The Siemens presence at Hannover Messe 2013 focuses on the increasing integration of all technologies in the industry branch. “Siemens has a complete integrated portfolio consisting of hardware, software, services, and comprehensive industry expertise. This basis helps industrial companies achieve very high productivity and efficiency,” said Dirk Hoke, CEO of Siemens’ Customer Services Division, reported at during the pre-fair press conference that the company convened ahead of this year’s Hannover Messe. True to the booth motto of ‘Making things right: Connecting productivity and efficiency,’ Siemens is showing how customers can successfully meet the current challenges posed by the markets.
Throughout industry, the increasing importance of comprehensive integration of all technologies is clear – across almost all industries and markets, regardless of their level of development. This includes all planning, engineering, and production processes, mechanical and electrical systems, and the information technology components. The objective is to achieve maximum value added along the entire process chain. Siemens Industry has been supporting its customers with this integrating approach through its communication-based automation and drive systems since the 1990s. Siemens offers a portfolio of products, systems, and services that work together optimally through software- and hardware-based integration along the entire value chain.
The associated recipe for success is Totally Integrated Automation (TIA). At the Hannover Messe, for the first time, Siemens is showcasing the concept of the “Integrated Drive System” (IDS), a TIA-based integrated portfolio that covers almost all tasks of electrical drives. It enables an optimum configuration of the drive train for each specific task.
Siemens is pursuing a strategy of three-fold integration: First, horizontal integration of the drive train has been implemented. This ensures smooth interaction and optimum dimensioning of all subcomponents – from the converter to the motor and gear unit, as well as the couplings. Second, based on vertical integration, these systems are also optimally and intelligently engineered, configured, and networked through TIA, all the way to the control level. And third, IDS comprises suitable industry software solutions for integration throughout the life cycle of an application (lifecycle integration). This is decisive for a short product development time and sustainable cost-effective operation of the relevant application. The range that Siemens is exhibiting at the Hannover Messe covers everything from design to planning, engineering, and commissioning and operation, as well as integrated Industry Services.
“We are sure that we can offer our customers more value added through the three-fold integration approach and further strengthen our leading role in the field of drive technology,” said Uwe Frank, CEO of the Motion Control Business Unit. “We are deploying the “Integrated Drive System” approach – both in small and in very complex applications and for all industries requiring drive solutions. This ensures that our customers are well-equipped for the increasing digitization of production and the growing integration of all technologies.”
In industrial automation, too, Siemens is at the forefront of technology developments at the Hannover Messe. “The IT penetration in industry will continue to increase. As the complexity of our customers’ products and plants grows, software-based support of the engineering process is and will remain the most important productivity lever,” Eckard Eberle, CEO of the Industrial Automation Systems Business Unit explained. “Our new products and services are important steps on the way to integrated product and production lifecycles that make our customers even faster and more efficient.” The focus is on version 12 of the TIA Portal engineering framework as an innovative engineering platform, enabling integration of automation processes along the entire value chain. Siemens achieved a further important milestone with its new controller of the Simatic S7-1500 generation. The Simatic S7-1500 for the mid and high end is characterized by excellent system performance, with numerous functions for motion control, security, and safety integrated as standard. The new features include simple commissioning and configurable diagnostics functions for plant status as well as integration into the TIA Portal for simple engineering and low configuration costs.
The intelligent and integrated Industry Services offered by Siemens for all phases of machine and plant lifecycles are closely intermeshed with the product business. At the Hannover Messe, proactive condition-based maintenance is taking center stage, in particular inspections via remote service. Using the examples such as Condition Monitoring or Simatic Remote Services, Siemens will show how machines and plants can be preventively monitored, downtimes reduced, and the availability of industrial plants increased through IT-based services. “With ever more complex production processes and a growing proportion of information technology, the requirements of service – and also our opportunities – are growing,” Dirk Hoke explained. “Through our technology-based Industry Services, we help our customers meet these current challenges. We thus support equipment and plant manufacturers in expanding and further professionalizing their service offerings – and end users in sustainably boosting their productivity and efficiency through integrated service concepts. “
