Siemens addresses digital enterprise with Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics and MindSphere

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2018-03-06 11:48:00

• Helps provide visibility for optimum supply-chain performance
• Adds to the end-to-end solution for the digital enterprise
• Provides a holistic set of IoT solutions and services

Siemens today announced the Valor™ IoT Manufacturing Analytics product, a new comprehensive big data and business intelligence platform that monitors and manages global electronics manufacturing operations for accurate, real-time manufacturing utilization and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Building on the acquisition of Mentor Graphics, Siemens continues to invest in software solutions to realize innovation and power each customer’s digital enterprise. This new solution is powered by MindSphere. By collecting and managing rich data sources from Valor shop-floor modules, the product provides visibility into all shop floor equipment, materials management, product quality, traceability, and supply-chain operations globally for optimum supply-chain performance.

This new product is an extension of the Valor Manufacturing Solution, a robust, scalable and secure plug-and-play IoT device and data acquisition product for electronics manufacturing. Only Siemens provides integrated software solutions across the entire customer value chain, from initial conceptual design through manufacturing planning and execution, to service and support of both the products and the plants that produce them.

“Our Valor plug-and-play IoT device and data acquisition tool for electronics manufacturing has evolved to today’s new IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution, which aligns with Siemens’ commitment to developing innovative technologies for factory automation,” stated Dan Hoz, general manager of the Valor Division of Mentor, a Siemens business. “Our new technology will provide invaluable performance data and real-time visibility to shop-floor management so they can deliver high-quality, high-yield products as a key competitive advantage.”

This open and scalable Valor solution captures and explores complete materials, quality and process traceability data for printed circuit boards (PCB) and assemblies, measuring and analyzing how resources are utilized with real-time work-in-progress tracking and optimum efficiency. It manages data from all manufacturing sites and production lines, including machine performance analysis and utilization. PCB manufacturing executives, line managers, and manufacturing engineers can now realize design-to-manufacturing efficiency for their customers’ work orders by detecting factors that affect yield and identifying areas for improvements.

“Smart capture and utilization of technical data is essential for enabling analysis of manufacturing floor processes,” reports Laurie Balch, Chief Analyst at Gary Smith EDA. “Manufacturing teams have found it incredibly challenging to obtain the critical data they need. Providing solutions to streamline and simplify that process, as with the Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution, is crucial to improving their data analysis capabilities and empowering their decision making.”

MindSphere, Siemens’ open cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) operating system provides the ability to develop robust industrial IoT solutions on a shorter timeline for customers across many industries. MindSphere delivers a wide range of device and enterprise application connectivity protocol options, industry applications, advanced analytics and an innovative development environment that utilizes both Siemens’ open Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities along with access to native cloud services. Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics powered by MindSphere provides a holistic set of IoT solutions and services matching customer requirements, providing numerous opportunities to build and operate digital offerings.

The introduction of this new technology helps expand Siemens’ manufacturing digital enterprise. Siemens’ expertise in digital manufacturing provides digital twins of the product and process as part of the planning phase, and then captures a digital twin of the equipment/performance as part of the execution phase. By acquiring EDA leader Mentor Graphics, Siemens will leverage Mentor’s leading IC, PCB and software design tools with the growth in the digitization and automation of global manufacturing. In the same way Siemens brings digitalization to mechanical manufacturing, digitalization is available to electronics through an end-to-end solution covering the entire PCB design through manufacturing flow. The new Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution is the next step in the future vision for Siemens’ digital enterprise for electronic engineering, with a goal to enable a seamless connection between the electronic and mechanical flows, with real-time updates between each discipline.

“We look forward to a clear vision of one integrated solution for the entire manufacturing process and production system,” said Zvi Feuer, senior vice president of Manufacturing Engineering Software for Siemens PLM Software. “By closing the loop between manufacturing and design, customers will be able to use advanced analytics to help turn vast amounts of data into clear and useful insights, enabling key improvements in the areas of preventative maintenance and inventory turnover optimization. This latest product from the Valor team takes us one step closer to our future vision.”

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