Kelvin Juarbe, Marketing Manager, Product Engineering Software
What exactly are the benefits of integrating cloud-based CAD into a digital thread approach? What key considerations should companies be aware of when evaluating cloud-based CAD solutions to support their digital transformation? To find out, Product Engineering Software Marketing Manager, Kelvin Juarbe, shares his insights. With over 18 years of experience helping customers leverage cutting-edge technology to gain a competitive advantage, Kelvin had several key points to share in relation to CAD in the cloud.
What is a digital thread at Siemens?
At the core of digital transformation is the concept of the “digital thread” — the seamless flow of data across the entire product lifecycle, from design and engineering to production and beyond.
Cloud-based CAD (computer-aided design) software plays a pivotal role in enabling digital threads for machine builders, parts manufacturers and adjacent industrial companies. By migrating CAD workflows to the cloud, these organizations can unlock new levels of collaboration, data management and flexibility – all of which are crucial for establishing robust digital threads and bringing products to market faster.
How is the industrial machinery landscape evolving?
The industrial machinery landscape is evolving rapidly due to advances in automation, digitalization and sustainability. From AI and robotics to the drive towards more energy efficient and eco-friendly manufacturing, these evolving dynamics lead to a growing amount of complexity for the industrial machinery market.
What are some common industrial equipment trends?
There are three main trends emerging today, each having many implications:
Business disruption
Disruptive influences are the forces typically out of a business’ direct control. Over the past few years, the industrial machinery landscape has had to deal with many unexpected events impacting the business bottom-line. For example, supply chain issues have caused components to shift between suppliers and regions—presenting ever-changing problems that make it hard to standardize design processes, integrate business functions and grow service opportunities or adjacent machinery fields. The one thing that can be taken away is the need for swift, positive action, rather than waiting for things to “settle down.”
Smart machines
Smarter machines are also increasingly permeating the industrial machinery landscape. This need can be linked to several factors, such as customers who struggle to recruit suitably qualified staff. To alleviate said burden, businesses are using smart machines to consolidate their data into a single, actionable view; create easy-to-configure designs so they can scale products faster; and implement quality planning and automated workflows to achieve a competitive advantage. This comes as no surprise when considering how technology has opened a world of possibility, with remote monitoring, machine vision and generative engineering replacing the need for many traditional, manual processes. One such example is a simple fabric weaving machine, a precision device that can increase throughput by taking advantage of automation and incorporating feedback from speed, vibration, noise and temperature.
Business model changes
Unsurprisingly, business model changesare overtaking organizations. Businesses that use technological innovation can introduce new machines and parts more rapidly to the market than the competition, as technology makes it easier to standardize and reuse designs, drive cross-department collaboration with a consistent view of data and incorporate quality and service benchmarks along every phase of a project. Forward-looking companies should search for solutions that easily integrate with their existing tech stack so they can make such improvements over time. The impact of business model changes becomes visible when viewing it through the lens of technology in relation to corporate sustainability goals. In Europe, carbon offsets have been a popular way to become “green;” machines outfitted with carbon footprint monitoring technology make it easy to analyze the tradeoff between emissions, costs and machine output, then adjust accordingly.
What challenges are industrial machine and parts makers encountering?
Machine or parts builders must look at the broader picture to readily react to changes–both those inside and outside their influence. Business leaders need to consider the trends in relation to their company’s operational flexibility, cost-effectiveness, agile readiness and sustainability preparedness.
Understanding all these characteristics and using them to satisfy customers can be overwhelming. Challenges can be summarized under one common word—complexity. Complexity is a common theme within the industry, and it is growing exponentially
Yet the true industry disrupters won’t be those limited by complexity. At Siemens, it’s believed that businesses that harness complexity into a key competitive advantage are the ones who will deliver innovative machines to the market faster. That they’ll lower their developmental, production, and operating costs by digitally transforming their processes with standardization, multi-disciplinary integration, serviceability, data consolidation, configurability and quality excellence incorporated into every phase of the product lifecycle.
Siemens Digital Thread solution tools
To gain these facets, outpace competitors and become a market leader, organizations need the power of digital threads. Digital threads are the technological “backbone” of an organization—they connect all engineering software, from CAD to simulation to MES and beyond. Immense value can be gained from digital threads, as they provide:
The comprehensive digital twin
A comprehensive digital twin is a holistic, 3D model of a machine or part that predicts how this product will operate under real-world conditions. The digital twin covers the entire lifecycle of a product/its production, and it uses real-world performance data to create a closed loop environment, driving continuous improvements to a design. The digital twin’s power is highly linked to the cloud connectivity afforded by the digital threads; that is to say, changes made to a digital twin in one system (like CAD) will automatically translate to other systems (like simulation) thanks to the cloud’s interoperability. In turn, businesses save time and resources, as they do not need to manually translate data across systems, nor do they risk miscommunication with fellow departments, since they all work from the same digital twin in-tandem.
A personalized experience
Companies need to work at their own pace, enabling fast and predictable technological growth leading to optimized operational performance. Simultaneously, companies must consider how to meet the needs of individual users throughout their organization; for example, many employees might prefer applications and workflow customizations, as they are integral for collaboration and expediting the completion of tasks. Therefore, it’s fair to say user experience can truly drive enterprise-wide efficiency. Digital threads provide an on-ramp for personalizing the digital workplace experience since they can connect and synchronize disparate software, making it easier than ever to fill in productivity gaps or overcome procedural bottlenecks.
An open ecosystem of partners, suppliers and developers
No organization exists in isolation; collaboration within and between organizations is necessary for creating value. Thus, companies must produce an industrial network effect, where suppliers, customers, partners, distributors and adjacent stakeholders, all work together within an open ecosystem to drive productivity and promote engineering excellence. This open ecosystem extends to the user level as well, as users will implement the personalized experience options at work to synchronize software workflows, partner with others more directly, and harness the traditional complexity of IT systems into a competitive force for good. Conversely, closed systems that don’t allow deep levels of interoperability create barriers, inhibiting employees, departments, and organizations from reaching their full collaborative potential. Systems must therefore be open and provide a broad expanse of opportunities for companies to leverage in their overall engineering design approach.
All of these benefits begin and end with digital threads. The digital threads offer the possibility of change, and this change starts with a value-driven solution like NX X.
What is NX X and what value does it provide to users?
In its simplest form, NX is a mechanical engineering solution that provides holistic 3D design tools for a product, process or factory. Holistic 3D design forms the basis of the digital twin, making it possible to realize change at any phase of the development lifecycle. NX X goes one step further by being offered on the cloud, meaning, companies gain all the powerful features and functionality of NX, while gaining the advantages of Software as a Service (SaaS) model—greater flexibility, security and scalability.
NX X therefore provides customers with clear advantages within the marketplace: Through the cloud’s accessibility, industrial machinery and parts manufacturers can work on a project at any time, from anywhere, using the digital twin to implement real-time design changes that automatically reflect in other software and systems. Permission-setting can further solidify a project’s safety, so that the right internal and external stakeholders contribute to the development process at integral times. By tapping the right partners at the right times, a digital twin can be configured, standardized or customized for each quote, all while scaling infinitely, creating a closed loop approach to design where improvements are continuously derived and driven into the creation lifecycle. In turn, products can embody quality excellence, while trends and challenges—such as the need for greater sustainability or more machine service opportunities—can be incorporated into the development cycle of a product.
What sets NX X apart from competitors?
Like most engineering design products on the market, NX equips users with the tools necessary for conducting high-performance CAD functions and insightful 3D visual reporting, making it easy to quickly identify key elements within a design, and thereby change them across systems to avoid slowing down the product development and introduction process. With NX X doing all this from the cloud, the rate of change is even greater; more powerful. But, in addition to its cloud environment, what sets NX X apart from competitors are several characteristics:
Advanced functions in NX X
At its most basic level, designers use NX X to create and edit designs for mechanical parts and assemblies with solid modeling and drafting, freeform modeling and sheet metal design. In turn, companies can swiftly examine designs; validate and check product attributes/performance such as stress and vibrations; reuse pieces within their library; and execute custom programming to deliver the value they need when they want it. Building on all these capabilities, NX X at its most advanced form can also enable rendering, basic routing, greater validation checking, 3D annotations, user-defined features, flexible printed circuit board (PCB) design, surface analysis, design optimization, molded part validation and much more. Not all CAD solutions on the market can provide these capabilities!
Token licensing with CAD add-ons
To increase flexibility, value and deliver a competitive advantage, NX Design products—such as NX X—now support token licensing. This approach provides access to over 100 add-on applications which can extend the value of NX data. Tools such as electrical and mechanical routing, human modeling and more design functions, are all accessible from the token pool without the need to select specific add-ons and their quantities. This means organizations gain much greater flexibility than ever before, as they can run only what they need, when they need it. They don’t have to make separate purchases to access new products from day one. This approach is more cost effective than accessing individual licenses for these products. It provides unmatched flexibility, scalability and security.
Software integrations
Finally, one of the most tangible benefits (and competitive differentiators) of NX X is its coalescing capacities. The architecture of NX X allows for external software integrations, meaning, any prior technology investments can synchronize and work with NX X, even if that technology investment is from a competitor. Through this open environment, businesses gain a seamless methodology for creating machines or parts, as NX X will not hinder data translations nor slow down processes between two different software systems. In fact, NX X truly maximizes its value from best-in-class integrations with the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio—a suite of products that provide several capabilities, from product lifecycle management to advanced simulation, to immersive design and much more. Our forthcoming blog series will cover the full scope of NX X integration capacities and their implications for companies of any size.
Who is a good fit for NX X?
NX X has a flavor that will satisfy all types of customers. There is an option for everyone, from the small startup to a global manufacturer. Built on 50 years of continuous innovation and our trusted, industry-leading Parasolid kernel, NX X allows our customers to seamlessly scale designs in tandem with their business’ growth. With award-winning capabilities, secure and trusted data management, seamless global collaboration, simplified IT SaaS delivery and unconstrained innovation, NX X provides a unique, cloud-based offering that helps our customers achieve their digital transformation goals. To see the power of NX X in action, take the NX X free trial and follow the NX X blog series to unlock the possibilities of tomorrow, today.
NX X is part of Siemens’ Designcenter, a software suite that brings together its portfolio of design and engineering software including Solid Edge and NX in one unified offering so that companies of any size can design and collaborate using the industry-leading Parasolid modeling kernel.