Siemens Partners with Sweden’s Clean Motion, Maker of Electric Vehicle Zbee

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2018-05-29 14:17:00

Siemens announced a new partnership with Clean Motion AB, manufacturer of the electric vehicle Zbee, which will help enable Clean Motion to build and maintain a digital master factory using Siemens’ technology and solutions. Clean Motion has a global expansion strategy based on distributed local manufacturing in many smaller factories close to the end customer. To succeed in such an expansion, it is important to ensure a digitally defined product and manufacturing process together with a centrally controlled supply chain. Clean Motion is now taking the next step in its digitalization process with Siemens PLM Software to reach fully digital twins of both the product, the manufacturing process and the factory.

As part of the digitalization strategy, a digital master factory will be built with Siemens’ product lifecycle management (PLM) software. This factory will then allow adjustments for the introduction of new variants and optimization of production flows. Clean Motion will be able to build a large number of independent physical plants and help ensure they operate in exactly the same way worldwide, by using Siemens PLM Software solutions that will maintain and manage the digital twin mirroring the Clean Motion digital master factory. Clean Motion plans to deploy Mindsphere, the cloud-based open Internet of Things (IoT) operating system from Siemens, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), to enable the connected factory and create a closed loop process that monitors and feeds back live data from usage and factory to further optimize Clean Motion’s business and process.

“The use of Siemens’ solutions for IoT will provide opportunities to record how the product is produced and used in real time,” said Göran Folkesson, CEO of Clean Motion. “With this information we can optimize our existing business model but also develop new business opportunities. This also means that we will be able to return information about usage and manufacturing, ensuring that we are constantly building with the same high quality throughout the world.”

Clean Motion’s business model is based on a central purchasing and logistics organization with local production units building, servicing and providing Zbee on the local market. The goal is that each micro factory will have an annual capacity of approximately 5,000 vehicles. The concept is based on the fact that each micro factory contains all parts for the entire vehicle’s life cycle, where production, sales and aftermarket are aggregated. Clean Motion will make use of Siemens’ NX software, a leading integrated solution for computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE), the Teamcenter portfolio, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management software, the Simcenter portfolio, a robust suite of simulation software and test solutions, and the Tecnomatix® portfolio, the industry-leading digital manufacturing software solutions to build and maintain the digital twin. Clean Motion will also use Siemens’ Managed Services with Teamcenter on the cloud, powered by AWS, with a goal to have an end-to-end industrial software solution on the cloud.

“We will create a closed system with a network of centrally controlled production units. This would not have been possible without a partner like Siemens,” said Niklas Ankarkrona, chairman, Clean Motion.

“Clean Motion’s business model provides a solid base for their digitalization journey, and our software provided as a hosted cloud service on AWS can give the end-to-end solution necessary for their critical next steps,” said Mats Friberg, CEO, Siemens PLM Software, Sweden. “Collaborating with companies such as Clean Motion allows Siemens to achieve a high level of innovation and realization of these new technologies in combination with already developed working methods.”

The collaboration will not be limited to the factory. Zbee is already building a virtual product, and with the Siemens PLM software portfolio, Clean Motion will build a digital twin of the product, process and factory, enabling even greater opportunities to simulate, optimize and verify both product and production. Using the digital twin, Clean Motion will be able to simulate the vehicle’s entire life cycle before it is completed.

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