PLM, simulation and MES for AI data centersData centers now have part numbers.

Power skids, CDUs and whole reference halls are now engineered once, released by revision and built in factories by the dozen. IndX brings the Siemens systems that aerospace and industrial manufacturers depend on to the teams building AI infrastructure.

RA1-ELV-003 · Site 07ECO-1182 in work
  • 20+ yearsdelivering Siemens PLM and MES programs
  • 200+consultants across North America, EMEA and LATAM
  • Smart ExpertSiemens partner designation for digital manufacturing

The industry shift

AI capacity is being built as a product line.

For most of the industry's history, each facility was a project with its own drawings, its own contractors and its own surprises. The builders scaling fastest for AI work differently. They standardize a reference hall, prefabricate power and cooling in factories, and repeat the design site after site.

That is how you add capacity at the pace the market is asking for. It is also how a data center company inherits the engineering problems of an equipment manufacturer.

~945 TWh

Projected global data center electricity demand in 2030, more than double the 415 TWh of 2024.

IEA · April 2025
131,000 ft²

Raleigh facility Siemens opened to assemble prefabricated power delivery systems for data centers.

Siemens · March 2026
RA-1 · Reference hall

Electrical code

  • UL
  • IEC

Grid

  • 60 Hz
  • 50 Hz

Rack cooling

  • Direct-to-chip
  • Rear-door HX
  • Air

Heat rejection

  • Dry cooler
  • Adiabatic
  • Chiller
2 × 2 × 3 × 3 = 36 valid configurations of one reference design, before the first site-specific exception. Someone has to know which one each site is running.

Where it breaks

Five places a revision goes missing between CAD and commissioning.

None of these are exotic. They are what happens when an organization set up for one-off projects starts shipping the same product by the dozen. The most expensive ones are found furthest from where they started.

Failure log · typical, not customer-specific5 open
WhereWhat happensUsually discoveredFix it at
Site configurationSite 7 needs IEC switchgear, so someone copies the Site 3 package and edits it by hand. The fix never reaches the reference design.When a supplier quotes the wrong part
Engineering changeA manifold change is approved on Tuesday. The traveler for unit 41 was printed on Monday.At the loading dock
Thermal designRack density went up after the cooling model was run, and nobody reran it against the new load.During commissioning
Factory qualityPressure test results live on a paper sheet that travels with the skid. Rework agreed on the floor never reaches engineering.When a customer asks for the records
HandoverAs-built data is spread across the EPC, the integrator and four equipment suppliers, in four formats.At the first maintenance work order
Nobody wants to discover a revision problem after 40 modules have shipped.
The cost of a missed change grows with every unit built on it

The digital thread, applied

Follow one module from its first revision to its first work order.

Six stages, each with its own way of failing. Pick your role to see which stages usually matter first for teams like yours. Very few companies need every platform on day one.

Engineering

The reference design becomes a product. The power train, cooling loop and hall structure get one engineering BOM with released revisions.

The design lives in CAD folders and spreadsheets. Each project starts by copying the last one, and nobody is sure which copy is current.

We implement Teamcenter product structures for your reference architecture, with release states, ECR/ECO workflows and where-used analysis across every site and module type.

Siemens Teamcenter, Siemens NX

Where to start

Four ways in. Most teams start with one.

Pick the problem you have today. Each pathway stands on its own and connects to the others when you are ready for it.

RA-1 REFERENCE HALL · REV EPOWER TRAIN · REV CCOOLING LOOP · REV FCDU-02 · REV FMANIFOLD · REV EECO-1182USED: 7 SITESHALL STRUCTURE · REV B

Engineering & PLM

Teamcenter · NX

Your reference design is a folder, and every site has its own copy.

Teamcenter gives the design a product structure, a release process and a memory. IndX implements it for repeatable infrastructure, so the reference hall, its variants and every change are managed in one place and handed to the factories that build them.

  • Configurable BOMs
  • ECR/ECO with where-used
  • Supplier collaboration
  • EBOM to MBOM
  • As-designed vs as-built

OutcomeWhen an ECO is approved, you see every site, module type and serial number it touches.

Simulation & digital twins

Simcenter

The cooling model was right for last year's rack density.

Simcenter studies of hall airflow, cold-plate and manifold flow, and CDU loop behavior, including failure cases such as losing a CDU at peak ambient. Results are tied to the design revision they describe.

Module MES

Opcenter

Unit 41 should match unit 1, and you should be able to prove it.

Opcenter Execution on the module line: work instructions locked to the released revision, serialized genealogy, captured test results, NCR and rework.

Capital assets

Teamcenter CALM

On handover day, the asset register gets rebuilt from PDFs.

Teamcenter Capital Asset Lifecycle Management controls engineering data, documents, tags and change across EPCs and suppliers, then carries a structured asset record into operations.

Where we learned this

We learned this on spacecraft, compressors and power equipment.

IndX has spent more than two decades connecting Siemens engineering and manufacturing systems for industrial manufacturers. None of these projects were data centers. They solved the problems you are about to scale into.

20+years delivering Siemens MES and PLM
200+consultants worldwide
100+delivered projects
50+industrial customers
Aerospace · Teamcenter · Opcenter · Simcenter

A connected digital thread for Axiom Space

Together with Siemens and ATA Engineering, IndX helped Axiom Space connect design, manufacturing and sustainment into one digital thread.

Why it transfersA long-life engineered system whose configuration has to stay traceable from design through operation.

Watch the story
  • Siemens VAR, Solution, Global Alliance and Xcelerator partner
  • Siemens Smart Expert designation
  • Gartner Market Guide for MES/MOM Implementation Providers, 2024

Who we work with

Three kinds of teams, three different first questions.

The systems overlap. The starting point rarely does.

AI infrastructure builders

Which revision of the reference design is running in which hall?

  • Standardizing one architecture across regions and grid codes
  • Managing variants without clone-and-own
  • Bringing module manufacturing in-house, or under tighter control

Start with Engineering & PLM

Modular equipment manufacturers

Which engineering revision did unit 41 actually ship with?

  • Engineer-to-order variants on a standard platform
  • Engineering release reaching the line before the build starts
  • Serialized test and inspection records your customers ask for

Start with Module MES

Owners & operators

What exactly did we take ownership of on handover day?

  • Engineering change across EPCs, integrators and suppliers
  • Document and tag control through construction
  • Asset data that works on day one of operations

Start with Capital assets

Sources: IEA, Energy and AI (April 2025) · Siemens, Carolinas investment for data centers (March 2026). Part numbers and drawings are illustrative.

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