If one zooms into the landscape of the manufacturing industry with a magnifying glass, the following inventory of the current state of digitalization can be seen:

There is a wide range of different degrees of transformation from the classic, automated enterprise to the digital enterprise, which is connected to the Internet of Things. This can be observed across all industries – from automotive, electronics, hygiene, pharmaceuticals as well as food and beverage.

To show the industries possible solution options on how digital transformation can ensure a faster start of production and to achieve a higher output as well as quality, we try to roughly divide the market into three segments.

Firstly, segmentation into those industries that are approaching the digital transformation of their machines and factories for the first time and do not know exactly how to start this, let us call them “Careful Innovators”.

Secondly, segmentation into those industries which have already started the journey of digitalization of their value chain but want to optimize further, let us call them “Lifting-Offs”.

Thirdly, segmentation into digitalization professionals. Industries that have already developed sophisticated strategies regarding the digital transformation and test new technologies in-house, so called “Early Disruptors”.

This article is aimed at industries that want to build on a future-proof investment, whether “Careful Innovators”, “Lifting-Offs” or “Early Disruptors”. An intelligent automation concept for every industry and requirement – this is what Totally Integrated Automation – Integration³ from Siemens promises.

How to start with the digital transformation? Solutions for Careful Innovators

To facilitate the start for Careful Innovators, the first step is to consult the industry – to look closely at the optimization potential. After all, preparation is the basic building block for getting the digital enterprise up and running. The selection of a reliable partner manufacturing industries can rely on. A partner with more than 60 years of know-how, a leading manufacturer of automation components, offering services around the globe. Siemens is the ideal partner here with its comprehensive automation portfolio “Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) including Digital Enterprise Services – from consulting along implementation and optimization.”.

TIA means that you get an integrated offer from the field through the control level, the operating level, the management level up to the cloud. All hardware, software and services from one single source, one supplier you have to contact only. For each industry – for the discrete, the process and hybrid industries tailored-fit solutions by usage of the TIA portfolio.

Simultaneously, TIA relies on an open system architecture with standard interfaces, such as OPC UA for a maximum of flexibility. This is important because standardization is the key to the digital enterprise.

With TIA you can expect extra values integrated free of charge.

For instance, TIA relies on an end-to-end engineering – from the mechanical design to the electrical layout and automation. To reduce costs as well as time and effort for you during the engineering phase.

Furthermore, transparency is essential at every level when you are thinking of a digital enterprise. Therefore, TIA relies on end-to-end consistency with powerful communication networks. No language barriers thanks to international, multi vendor, and platform-independent standards for a horizontal and vertical communication through to the cloud.

TIA strictly relies on integrated security and defense mechanisms, such as factory and network security, system integrity and security by design ensuring that your machines and factories are as secure as possible to protect your productivity.

And of course, safety functions are integrated in the TIA hardware for a compact and space-saving design. To protect man and the machine.

With TIA you get a perfect basis for collecting, processing and analyzing data of production. The transparency which is gained along with the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence turns data into real added value.

Furthermore, we accompany all industries step by step on their journey to the digital enterprise by consulting them along the entire value chain to ensure customized automation solutions to meet all demands. https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/topic-areas/tia/portfolio.html

How to optimize further? Solutions for Lifting-offs

For those who have already started to digitalize their machines, lines and factories as well as the associated production processes and would like to optimize even further, we recommend our pre-configured solution packages, the TIA Use Cases.

With the TIA Use Cases – tailor-made automation solutions for every industry – you receive an all-round carefree package. Because the solutions are perfectly matched to your digitalization requirements. Their added value is reduced complexity in the automation of processes and the associated faster production start.

How do we achieve this? By seamlessly connecting the shop floor – the OT level – with the management level – the IT level – by standardized interfaces. With our solutions, the TIA Use Cases which are scalable from machine, line up to the factory level, you get for each automation project a customized solution. This ensures continuous transparency over the data in your production and by this to make the appropriate decisions for increasing your productivity.

A concrete example would be the TIA Use Case “Data processing for OT-IT integration”. With this we provide you with different options to collect, visualize and analyze data in the machine, line and factory. This is possible with Industrial Edge Computing and / or Cloud Computing. These options vary depending on the scope and requirements of the industry and can be a mixture of both technologies. Of course, all this is covered by the comprehensive security protection of Siemens.

Our Customer, the Henkel AG, has implemented another solution for analyzing data – by usage of the TIA Use Case “Line integration” with standardized interfaces based on OPC UA and Profinet and the function “Line management” he has been able to connect the shop floor with the IT-environment. As a result, Henkel can read machine data from production and thus derive potential for improvement which in turn can be incorporated into the development of new machines. https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/topic-areas/tia/it-ot-connection.html

How to test new technologies? Solutions for Early Disruptors

Are you among those who call themselves early Disruptors? Who are constantly looking for new technologies and are eager to experiment to bring products and solutions to market faster?

You should therefore rely on the automation concept – Totally Integrated Automation. We research new technologies of tomorrow and integrate them step by step into our TIA automation portfolio so that you are always up to date with the latest technology and can derive new business models.

One proof of concept example for a new business model based on the latest technology is supported maintenance with augmented reality (AR). This example shows how maintenance with AR is pretty easy and fast. Why? Because there is no additional training of personnel necessary. Knowledge is provided on demand. The personnel is guided to the location of fault and all relevant information about the fault is displayed. This saves enormous costs and time.

Another proof of concept is artificial-intelligence-based engineering. By this, machines can make decisions independently. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology placed in an automated manufacturing process, the neural network can learn what distinguishes an error pattern even during operation. This goes with the machine learning to use the data from the process to train the AI and thus optimizing machine processes by re-training the AI. In this case, the usage of machine learning reduces the programming effort and shows how a production process can be optimized. Furthermore, you achieve significant increase in efficiency and flexibility. https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/topic-areas/tia/future-topics.html

If you would like to find out more what a digital transformation could look like in your company, don’t hesitate to contact our Siemens service experts today. https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/services/digital-enterprise-services.html

With Totally Integrated Automation you have a secure investment in the future, no matter how the world develops, and which technologies will be relevant tomorrow. We think all this into our TIA automation portfolio today and integrate new technologies step by step for your competitiveness. https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/topic-areas/tia.html

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