Facilities as part of factory output

20 November 2012

Two companies are joining forces to provide a holistic view of manufacturing – taking into account the manufacturing facility as well as the process and the products produced.

Siemens and Bentley Systems have announced a strategic collaboration to advance the integration of digital product design and manufacturing processes design with information modeling for facilities lifecycle design. According to the Memorandum of Understanding the collaboration will enable the two companies to deliver intelligent and sustainable digital factory infrastructure. Initially the companies will focus on the digital factory for automotive and discrete manufacturing.

The Siemens Division Industry Automation and Bentley Systems will initially, based on their long standing commitment to openness in information technology, collaborate on common file for-mats and content, integrated workflows for factory layout, and the convergence of process and layout. This work is an extension of earlier collaborations between the two organisations that resulted in each deploying technology offerings developed by the other. In the longer term, the companies will explore opportunities for jointly developed technology to expand industry-centric solutions and further collaboration interoperability between Siemens’ Teamcenter and Bentley’s ProjectWise software.

Teamcenter product lifecycle management software helps companies deliver increasingly complex products while maximizing productivity and streamlining global operations. It provides the information for people to make the right product decisions – from planning and development through manufacturing and support. The ProjectWise system of collaboration servers and services empowers work sharing, facilitating the use of virtual talent, dynamic review for improved project quality, and content reuse for extended value.

Dick Slansky, senior analyst, PLM research director, ARC Advisory Group, said: “ARC Advisory Group has long advocated for a common, interoperable environment for sharing and exchanging equipment design information and facility design information. We believe this announcement of a strategic collaboration between Siemens and Bentley Systems should go a long way toward enabling the integration of digital equipment design and manufacturing process information with the AEC and infrastructure design/build information solution. Specifically, this collaboration will enable Siemens’ design/build solutions such as Teamcenter, NX, and Tecnomatix to openly interoperate with Bentley solutions such as ProjectWise, MicroStation, and AssetWise. ARC will be following this collaboration closely to gain a better understanding of the overall, and potentially significant, benefits to all of the industrial sectors affected.”

Siemens Industry Automation Division CEO Anton S. Huber said: “Together we will drive the paradigm shift that will establish unified and fully collaborative product and production lifecycles for our customers. This will facilitate workflow efficiencies moving our users to the next level of productivity. Today, it is more important than ever to make full use of all optimisation opportunities over the entire lifecycle of a machine or plant. This starts with planning and engineering, continues into operation and maintenance right through to expansion and modernisation. Now, as we seek to extend this to include facilities lifecycles, we have determined that Bentley Systems is the right partner to help us bring this new value proposition to realisation.”

Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley said: “We at Bentley have redefined asset performance management to span OPEX and CAPEX and are bringing our information mobility technologies to bear on the unification of the project and asset lifecycles. With Siemens converging product and manufacturing process lifecycles, the digital factory seems the ideal inaugural target application for a combined and expanded unification effort. Working smarter, together, Bentley and Siemens will empower our shared users to speed the delivery and outfitting of manufacturing facilities, accelerate the start of production, reduce design, construction, and operating expenses, and improve the operational and energy performance of their factories. We’ve also identified fruitful future endeavors involving our AssetWise software for asset lifecycle information management, including our new Ivara EXP asset performance management software that helps owner-operators obtain the best performance, reliability, and safety from their assets.”