Siemens Automation Summit 2016 steers users through digital transformation

Aug. 15, 2016
More than 600 visitors attend more than 60 breakout presentation and 14 hand-on training sessions at annual event.

There’s no doubt digitalization, software, Internet networking and smart manufacturing are altering industry. The only question is how huge the changes will be, and who can help you take advantage of them? “Advanced manufacturing is driving the discrete and process industries,” says Klaus Helmrich, member of the managing board at Siemens AG. “What Siemens has is a clear concept about taking that transformation into the digital arena.”

Helmrich delivered the keynote address, “Advanced Manufacturing—Driving the Digital Enterprise,” at the opening of Siemens Automation Summit 2016 on June 28 in Las Vegas.

“Digitalization is changing business, and software is changing everything,” adds Helmrich. “We all enjoy these mainstream technologies, but they’re also knocking on the doors of our discrete and process industries, and making them faster and more efficient.”

Physical, virtual worlds synch up

[sidebar id =1]One startling aspect of digitalization is it’s creating full consistency between virtual and real worlds, eliminating traditional hurdles, and shortening the path between digital design and models, and physical production of the items and products they represent. “This is digital enterprise production,” explains Helmrich. “If you’ve developed a new beverage innovation, for example, digitalization means you can scale it up much faster from product design to process and plant design to engineering and commissioning and onward to operations and servicing. This quick cycle from design through  engineering, operations and service is happening on both the process and discrete sides of industry. However, whether it’s called Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industrie 4.0, it’s all digital enterprise production, and Siemens is present along the whole value chain with our industrial software and automation portfolio, industrial communications, industrial security and industrial services.”

Helmrich adds that Industrie 4.0’s two core elements are horizontal, with end-to-end integration that extends from supplier to customer as they interact with each product design, and vertical as those designs are integrated along every step in the production process and supply chain. “On the process side, DuPont is minimizing production risk with virtual plant functions, such as running simulations with our Simit software, and then automating with our Simatic PCS 7 control system. This application communicates via Profibus to electrical equipment from Siemens including fixed- and variable-speed motors. All of this gives DuPont a single point of contact for automation, electrical and fire-detection systems.”

Summit of innovations

In other news at Siemens Automation Summit 2016, members of the Siemens Process Automation Advisory Council and Product Requirements Working Group—Dow Chemical, DuPont, Air Products, aeSolutions and Pigler Automation—showed how they helped develop the latest edition of Siemens’ Simatic PCS 7 control system, Version 8.2, with Logic Matrix process interlock tool. “We estimate time savings of 15-20% by using Logic Matrix for project programming,” says Guy Burnaman, A&PC manufacturing technology manager at DuPont Performance Materials.

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Siemens also announced winners of its 11th annual Customer Excellence Awards (CEA), recognizing the achievements of customers and partners that exemplify superior business practices using Siemens’ technologies and solutions. The winners are:

Ford Motor Co., which worked with Siemens to implement IP65 distributed control systems at more than 30 plants to reduce cabinet and equipment footprints, rebalance production lines, and standardize training;

Constellation Brands, which partnered with Siemens to expand capacity, add automation platforms, and increase efficiency at its brewery in Piedras Negras, Mexico. The project included Simatic PLCs, PCS7, HMI panels, SCADA software, industrial networks, low-voltage VFDs, motor control centers and motors, and instrumentation and services.

Jack Daniel’s Distillery increased production by upgrading computers and operator interface at its existing distillery to Siemens PCS 7 APACS+ OS, and built a new distillery with PCS 7 Simatic batch and Route Control software, as well as Siemens preconfigured SiVaaS virtualized computer system architecture to reduce system maintenance and support future expansion.

For more on Siemens Automation Summit 2016, see Control's full coverage of the event