Digital lighthouse factories: Is only Siemens capable of digitalization?
Industrial Metaverse by
AI, digital twins, robotics and the Industrial Metaverse - these were the ingredients that enabled Siemens Gerätewerk Erlangen to make it onto the World Economic Forum's list of digital lighthouse factories.
Only Siemens, with its appliance plant in Erlangen, shows that digitalization can be mastered at a comparable international level in Germany in 2024. The WEF recognized the plant for its Green Lean Digital strategy. With over 100 AI algorithms and the comprehensive use of digital twins based on a flexible and modular IT architecture, the site improved labor productivity by 69%, according to the WEF.
In addition, the time to market for new products was reduced by 40 percent and energy consumption was cut by 42 percent. The plant in Erlangen is already the third Siemens site, alongside the plants in Amberg, Germany, and Chengdu, China, to be recognized by the WEF as one of the most modern factories in the world.
Digital use cases
The appliance plant in Erlangen impressed the jury with five specific use cases of digital technologies in the manufacturing environment. Siemens particularly emphasized the power semiconductor production.
Within eleven months, it was possible to set up a clean room production facility that produces semiconductors for the latest generation of the SINAMICS frequency inverter. Thanks to an end-to-end data analysis platform, the space requirement was reduced by 50 percent and material consumption was cut by 40 percent - while maintaining the same performance and improving energy efficiency.
Siemens also announced last year that it would provide 500 million euros for research capacities and infrastructure in Erlangen. The Group intends to use this to establish the site as a global research and development center and nucleus for global technology activities relating to the industrial metaverse. "We are creating a blueprint for the industrial metaverse here," emphasizes Cedrik Neike, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Digital Industries.
