Siemens and DMG MORI recently partnered to release a digital twin machine model of DMG MORI’s machines. This allows manufacturers to simulate and test their machining assets prior to production, with the vendors claiming it reduces unproductive testing and energy consumption, alongside increasing production ramp up time. Furthermore, the partnership highlights the need for machine tool manufacturers to heavily digitize their product portfolios and engage with the end-to-end digital transformation ecosystems that many large technology vendors such as Siemens are attempting to build.
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DMG MORI and Siemens: The German Manufacturing Heavyweight Partnership
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NEWS
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Siemens, the global industrial and manufacturing giant, announced in mid-September a partnership with DMG MORI, a machine tool manufacturing company, to provide an end-to-end digital twin of DMG MORI’s machine tool products. The DMG MORI Digital Twin Machine Model creates a digital replica of a customer’s specific DMG MORI machine, and is enabled by Siemens’ SINUMERIK ONE technology, a digitally native Computer Numerical Control (CNC) with a digital twin as the integral component alongside the other hardware and software elements, which includes an integrated SIMATIC S7-1500F PLC (Read more about PLC solutions in ABI Research’s Industrial Automation Hardware Innovation: PLCs, IPCs, and HMIs report (AN-5793)).
The solution is accessible from Siemens’ Xcelerator marketplace, a digital ecosystem platform supported by its comprehensive third-party and partner base, allowing manufacturers to identify and leverage best-of-breed digital solutions in one place. DMG MORI is the first machine tool industry partner to join the Xcelerator marketplace, with DMG MORI aiming to create unique data transparency across the entire shop floor as part of its “machining transformation” agenda.
What Are the Benefits of Digital Twins for Machine Tools?
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IMPACT
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For manufacturers, a digital twin of machine tool assets supports extensive simulation and machine testing prior to production commencement, conducting the entire process virtually, with the company claiming that the solution can minimize unproductive testing by up to 75%. Numerical control programs can be programmed, simulated, and optimized by operators in a virtual environment, reducing scrap and machine damage due to the prevention of programming errors, something that is critical for manufacturers with margins on products that are becoming slimmer due to increasing raw materials and energy costs. Siemens and DMG MORI highlight that manufacturers would be able to leverage a 40% faster production ramp-up time by using the digital twin. All of this serves to reduce the assets’ energy consumption by running testing virtually, supporting manufacturers in aligning with ever pressing sustainability goals.
Holistic Product Ecosystems Are the Way Forward, and Partnerships Are the Key to Building Them Quickly
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RECOMMENDATIONS
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Partnerships such as the one between DMG MORI, the world’s third largest machine tool manufacturer following Mazak Corporation and TRUMPF, and Siemens are critical for the progression of the digital transformation agenda in the machine tool industry, which so far has been a laggard in this space. This is due to a climate of complacency that has been propagated by machine tool builders, particularly within the United Sates, which, due to their long histories with customers, have taken a reserved approach to innovation (further covered in ABI Research’s Digital Transformation in the Metalworking and Machine Tool Industry report (AN-5623)).
Building extensive digital marketplaces and providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions aligns Siemens well with market needs. Manufacturers are increasingly engaging in digital transformation and seeking to deploy best-of-breed solutions, with Siemens getting to act as a gateway to these software offerings. Its solutions are becoming the thread that holds many manufacturing Industry 4.0 deployments together, with AWS marketplace being the primary competitor in this marketplace platform space. Holistic product ecosystems are the way forward for the manufacturing industry’s digital transformation journey, as they provide an effective single channel through which manufacturers can easily engage with these projects, and Siemens’ partnership of its Xcelerator platform and market with industry heavyweights such as DMG MORI highlights the market penetration success the company is finding with the solution. Competitors that try to build this ecosystem alone, or worse yet, not even invest in one will struggle to compete with companies that are more effective at providing these end-to-end offerings. Technology vendors looking to compete need to plug gaps in their solution portfolios and supply a holistic ecosystem of products to customers. Similarly, machine tool manufacturers that continue to not engage with the digital transformation of their product bases will simply shrink over the coming decade, losing market share to innovative vendors that prioritize integrating their assets into smart factory designs.
