International: Essence of digital enterprise: Three types of digital twins

Stone Shi, Control Engineering ChinaStone Shi,

Three types of digital twins

Use of factory digitalization is expected to result in nearly double the production capacity, 20% less product launch time, 20% increase in personnel utilization and 40% increase in space utilization.

Digital is driving many changes in the manufacturing industries, and a major manufacturer and automation supplier is showing how it’s done. With flexible and efficient production, shorter time to market and better product quality, digitization is making these manufacturing visions reality for products, production and performance.

Siemens, among the originators and builders of “Industry 4.0,” uses digital enterprises as a market strategy. In April 2019, Siemens completed the merger of its Digital Factory (DF)and Process Industries and Drives (PD) divisions to become Siemens Digital Industries (DI) with a focus on digital business.

From 2014 to 2020, Siemens has enhanced digital enterprises through six years of exploration and practice. It has mature solutions and successful application cases, progressing from methodology to roadmap, digital twins, lifecycle digitalization, consulting and implementation. In early 2021, Siemens Digital Industries general managers explained the digital enterprise.

Products to performance

Wang Haibin, executive vice president of Siemens Ltd., China and general manager of Siemens Greater China Digital industries, said Siemens’ core value proposition and technical route is creating three types of digital twins through digital technologies: 1) product digital twins, using digital twins for efficient design of new products; 2) production digital twins, using digital twins in manufacturing and production planning; and 3) performance digital twins to capture, analyze and act on operational data. Wang Haibin said digital twin creation isn’t as important as the interconnection of data for the three digital twins. Design and operation of products or product lines generates a large amount of data. For enterprises, the important driving force of productivity and innovation is to compare if the design data is consistent with the actual operation data, amount of consistency, and what problems are explained if they are inconsistent, to drive the next iteration. Behind this interconnection lies the needs for industrial software, the underlying basic automation data, and the collection of data during operation, using technologies such as industrial internet, cloud and edge computing.

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INSIGHTS KEYWORDS: Industrial

digitalization, industrial digital twin

Digital twins can be applied and networked throughout the product lifecycle. Significant increase in factory throughput and product launch time result from digital twin use. CONSIDER THIS If a competitor nearly doubles capacity with a 40% increase in space utilization, and 20% gain in personnel utilization, will you compete? ONLINE www.controleng.com/articles/ digitalization-automationadvice-benefits/ www.controleng.com/ international Siemens helps create and interconnect the three digital twins in the value chain of product development and manufacturing processes and plant management. Siemens NX 3D and Teamcenter are software packages for product development, Comos is factory engineering design software; TIA Portal, Simatic IT, PSE, Mendix and MindSphere cloud platform serve performance areas. Siemens creates the integration of virtuality and reality and applies digital twins to the industrial scene and process in product development and workshop production. Digital twins have been implemented for several years in product 3D design simulation, process design simulation, digital delivery and virtual debugging. Fewer applications of digital twins achieve connectivity. Siemens has been applying the three digital twins to its factories.

Factory digital twin applications

Li Lei, general manager of Siemens CNC (Nanjing) Co. Ltd., said the first original digital chemical plant in China, the new SNC factory, with three digital twins as the core, was expected to be completed in May 2021. The factory has relied on Siemens’ own digital concepts and digital simulation technology. From demand analysis to plant construction and operation, the process is based on digital twins, and the processes are interconnected. The general database system collects all the data to simulate, test and adjust. During the operation process, the system also can be monitored in real time and finally feedback and optimized.

The SNC factory closely integrates product development and supply chain synergy management through digitalization and lean manufacturing. The three links of product digitization, production digitization and performance digitization in the new factory are connected, and a unified digital platform, unified database and unified simulation and analysis method are used, so if there are problems, they can be fed back to research and development (R&D), and the R&D team can improve and upgrade as needed.

Li Lei said the new SNC factory will achieve nearly double the production capacity, 20% reduction in product launch time, 20% increase in personnel utilization and 40% increase in space utilization. ce

Stone Shi is executive editor-in-chief, Control Engineering China. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media and Technology, mhoske@cfemedia.com.

Digitalization integrated, not just connected

Manufacturers today face fierce competition amid fast-changing consumer demands. Production speed, flexibility, and agility are crucial to staying competitive and profitable, while maintaining product quality, safety, and compliance. As the world’s leading automation provider, Siemens sees manufacturers facing these core challenges: 1. Accelerating time to market. Rising consumer expectations for new features and capabilities require manufacturers to innovatively develop and launch products inside ever-tightening market windows, despite increasing product complexity. 2. Reducing launch risk. Getting products launched, especially in highly regulated industries, can be filled with costly pitfalls. Speed cannot compromise quality and safety. 3. Enhancing flexibility. Consumers want variety as well as individualized products, and at mass-produced prices. Production has to be extremely flexible and producers need to be more agile. 4. Increasing quality. To ensure consistent quality as well as regulatory compliance, closed-loop quality processes with product traceability are needed. 5. Boosting efficiency. Not only do products need to be sustainable and environmentally friendly, but material and energy waste also must be minimized and output maximized. 6. Strengthening security. As manufacturers increasingly merge OT and IT networks, their vulnerability with cyber security grows. Layered, defense-in-depth safeguards must be put in place, tuned to the deterministic needs of factory production controls and automation. If well integrated, upgrades can help draw value from existing assets. However, manufacturers need to take into consideration outdated machinery and an aging workforce. Old machinery is often fully depreciated, and while these plant assets might function well enough, companies are incurring opportunity costs in terms of speed, flexibility, reliability, and visibility newer technologies can provide. The good news for manufacturers concerned about staying competitive and ensuring profitability is rapid technology advances in recent years have lowered and, in some cases, eliminated the high capital costs of plant upgrades needed to take advantage of end-to-end factory digitalization. The sooner industrial enterprises employ digitalization in their production operations, the sooner they can realize its many benefits. Today, it can provide a competitive advantage, while tomorrow, it will be required just to stay competitive.

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