The new cooperation between Google Cloud and Siemens aims to enable the scaled deployment of AI-based solutions for industrial manufacturing and simplify the deployment of artificial intelligence, leading to employee empowerment and rise in overall quality.
Industrial automation and software technology leader Google Cloud and Siemens have recently announced a new cooperation to optimise factory processes and improve productivity. Siemens intends to integrate Google Cloud’s leading data cloud and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) technologies with its factory automation solutions to help manufacturers innovate for the future.
Today’s industrial processes are largely driven by automation. However, many manufacturers continue using legacy software and multiple systems to analyse plant information since this is much more resource-intensive and requires frequent manual updates to ensure accuracy. In addition, while artificial intelligence projects have been deployed by many companies in “islands” across the plant floor, others have struggled with global implementation.
For over 170 years, Siemens has built its business on pioneering technologies pushing the manufacturing industry forward. By combining Google Cloud’s data cloud and both artificial and machine-learning capabilities with Siemens’ Digital Industries’ Factory Automation portfolio, manufacturers are better able to harmonise their factory data, run cloud-based artificial or machine learning models on top of that data and deploy algorithms at the industrial edge. This enables applications such as visual inspection of products or predicting the wear-and-tear of machines on the assembly line.
Deploying AI to the shop floor and integrating it into automation and the network is a complicated task, requiring highly-specialised expertise and innovative products such as Siemens Industrial Edge. The partnership between the two makes the deployment of artificial intelligence in connection with the Industrial Edge and its management at scale easier thus empowering employees as they work together on the plant floor – automating mundane tasks and improving overall quality.
According to Axel Lorenz, vice president of Control at Factory Automation of Siemens digital industries, there is still massive potential for radical transformation of the plant floor by tapping on artificial intelligence.
He also noted that many of them are still stuck in ‘pilot projects’ and hopes to change that, “Combining artificial and machine learning technology from Google Cloud with Siemens’ solutions for Industrial Edge and industrial operation will be a massive game-changer for the entire manufacturing industry.”
Siemens is a leader in advancing industrial automation and software and Google Cloud is a leader in data analytics and AI/ML. This cooperation will combine the best of both worlds and bring AI/ML to the manufacturing industry at scale. By simplifying the deployment of AI in industrial use cases, we are helping employees augment their critical work on the plant floor,” said Dominik Wee, managing director of Manufacturing and Industrial at Google Cloud.
