Siemens’ Latest Partnerships Bolster Industrial AI and Digital Rail

Siemens Mobility has received approval from Wiltshire Council on its plan to construct a new manufacturing and innovation facility to realize the future of digital rail systems. The globally recognized technological innovator has also initiated collaboration with Microsoft to advance the capabilities of the jointly developed Siemens Industrial Copilot. This article will provide an overview of the company's recent development plans, focusing on strengthening its industrial AI solutions and fostering the growth of digitized rail and transport networks.

Siemens brings industrial-AI-based solutions to manufacturing and automation, leveraging generative AI to boost operational efficiency across global industries. Image used courtesy of Siemens

Promoting AI Transformation

The Microsoft-Siemens collaboration promotes AI transformation across manufacturing and automation industries, combining the expertise of Siemens and Microsoft Azure's OpenAI Service. The duo's combined effort enhances the capabilities of the jointly developed Siemens Industrial Copilot. Siemens Industrial Copilot is the first generative AI assistant for engineering in the automation field, with future capabilities extending to agent concepts and multimodality.

According to Gartner insights, as many as 75% of enterprise software engineers are expected to use generative AI assistants to develop code. This is a substantial rise from generative AI use of less than 10% recorded in 2023. Generating code saves development time, enhancing productivity on the shop floor. Companies also benefit from alleviating labor shortage concerns by using generative AI and concentrating on onboarding workers for high-value, skills-focused, and progressive job roles.

Thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering and Siemens

Thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering and Siemens have had a long history together, implementing the Copilot for Engineering to advance the operations of its battery machines. These machines ensure battery quality requirements are met for use in electric vehicles. The Copilot helps engineers reduce programming time and repetitive and mundane tasks such as configuring sensors and data management. The Copilot also helps produce reports for each step of the battery quality inspection process.

Siemens Industrial Copilot reduces programming time and helps engineers locate and fix industrial hardware/software system errors. Video used courtesy of Siemens Knowledge Hub

The Industrial Copilot uses the Totally Integrated Automation TIA Portal to assist thyssenkrupp engineers in creating automation projects. Using WinCC Unified (an advanced visualization platform for tracking and managing industrial processes through interactive displays) makes it easier to write structured control language code for programmable logic controllers, guarantees that the code is properly integrated into the TIA Portal, and automatically creates an intuitive machine interface.

Thryssenkrup is planning a global roll-out of Siemens Industrial Copilot during the first quarter of 2025. The company is positive about the capability of the technology to help combat prevailing and developing challenges, including the labor shortage and evolving innovations leading to increased battery complexity.

This November, attendees of the SPS Expo 2024 in Nuremberg, Germany, can visit Siemens for more information concerning the continually evolving Siemens Industrial Copilot.

Siemens and Altair

For an estimated $10 billion, or $113 per share, Siemens has completed the purchase of Altair Engineering Inc. (Altair), a well-known software provider focusing on industrial simulation and analysis. Siemens' Xcelerator platform will incorporate Altair's capabilities in data science, virtual modeling, high-performance computing, and AI.

By adding AI-driven modeling and design tools to its portfolio, this takeover strengthens Siemens' position as a world leader in industrial software. Offering creative ways to boost production productivity, streamline procedures, and promote energy-efficient technology also advances Siemens' objective to accelerate digitization and sustainability across industries. Siemens is better able to meet changing market demands for more intelligent, technologically advanced solutions by integrating Altair's capabilities.

A virtually constructed image of the approach to the new £100 million facility, which will be located at Langley Park (SouthPoint Business Park). Image used courtesy of Siemens

Siemens Mobility Digital Engineering Facility Approved

Plans to construct a £100 million state-of-the-art facility in Chippenham (Wiltshire, UK) have now been approved by Wiltshire Council. The new facility will be built on top of a historic rail infrastructure site, which has centralized the design, production, and supply of signaling and control systems for rail networks. The historical site has been an integral incubator for large projects, including the North Wales Coast, Elizabeth Line, and other global initiatives.

The new site will be a hub for manufacturing, research and development, and digital engineering for the future of next-generation, digitized railway systems. Roughly 800 staff will transition to the new site once completed, which is expected to open in 2026.