event by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Also, below, see May news about expansion of Siemens Xcelerator as a Service offerings. The Automate 2024 booth included the following automation technologies and applications.

Automation technologies, innovations help digital transformation

The following technologies were highlighted at the Siemens Automate 2024 booth:

  • Robotic CNC integration

  • Drivetrain digitalization

  • Plant and process simulation for manufacturing

  • AI-driven picking robot

  • High-performance and general-purpose drives, ethernet connectivity

  • Controllers, efficient HMI engineering and safety

  • Industrial networks

  • Identification and locating

  • Industrial edge

  • Shopfloor production optimization

  • Shopfloor machine integration

  • Digital services and predictive maintenance.

Figure 1: Siemens Xcelerator software can help create and organize the digital thread of smart warehouse operations. Shown are inbound receiving and sortation, package intake and in-plant logistics, package outbound preparation and distribution, intelligent warehouse operations management, flexible operation execution, data collection and contextualization, as well as throughput analysis and asset performance as shown in the Siemens booth, at Automate 2024 event by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering
Figure 1: Siemens Xcelerator software can help create and organize the digital thread of smart warehouse operations. Shown are inbound receiving and sortation, package intake and in-plant logistics, package outbound preparation and distribution, intelligent warehouse operations management, flexible operation execution, data collection and contextualization, as well as throughput analysis and asset performance as shown in the Siemens booth, at Automate 2024 event by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering

Automation helps digital thread, smart manufacturing, more

Siemens also integrated what it called the innovation hub, discussing and demonstrating:

  • Siemens Xcelerator Digital Thread

  • Smart manufacturing

  • Generative AI for manufacturing

  • Secure IT/OT convergence

  • Decarbonization in a brownfield

  • IT-like automation engineering

  • Software-defined automation.

Expanded software as a service for engineering design, manufacturing operations, simulation

Figure 2: Siemens Simatic S7-1200 G2 PLC, “setting a new standard in basic automation,” is said to offer efficient motion control, flexible machine safety, and increased performance and reliability, as shown at the Siemens booth, at Automate 2024 event by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. In the U.S., Siemens offers S7-1200 starter kits. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering
Figure 2: Siemens Simatic S7-1200 G2 PLC, “setting a new standard in basic automation,” is said to offer efficient motion control, flexible machine safety, and increased performance and reliability, as shown at the Siemens booth, at Automate 2024 event by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. In the U.S., Siemens offers S7-1200 starter kits. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering

In separate news, a Siemens Digital Industries Software May 14 press release, announced expansion of the Siemens Xcelerator as a Service offering of product and lifecycle management, cloud-based high-performance simulation and manufacturing operations management capabilities as follows.

  • NX X is a new cloud-based solution for product engineering.

  • Opcenter X software is a new, more accessible, SaaS solution for manufacturing operations management (MOM).

  • Simcenter X is a new SaaS solution that delivers capabilities of Siemens Simcenter simulation and test solutions, on the cloud.

  • Teamcenter X Essentials is the most affordable way to access Teamcenter X, the Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

  • Zel X is a next-generation browser-based engineering app for streamlining manufacturing and shop-floor operations.

Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering, WTWH Media, [email protected].

Written by

Mark T. Hoske

Mark Hoske has been Control Engineering editor/content manager since 1994 and in a leadership role since 1999, covering all major areas: control systems, networking and information systems, control equipment and energy, and system integration, everything that comprises or facilitates the control loop. He has been writing about technology since 1987, writing professionally since 1982, and has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from UW-Madison.