Siemens Industrial Edge Ecosystem Improves Quality And Expands Capacity

Octopuses in the deep sea have about 33,000 sets of genes, and their neurons are distributed in flexible tentacles. This distributed intelligence enables each tentacle to process information independently and respond quickly. This is the essence of edge computing.

Just as the tentacles of an octopus can make quick decisions far away from the brain, edge computing also pushes the ability to process and analyze data from centralized data centers to the edge of the network, where data is generated. In the industrial field, edge computing has become a bridge between IT and OT. It can maximize the value of data, help companies gain a deeper understanding of the status of production machines, optimize processes, and achieve quality and efficiency improvements.

Entering a new stage of future production, the construction of the industrial edge ecosystem is particularly important. Faced with challenges such as rising costs, labor shortages, imbalance between supply and demand, and resource pressure, automated production, as the key to improving production efficiency and reducing costs, also needs to transform to a new stage. From automation to adaptive automation, and even to the ultimate realization of fully autonomous automation, in this transformation journey, Siemens is well aware that the power of a single enterprise is limited, while the power of the ecosystem is unlimited. This requires the industry to work together to create an open, diverse, and win-win ecosystem.

This concept was vividly interpreted at the 4th Siemens Industrial Edge Ecosystem Conference held recently. The conference not only brought together many ecological partners to jointly explore the future direction of the industrial edge, but also worked with the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform to continuously expand products and solutions, integrate cutting-edge IT technologies and mature software operation methods into automation technology, and further promote the integration of IT and OT, making industrial production more autonomous and resilient, and flexibly responding to market fluctuations and unknown challenges, leading industrial enterprises to a new stage of adaptive production and future production. At the same time, Siemens also joined hands with a number of ecological partners to showcase the results of co-creation, demonstrating the power of the industrial ecosystem.

Innovation is an indispensable driving force in the construction of edge ecology. Siemens has a mature and complete industrial edge product architecture, including the Industrial Edge Center (IE Hub), the Industrial Edge Management Platform (IEM), and the Industrial Edge Device (IED), which meet the diverse needs of different industrial scenarios.

Among them, the Industrial Edge Information Integration Platform (IIH) provides extensive connections for more than 250 devices including Siemens and third-party devices, and has scalable IT and OT integration capabilities, which greatly saves the workload of OT and IT system integration.

The Industrial Edge Management Platform (IEM) can support multiple delivery forms, including IEM Virtual, IEM Pro, and IEM Cloud, to meet the business needs of users in more scenarios. Among them, IEM Cloud is provided to users in the form of cloud-based software as a service (SaaS). IEM Pro is deployed based on the Kurbernetes environment to meet users' operation and maintenance requirements for system reliability and security such as high availability and redundancy. The IEM operating system can also be provided as an OVA file and can be installed as a virtual machine.

Industrial edge equipment (IED), 3 types of edge hardware have been expanded to more than 10 types, not only to meet different computing power needs: IPC 127E, 227E, 427E, 847E, 227G, BX39A and other physical hardware equipment, but also virtual edge equipment Industrial Edge Virtual Device (IEVD) meets the diverse needs of different users in different scenarios.

What's more worth mentioning is that Siemens' industrial edge platform also integrates cutting-edge technologies such as low-code, artificial intelligence, and virtual simulation. The application of these technologies not only fully taps the potential value of data, but also greatly improves the intelligence of production operations. , high efficiency and transparency, solving the pain points in production that are difficult to solve with traditional automation technology for enterprises.

Especially in terms of artificial intelligence, Siemens' scalable industrial artificial intelligence architecture enables model release, iteration and management from the cloud to the edge, which can significantly improve factory efficiency. Through the AI ​​model management suite tools, including AI SDK, AI Model Manager, Vision connector and AI Inference Server, Siemens provides data scientists and automation engineers with a complete solution from model creation to running to accelerate the application of industrial artificial intelligence at the edge. Deployment and application.

The newly upgraded technical framework also supports the deployment of more and more powerful AI applications. At present, the number of standard edge and AI applications has grown to more than 40, which not only supports data connection and collection, but also supports data analysis and display, integrates visual inspection, equipment operation and maintenance, process optimization and other artificial intelligence algorithm models, and comprehensively assists enterprises in their digital transformation.

Based on a complete set of software and hardware product architecture, Siemens is working with various partners to build an open edge ecosystem. By sharing resources and complementing each other's strengths, Siemens is working with multiple application development partners, solution partners and engineering service partners from the OT and IT fields to build a powerful and innovative industrial ecosystem. This ecosystem takes the industrial edge as its core, deeply integrates innovative technologies into industrial applications, and injects new momentum into digital transformation.

Siemens understands that different industries face unique challenges and needs. Therefore, Siemens adopts a strategy of equal emphasis on vertical cultivation and horizontal expansion. Vertically, Siemens is deeply involved in industries and accurately meets the pain points and needs of key industries such as automobiles, electronic batteries, food and beverages, logistics and environmental protection. Take Dazhi Technology, which serves leading customers in the fields of automobile manufacturing, core parts production, and high-end equipment manufacturing, as an example. Through in-depth cooperation with Siemens Industrial Edge, Dazhi Technology can provide customized data application solutions to industry customers. plan. For example, in the predictive maintenance scenario of automotive equipment, by building an equipment predictive maintenance system based on the edge cloud platform and using high-frequency data collection and AI self-learning technology to achieve early warning of equipment failures and reduce the number of inspections, it can significantly Improve operation and maintenance efficiency.

Horizontally, Siemens adheres to an open and cooperative attitude and has established in-depth cooperative relationships with many companies to jointly explore new boundaries of industrial automation and create a series of innovative application scenario solutions based on the industrial edge, covering data transparency, IT/OT data integration, Five scenarios: intelligent operation and maintenance, process quality optimization, energy saving and carbon reduction. The implementation of these solutions has further promoted the digital transformation of thousands of industries.

Especially in the scenario of energy conservation and carbon reduction, Siemens has launched edge computing-based energy management and energy conservation and carbon reduction solutions, including real-time monitoring and optimization of factory energy consumption, closed-loop control of VOCs waste gas treatment, intelligent group control and industrial equipment Parameter optimization and intelligent garbage sorting technology. These solutions can help companies achieve green and low-carbon production, improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and contribute to environmental protection.

Behind a series of scenario solutions, the openness of Siemens' industrial edge ecosystem is the key to attracting many partners and customers. This platform not only provides partners and customers with strong technical support, but also promotes the sharing of technology and resources, greatly accelerating the incubation of innovative results. So far, 30 industrial edge partners have been certified as "Digital Value-Added Partners" by Siemens, covering production line integration, application development, software architecture, data analysis and other fields.

The continuous evolution of the industrial edge and the deep integration of Siemens Xcelerator are providing strong support for enterprises to cope with increasingly complex market environments and operational challenges. With the iteration and update of industrial edge products, the expansion of application scenarios, and the implementation of more solutions, the construction of the edge ecosystem will be injected with more vitality.

In this process, Siemens actively cooperates with partners in depth, covering multiple dimensions such as technology, platform, software and hardware, and jointly promotes the implementation of the industrial edge in more industries and scenarios. This cooperation is like the precise meshing of gears, which will further promote the efficient operation of the entire ecosystem and continuously generate new momentum.

In the future, Siemens' industrial edge ecosystem will continue to expand its boundaries and depth. By introducing more industry partners and integrating resources from multiple parties, it aims to build a more open, diverse and win-win ecosystem, so that every company can give full play to its maximum value and jointly promote the continuous transformation of industrial automation towards the future.