Siemens debuts new DCS, organization

“Integration is the challenge—you can’t just bolt on newly acquired technology.” Siemens’ Raj Batra stressed the importance of “meet points” between traditionally siloed software applications, even when purchased from the same supplier.

More than 700 delegates—a new attendance record—descended on the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center outside Denver for the 2019 Siemens Automation Summit. With an agenda driven by users of the company’s industrial automation solutions, the Summit has become a key educational and networking event for companies looking to further optimize their investments in the Siemens ecosystem. It’s also an important opportunity to hear from company leadership about recent developments and vision going forward. 

Two significant developments took center stage at the Summit: 

• The formation on April 1st of Siemens Digital Industries, a new organization that brings together Siemens’ global capabilities focused on the automation and digitalization of process, hybrid and discrete manufacturing industries.

• The launch of SIMATIC PCS neo, a new distributed control system (DCS) that leverages web technologies to deliver improved usability, scalability and global collaboration. 

Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and simulation-based digital twins are driving change across industry at an unprecedented rate, said Raj Batra, president of Digital Industries, U.S., in the Summit’s opening keynote address. Voice assistance technologies like Siri and Alexa will make their presence felt in industry, Batra said, as part of a 1,000% annual growth rate in their use projected over the next five years. “Digital twins in particular, tuned by AI, can do things that people can’t.” 

“You’ll see artificial increasingly intertwined in industry,” Batra predicted. And industry will no longer be satisfied with the delayed gratification of long project cycles. “Industry now has expectations in line with consumers,” Batra added. “It’s ROI now, not in seven years.”

“Speed and scale are keys to success in the digital age,” Batra said. 

Read the full overview of the 2019 Siemens Automation Summit.