Siemens AG (Munich and Berlin, Germany; www.siemens.com) has launched an initiative to enable fast ramp-up and reconfiguration of production facilities together with partner companies from the mechanical engineering, automotive, robotics and information technology industries. Companies can still register and present their proposals on May 23. Prototypes will be tested at the ARENA2036 innovation factory in mid-October. As part of the "Fast Ramp-Up Challenge" competition, production cells from several companies are to be set up within just two days using MindSphere, the open cloud-based operating system for the internet of things (IoT) from Siemens.
The fast ramp-up of production facilities is becoming increasingly important across all industries. Companies in the automotive and supply industry are facing major challenges: More and more variants of different automobile models are entering the market with increasingly short product runtimes. The ramp-up and reconfiguration of production lines cause plant shutdowns which represents a further challenge for machine builders and plant manufacturers. Together with other companies and institutes, Siemens has therefore launched an initiative to quickly ramp-up and reconfigure production lines. The companies already involved include Bär, Balluff, BayernLB, BoldlyGo, Chiron, Dataahead, Deutsche Leasing, Festo, Fraunhofer Institute, Heller, iba, Kampf, Kolbus, KUKA, MAG, maincubes, N+P Industrial Design, Rittal & German Edge Cloud, seioTec, Sick, Spinpartners and Wittenstein. After joint preparatory work, the scheme is now in its consolidation phase until the "Pitch Day" on May 23. Additional companies can still participate and information is available at mindsphere-openspace.df.de@siemens.com as well as at the Siemens booth D35 in hall 9 of the Hannover Messe. Prototypes will then be set up at the ARENA2036 innovation factory in Stuttgart in mid-October. The "Fast Ramp-Up Challenge" pilot project has set itself a record-breaking goal: Setting up joint production cells from several companies in just two days.
The open, cloud-based IoT operating system MindSphere developed by Siemens will be used as the enabler. It connects products, plants, systems, and machines in production. The aim of the Fast Ramp-Up Challenge is, among other things, to develop transparent processes and enable employees. Many companies taking part in the initiative are already associates of MindSphere World e.V.: As members of the forum and users of MindSphere, they are involved in the advancement of the IoT operating system and the joint development of new approaches in the areas of technology and business processes. ARENA2036 is a flexible research facility based at the University of Stuttgart for the hardware-based knowledge factory of the future.