Siemens' path to the world's first native digital factory

Siemens CNC (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. (SNC) officially opened its new factory. This is Siemens' first fully integrated native digital factory in the world, and it is also an excellent "answer sheet" written by Siemens for the "professional examination" of building a digital factory.

Siemens' path to the world's first native digital factory

In 1996, the long-awaited SNC landed in Jinling. However, with the rapid growth of business over the past 20 years, SNC's original old factory capacity can no longer fully absorb the strong demand of shopping malls, and it is imperative to build a new factory. As a leader and practitioner of Industry 4.0, Siemens once again chose to build a lean digital factory in China on the basis of advanced experience in digital factory planning and operation.

The construction of SNC's new plant was not an easy task. As early as 2005, the old factory systematically implemented lean production, by minimizing or even eliminating the waste of various processes such as handling, waiting, processing, inventory, etc., analyzing the best production process, planning the optimal logistics route, just like the "foundation" of the building, laying a solid foundation for automation and digitalization to improve quality and efficiency. However, how to further use digital skills to give wings to lean and improve the central competitiveness of enterprises is undoubtedly a challenge for factories.

As we all know, the operation of a factory is a dynamic process, and fluctuations in various factors such as orders, personnel, equipment, and supply chain will have an impact on the operation of the factory. Faced with such a messy plant, the best solution plan is to eliminate all possible problems at the beginning. Therefore, at the beginning of the voyage, the planning of the digital factory is like a nautical chart, helping the enterprise to avoid the reef and successfully reach the opposite shore of digitalization.

With the help of Siemens' digital know-how, Siemens Ai Xianda built a complete digital twin of the plant as early as the conceptual planning phase of the new factory at SNC. Based on the future needs of the shopping mall, Siemens Aixianda can quickly verify the impact of different production strategies on the future factory through value stream simulation, and then select the optimal plan. After the detailed planning is completed, the factory management can even wear VR glasses to "walk" into the factory of the future and visit the operation scene of the factory "on the spot". And all this, after all, will help the factory to carry out the resolution plan more efficiently and scientifically.

For the first time, SNC's new factory integrates an electronics factory and an electrical machine factory in the same production base, and the raw materials, production process requirements, and production organization methods of these two categories of products are very different. From the perspective of warehousing alone, due to the large differences in the packaging methods and material containers of the two products, the management clutter of warehousing and logistics distribution will increase linearly. Under Ai Xianda's planning, this problem was easily solved at the beginning of the planning stage.

"Siemens Ai Xianda uses digital twin technology to simulate and model the planning plan of the new factory of the future, and quickly simulate the operation of the factory of the future in a virtual environment, so as to avoid problems that may arise in the actual operation process during the planning stage," said Shi Jianwei, Vice President and Global Partner of Siemens Ai Xianda Consulting. At the same time, combined with the BIM model of the plant, it can more efficiently evaluate the impact of the plant structure on the layout, quickly adjust the plan, and achieve the perfect combination of the factory layout and the plant structure planning. As a result, we have reduced the total time from planning to operation by almost one-third compared to traditional factory planning. ”

SNC's demand for the construction of new digital factories is also a microcosm of many Chinese industrial enterprises. How to build a future-proof digital factory to meet the challenges of shopping malls? What does the optimal material flow and layout look like for the factory of the future? How can digital skills be used to accelerate the planning of new factories? How to find the best planning plan? All of this makes it difficult for business managers to make the right decisions in a short period of time.

Factory planning itself is a chaotic process of multi-system collaborative coupling, Siemens Ai Xianda can use scientific digital factory planning methodology, blending lean, automation and digitalization, so that before the factory pours the first tank of concrete, managers can complete the "construction" of the factory in the virtual world, clearly know the best logistics channel, the best use of resources and the most efficient production mode in the workshop, and the "appearance" of the future digital factory and the expected effects of digitalization are clearly presented to the decision planners.

After the implementation of digital transformation, SNC's production power has increased by 20%, the time to market has been reduced by 25%, and the flexible production capacity has been greatly increased by 30%. From the introduction of Germany skills to the completion of localized development, the rhythm of SNC's development just "harmonizes" with the tune of China's intelligent production strategy.

Looking at the entire industrial community in China, not all manufacturing enterprises have the ability and opportunity to build a digital factory from scratch. More factories of manufacturing enterprises have been in operation for many years, and there are generally inefficient production capacity, low degree of digitalization, high production costs, serious waste, and low factory operating power, which seriously affects the profits and benefits of enterprises, and digital transformation is imminent.

Faced with this situation, Siemens Aixianda also has a complete set of solutions. After a general assessment of the current situation of the customer's factory from the three dimensions of lean, automation and digitalization, we assist the customer in formulating a specific digital transformation path. With Siemens' deep knowledge in the field of digitalization, in-depth insights into operational excellence and practical experience in benchmark factories, Ai Xianda has successfully assisted dozens of enterprises to complete the planning of digital factories and help enterprises complete digital innovation.

Taking a customer in the machine assembly profession as an example, according to the company's future development strategy, Siemens Aixianda has depicted a comprehensive digital blueprint for it, which has increased the company's output power by 65% and reduced the demand for front-line manpower by 40% through the integration of "lean, automation and digitalization". At the end of the previous year, this company was also awarded the "2021 Intelligent Production Pilot Demonstration Factory" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China.

In the process of serving many enterprises, Siemens Aixianda also has a deeper understanding of industry. As Shi Jianwei emphasized, "Just as farmers need to tailor their crops to their crops, and doctors need to treat their symptoms according to the right medicine – each company has different basic conditions, different shopping mall environments in different locations, and different challenges, so there is no 'one-size-fits-all' digital implementation roadmap." And that's where consulting planning comes in. ”

Now, SNC's new factory is now officially operational, but this does not mean that the plant's digital upgrade has come to an end. In the future, the mall and the external environment are as changeable as the weather at sea, and the best response strategy is to "adapt to the situation and respond sensitively" - that is, to make long-term forward-looking planning in advance, and then continuously iterate and optimize according to changes in the short term, and then be invincible in the chaotic and changeable shopping mall environment.

Siemens' path to the world's first native digital factory

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