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Manufacturing is the essence of what our customers do. What they obviously need is to have a solution for managing their operations in a swift but also very secure and safe manner so that they know that they can trust the system, that they can trust the partner, to deliver traceability, to deliver scheduling regarding who needs to do what in the factory to have electronic work instructions around that. So it's an essential system within their shop floor and they trust these systems in order to drive the overall production. Manufacturing execution systems have been around the last 40 years. You need a system that is providing the reliability while also providing the flexibility to orchestrate all of your operations. Now, what we see is there is a lot of homegrown systems, a lot of IT-based systems that currently manage the shop floor, and a lot of this is getting replaced because of the need to have better support, a leaner infrastructure, lower total cost of ownership. There is a lot of change in the workforce. There's less people actually available that can be on the shop floor. There's less trained people that are there. Another mega trend is what can we do in order to lower the total cost of ownership? So it's really about having the flexibilities to scale up, to move to the cloud is one topic. When we say the move to the cloud, and we have great examples of customers all around the globe, they have increased their productivity, they've increased their flexibilities. With our manufacturing execution systems, we are a core piece in the manufacturing process. One element of that is really security, and especially with the trend moving towards the cloud, it becomes essential that these systems are secure, and last but not least, really having the innovation and the form of AI around them to augment the workflows in the factories. For example, if you're working in the aerospace industry and you are working on really complex manufacturing tasks, you might wanna look at the details of the documentation and you wanna have an interaction about it and then you can ask in natural language what is actually there in the documentation. As anyone knows that has experienced the shop floor, they wanna have the information they need. So, we are introducing low-code capabilities into our Opcenter portfolio with a persona-based approach. So you have a clear view of saying, "Okay, I'm an operator in a certain industry and this is sort of the information that I need." The added benefit of it is that we've been able to decrease the amount that you actually need to implement things by more than half. And user experience is really key for those users that don't have the time to search for things, so that's why we offer easy, personalized user experience with Mendix embedded directly into Opcenter. The world is changing and the rate of change is accelerating, the time to market is decreasing. You see much more flexibility in the production systems. We partner strongly within Siemens to have an overall ecosystem with Industrial Operations X that is really working towards a seamless experience of the whole approach towards manufacturing execution by having an open ecosystem of different applications that can run physically on hardware, that can run on edge devices, that can run on the cloud. And in conjunction with that there is virtualization of the PLCs, there's virtualization of a lot of hardware happening. I think it's really the harmony and the intersection of hardware and software that is not just key to my work in manufacturing operations management, because that is the value proposition that we have, that we support from design, all the way to the manufacturing planning as well as the execution and operations and then also understanding where what kind of data flows back to this. This is a key element that we as Siemens also provide is to take the customers on the journey towards looking at manufacturing operations management but really providing a coherent solution with the digital thread connecting all of that.
Hi, everybody, and welcome to this YouTube premiere organized by Siemens Digital Industries Software.
My name is Cheyenne, and today I will be sharing how your manufacturing horizons can be broadened using Manufacturing Execution Software (MES) embedded with low-code. We will be joined by topic and industry specialists explaining the value of this solution.
We are expanding our current solution landscape to the electronics, medical diagnostic devices, semiconductors, and battery industries. Our solution is perfectly adaptable to other industries as well, as it is persona-based, process-centered, and industry-specific.
Today, I am excited to discuss a significant collaboration that fills us with pride, which involves the integration of low-code capabilities into our well-established and robust MES. With over two decades of experience in the MES sector, Siemens has a proven track record across a wide array of industries. Siemens Digital Industries Software is the only vendor to have been recognized as a leader by Gartner for the sixth consecutive time in its Magic Quadrant for Manufacturing Execution Systems, which says something.
One of the main challenges we face is to offer one solution that fits all industries, as manufacturing processes differ significantly from industry to industry. Initially, we covered this need with two different verticals, for process and discrete industries. However, we learned that every customer has unique challenges, and we need to tailor our offering to the specific industry niche and customer needs.
In highly manual or automated industries like medical devices and electronics, the workforce relies on a personalized User Experience (UX) and guided navigation at the point of use to execute tasks efficiently and reduce Takt time. Alternatively, in highly automated industries such as the semiconductor and batteries industry, real-time information is essential to understand how the manufacturing process and the business as a whole are performing.
Information from disparate systems such as ERP, PLM, MES, and Automation must be contextualized in a single interface with minimal interaction to drive timely actions. Deployment models are also changing to be more cloud-based. Moreover, we find ourselves in the age of customized manufacturing operations.
This is a time where a younger workforce anticipates digitalization to enhance their daily tasks. They are transitioning away from conventional desktops or laptops in favor of an array of smart devices, thereby enhancing mobility within the plant environment. Additionally, the demand for timely access to pertinent data is increasing, and this must be facilitated by user-friendly interfaces.
Last but not least, we at Siemens find it important to enable manufacturers with the ability to innovate. To do this, the MES needs to be innovative and adaptable as well, to support rapidly evolving market needs and regulations, and accelerate new product introductions, all while reducing waste and greenhouse gases.
At the same time, our enterprise customers need the ability to access all relevant information on one screen and have the flexibility to configure their user experience to meet their business needs easily.
As Siemens, we listen to these market expectations. Siemens MES solution, Opcenter Execution, is feature-rich and has organically grown to meet diverse needs out of the box. Now we are bringing in all of the functionalities into information and data flows through a role-based approach with Mendix.
Mendix pioneered low-code application development and was acquired by Siemens in 2018. It is a market leader in low-code application platforms and enables the development of software applications without heavy coding, empowering this transformation. Here as well, Mendix is a leader in the Gartner 2023 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms for the seventh year in a row.
Front-end applications can easily be adapted in a low-code environment by personnel with lower IT skills and greater domain expertise, leading to manufacturers taking ownership of the UX personalization and co-creation.
What makes the synergy between Mendix and Opcenter Execution special is that it offers a tailored solution, answering specific user needs. Our product comes with a variety of out-of-the-box templates delivered by our R&D team. You can implement and utilize these templates as-is or they can be taken as a baseline and be further personalized.
Designing the templates, we made sure that they are role-based, industry-specific, and process-centric. We will now have a look at the specific challenges in different industries, as well as how our solution is supporting each industry in its unique way. For this, I will be joined by my colleague Raj, who is the director of Pre-sales, Digital Manufacturing, and Industry Strategies.
We will kick off with him for the medical diagnostic device industry.
Medical Device Manufacturing
When it comes to medical manufacturing, what we have seen is that the workforce is getting younger, and that is providing a set of challenges for software application usage. We also know that medical device diagnostic companies have a wide variety in their manufacturing process styles, and that poses a set of challenges.
Medical companies also have their operations in clean rooms, and the clean room itself is giving a set of different challenges. So, when we get into our medical devices and diagnostics customers, we see a wide manufacturing process variety. In a given plant, you will see some batch manufacturing, reagent manufacturing, serialized assembly, box build, and instrument build all happening in the same factory.
As an operator who is working in that factory, you have a difficult challenge in that the information that you need to access and what you need to do is going to be different based upon where you work.
Opcenter Medical Device and Diagnostic suite is the best-in-class solution that provides the EDHR and EBR capabilities. Mendix is the best-in-class with our low-code enterprise application development solution.
We at Siemens are combining the capabilities of Mendix and Opcenter Medical Device Diagnostics Suite to provide the best-in-class role-based, process-centric user experience for the operators so that they can get their job done quickly.
So when we walk into a clean room in a medical device and diagnostic company, we would see that the operators are gowned up, they are wearing gloves, and they wear other protective equipment, and there is very little space for them to work out of a workstation.
The operators also need to work without having to do too many clicks because they are all working on their manufacturing and quality activities. So with Mendix and Opcenter, we provide an optimized UI/UX that can be used across devices with wide form factors, that can fit into the clean rooms and also with fewer clicks and touch-enabled, even with gloves, so that the operators can complete their activities quickly and efficiently.
So, when we walk into any of our large enterprise customers and we talk to them about how many applications they use on the shop floor, the answers are very surprising. They use about 15 to 18 different applications to support manufacturing.
So, if you are an operator who is working there, you would have to log in and log out 15 to 18 different times, and this is very inefficient and also causes a frustrating experience for them. Opcenter and Mendix bring together a solution where we can create a single plain UI so that the operator can log in once, access the information, and complete all of their activities easily and quickly.
Electronics Industry
In recent years, the electronics industry has witnessed significant changes in the way manufacturing software is employed. This sector encompasses a wide spectrum of processes ranging from highly automated, equipment-centric surface mount technology and printed circuit board assembly to medium-high automation, final assembly, and testing.
What characterizes this industry is its commitment to continuous product and process improvement. However, a challenge arises from a diverse array of software systems used on the shop floor, leading to inefficiencies for operators, engineers, and plant managers.
To address these challenges and deliver an optimized user experience, Siemens offers a solution tailored to the specific needs of different processes within the electronics industry. It offers a User Experience that is finely tuned to the appropriate operation style.
Manual assembly and testing benefit from a more guided assembly-based UX, while highly automated assembly and testing processes require efficient, real-time monitoring. Our MES stands out by delivering out-of-the-box, process-centric UX solutions that are meticulously designed, developed, and thoroughly tested for each specific process.
Moreover, Mendix's exceptional configurability empowers customers to easily personalize and provide a solution to meet the specific requirements.
When it comes to aiding continuous improvement activities on the shop floor, Opcenter Execution provides role-based user experiences based on Mendix. This approach consolidates all necessary information for a particular role into a single screen, allowing users to efficiently manage all required activities within the software.
In addition, it seamlessly integrates with shop floor automation layers via a connectivity configurator, facilitating the real-time retrieval of information, which is invaluable for continuous improvement efforts.
As mentioned, electronics manufacturers often use a multitude of disparate applications on the shop floor. Operators are often burdened with the cumbersome task of logging into numerous applications to perform their duties.
Opcenter Execution, empowered with Mendix, excels in enabling its customers to build a unified single-pane UX. By seamlessly connecting with various other enterprise software applications and the entire Siemens suite of solutions, the Mendix low-code capabilities empower customers to configure a UX that consolidates information from multiple systems onto a single secure screen.
This approach simplifies and streamlines IT strategies, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of operations within the electronics industry.
Now, our industry expert Frank will showcase an example that can be easily built with our solution. Let's have a closer look at some mobile examples called Manufacturing Order Management.
This role-based UI guides the operator at pre- and post-production validation. First, the operator needs to select, search, or scan the appropriate order to work on. The status page provides an order overview. It shows the product image and details like order, quantity, or due date.
Often tasks are required at different stations, and therefore a mobile application is the right choice. Activities may either cover the preparation for the next upcoming work order or subsequent duties after order completion. For each task, detailed instructions are provided, and comments can be inserted.
In many cases, the operator just needs to check that all is executed as expected and confirms the result appropriately. To speed up, we move fast-forward and the video already shows that pre-production is completed.
At the first, of course, we see order execution tracking and the following post-production activity. In summary, the application combines sophisticated Opcenter Execution Electronics transactions with the efficient Mendix low-code programming capabilities.
Combining the power of low-code with our MES saves up to 90% of development time and facilitates mobile app development using native components. Siemens provides templates of solution applications to our customers, allowing them to easily tune and extend its functionality.
You benefit from the low-code simplicity based on visual modifications, graphic flows, and well-provided object management.
We are now switching back to Raj for his view on the semiconductor industry.
Semiconductor Industry
So, one of the main objectives of a semiconductor fab is to improve upon the process yields. In order to achieve this, engineers have to always look at real-time information on how the lot performed the previous time that they ran and tweak the manufacturing process to get a better yield this time around.
To achieve this, Siemens Opcenter Semiconductor Suite provides out-of-the-box capabilities with its experiment management solution. With Mendix, we are bringing in the process specs, the parameters, the bill of equipment, all of this information into a single-pane so that the engineer can see how the lot performed the last time around and tweak the parameters to get a better yield this time around.
So when we walk into our semiconductor fabs cleanroom, you will see that the clean rooms have specific lighting and the operators and the technicians who work there are gowned up, wearing gloves, and there is very limited space in using a workstation to access manufacturing applications and software.
What we do with Siemens and Opcenter Semi-Suite and Mendix is, we bring together a seamless UI/UX that is optimized for usage in the cleanrooms, where, for the given light settings and with the operators with gloves, we support any device of different form factors that can fit into the clean room operations.
Our semiconductor manufacturers need access to real-time information from the shop floor to make better decisions on their process quality. This is real-time information about how the material is performing and how the equipment is performing.
With the resource-centric app built using Mendix, we bring information about where the materials are, how the materials are performing, and how the equipment is performing.
We can bring data from the automation layer and display it all from one place. Operators can view the information in real time from a single-pane, single UI, and perform activities like creating a repair ticket, releasing materials, moving materials in and out of equipment that is available, all very easily and quickly.
And last but not least, let's dive into the unique characteristics of the battery industry. It's a relatively new and rapidly evolving field. While it's growing, it's also highly competitive. Battery prices are dropping, but material costs are rising, creating a delicate balance. The production process is complex, involving a mix of process and discrete manufacturing steps with high labor costs. Scaling from pilot lines to gigafactories is challenging. Plus, new standards and regulations are continuously introduced.
So what does this mean for battery manufacturers? They need to focus on timely delivery, meeting production targets, and scaling up rapidly to reduce costs. Efficiency is key, with continuous efforts to reduce scrap rates and optimize energy consumption and labor. Innovation is crucial to meet targets for new battery cells and satisfy automakers. Agile innovation, smart manufacturing, and reducing the environmental footprint are all necessary.
Now, how can Opcenter Execution and Mendix help battery manufacturers thrive? They empower rapid scaling while maintaining control over quality and costs. The solution increases automation, reduces manual labor, and boosts the yield rates. Continuous improvements are accelerated with closed-loop quality processes and traceability systems. Enterprise visibility enhances agility, and modern user experiences and prebuilt solutions speed up development.
Going over the different industry challenges, we mentioned a personalized UX. This is happening through REST APIs that can be accessed by Mendix. Looking at the integration flow, the data model and business logic are defined and implemented in Opcenter, using existing tools. They are exposed through REST APIs that can be accessed by Mendix. Interfacing with the REST APIs, the User Experiences are then created in Mendix.
We are now zooming in a bit closer into Mendix itself. As part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, Mendix brings best-in-class low-code application development and multi-experience capabilities in a single platform to accelerate manufacturers' strategies to digital initiatives across the manufacturing value chain. Mendix offers adaptable industry templates and solutions on its platform. With its several built-in APIs, connectors, and reusable building blocks, it drives transformation, boosts productivity, increases collaboration across teams (both IT and non-IT), and allows building without limits, above and beyond Opcenter role-based experiences.
This means that personalization based on Mendix has no boundaries. Personalization is possible not only in the user experience but also in sourcing data to create a holistic view. It helps extend and connect the MES to any other data, system, or assets to create smart applications and provide a holistic view of manufacturing operations and beyond.
As a manufacturer, you can augment and extend the applications to personalize needs, empower domain experts to co-create cross-domain applications, and compose your digital transformation by engaging IT and business functions equally, bringing respective expertise together. Mendix offers a robust and community-driven marketplace of out-of-the-box components that help accelerate development.
In this strong and growing community, you can benefit from the experience of 25,000 developers, 5,000 experts, and experience from 250,000 created apps across value chain processes. And these numbers are still growing. You can also share your knowledge and learn from other developers on the Mendix Community Forum, which can be a starting point for your Mendix experience and knowledge share.
Now that we understand the different industry challenges and how the combination of our MES and Mendix can support, we will show a use case illustrating how easy it is to configure and personalize UX. When a machine status changes from being available to being down, this application shows that right away to the operator, shopfloor lead, or engineer in real time in a dashboard.
Say that we want to send a notification and alert a maintenance engineer about this through (Microsoft) Teams. How can we realize this? Our colleague Millon will show how to send a Teams message depending on the value of a resource status.
This is done using a REST API, allowing the data model and business logic in Opcenter Execution to be connected with the UX in Mendix, with the possibility of connecting to third-party systems. Currently, in our resource-centric operational view, we have the ability to see our containers as well as the resources in our area. Let’s enhance this application by sending a message to a Teams channel whenever a resource's status goes down, as well as when that status goes back to healthy.
Now, first, what I'll do is open up our Mendix Studio Pro, and then from there, utilizing our marketplace where we have all of our different types of connectors, I will type in Teams and I'll pull up our Microsoft Teams connector. This allows the developer, without having to know how the connection to Microsoft Teams works, to pull in drag-and-drop blocks that can then be added to your logic to have those messages sent out.
Now that our connector has been added under add-ons, we can see that the Microsoft Teams connector’s in there. Now, where we'll go is where the statuses are being set up and down, and then we'll move up to our toolbox. From there, we can click over to Teams, and then we can get our different blocks to send messages. We’re going to send a message to a webhook. So we’re going to drop that on our warning block. From there, we’re going to need our webhook URL, the message type, and the actual message we’re going to send.
Let’s move over to Teams now and get that webhook URL. Now that we’re in Teams, what we can do is go to our connector tab and from there, we can look at our configured connectors to see if we have a webhook URL that's been set up for this channel. Now, I will go and grab the one that I have set up. There I will grab the webhook URL, and then I will exit. I will come back here at a later time.
Now, if we transition back to our Mendix application, from there, what we can do is inside the webhook URL, we can input our webhook. We’ll save that, we'll change the message type to text, and then from there, we can write out what message we want to send. So in this case, I’m going to say for this specific resource, I’m going to give it the resource name as well as the status and then the error code.
So first, we'll do the name and then we'll do what status that resource is now in. And then from there, we’ll give it also the error code that the resource is displaying. And finally, the resource error code. And, then we’re all done, and we have that now when a resource is going down to send to Teams and we’ll copy and paste and reuse that block and we’ll edit the message that's being sent for the healthy path.
What we'll do is we’ll get rid of the error code, but we’ll leave the status to let our operators know that everything is all good and that the status has been changed back to healthy. From there, I’ll rerun my application.
Millon showcased the value of the Mendix marketplace with its many out-of-the-box connectors. The Teams connector he picks then shows up in the connector tab in Microsoft Teams. Later, he specified what messages need to be sent, depending on the status of the relevant resource. Different paths are defined depending on the status.
Now he will show us what will happen if he sets the status of the resource to down. Now our application is back, what we can do is we can set the machine status down to electrical failure, and then we'll see how that message gets triggered to the Teams channel.
So we set that as an error just now. And now from there, we’ll go back to Teams and we’ll take a look and we can see that that resource or status got put in the warning. And their code for electrical failure was sent.
If we go back to our application, we can see where the application status was changed as well as the icon. Now, if we go back and we’re going to set that machine status back to healthy, we can again see that status change back to healthy and then from there what we can do is go and look at our Teams. And, then we can see that message, that healthy message came through. So that means that our machine is back to being where it needs to be.
In this use case, we saw the value of a strong marketplace with out-of-the-box components that accelerated development. Millon was dragging existing components from the marketplace. No new connectors were developed and with a few clicks and a bit of configuration, he now dynamically created a way to send messages to a Teams channel. If a connector is not available in the marketplace, Mendix provides the tools to build your own connector that fits your purpose.
Circling back to the feedback we received from our customers and the market, we implemented this feedback and developed the tailored end-to-end solution. The UX is more efficient, effective, and intuitive to users. A role-based UX facilitates the daily tasks of users and enables personalizations and a multi-device UX to support usage that meets the technology of today.
The total cost of ownership is reduced by decoupling the UX so that upgrades are easier. Native Mendix components make automation integration easy and efficient. Standardization and usability are given, with the out-of-the-box connectors, app services, and marketplace from Mendix, that reduces again the total cost of ownership. Additionally, a platform is provided for composite user experiences that further reduces the total cost of ownership while increasing usability and efficiency.
And last but not least, customers have ownership over the personalization, making them more independent. We offer an end-to-end user journey, supporting your manufacturing processes from start to finish. To learn more about this topic, we have many additional resources available. For example, now you're already on YouTube, check out our promotional video of the launch or read our new white paper.
More assets will follow, which can be found on our website. Moreover, on our blog, you'll find the latest "What's new?", to stay up to date on new releases.
On this note, we are coming to the end of today's video. Thank you so much for being here with me today. If there are three key words I would like you to remember thinking about today, it is easy, open, and integrated.
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