To take what it calls the Fourth Industrial Revolution from concept to reality, Siemens staged its annual U.S. Innovation Day on March 27 at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) in Chicago. The event featured interactive exhibits and showcased real-world applications of digital solutions enabling users across the company’s largest market to reduce costs, increase speed, develop new business models and improve the quality of life for millions of citizens.
Youngsters and their families play with some of the interactive exhibits during Siemens U.S. Innovation Day 2018 at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) in Chicago.
Siemens also highlighted:- Eight new U.S.-based MindSphere Application Centers for digital applications that transform data into real value for customers;
- More than $1 billion annual investment in U.S. R&D and a $175 million increase in R&D spending year-over-year; and
- Hundreds of job openings for talented software developers, programmers, and cloud and data scientists.
For instance, Chicago is reported to be one customer that's saved millions of dollars by retrofitting its water supply with Siemens technology. In addition, Siemens teamed with Microsoft to integrate alternative energy sources for cleaner and more efficient data center operations, helping establish the world’s first zero-carbon, waste-to-power data center in Cheyenne, Wyo. With Atlanta Streetcar, Siemens established a predictive maintenance program that puts more intelligence behind data points to reduce delays for streetcar riders as well as save energy. Additionally, Siemens is teaming up with Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) to help build and test software that will allow the utility to manage clusters of microgrids simultaneously.
“With the arrival of the IoT in industry and infrastructure, many organizations are still trying to understand how to incorporate digital strategies into their business models,” said Roland Busch, CTO and managing board member at Siemens AG. “Siemens has reinvented itself into one of the world’s top 10 software companies, and is continuing to expand its digital capabilities. With our MindSphere Application Centers, we’re combining deep expertise in automation and electrification with our unique industrial software offering to enable our customers to leverage digital solutions for their specific needs.”