Siemens' AI Work Delivers Competitive Advantage in IIoT

You may think of German industrial powerhouse Siemens as being primarily a machine builder, but the company has a range of digital offerings that span throughout the entire value chain in manufacturing. From product development, production engineering, and production execution, the company offers a consistent data model across all levels of manufacturing, thanks to its product lifecycle management, digital twin software, and MindSphere IoT platform. Content Director Brian Buntz wrote recently about the resources Siemens is throwing at software, and while that's significant, I'm more interested in Siemens' AI and machine learning work. Michael May, Ph.D., the company's head of technology field business analytics and monitoring, told me at Hannover Messe that the corporation has been working on AI projects for decades. For instance, more than 20 years ago, Siemens implemented neural networks in more than 30 steel plants to monitor and improve quality, process, and efficiencies.