Mar 29, 2019
“Engineering Industries eXcellence performed a Plant Simulation model for one of our lines. Their simulation expert, Carlos Ortega, did an outstanding job on the model and the results provided us valuable information to make key decisions on our line design. Engineering Industries eXcellence is a preferred supplier of ours when it comes to Teamcenter Manufacturing activities. When businesses ask me internally on how to get started with PLM in Manufacturing, I point them towards Plant Simulation since it does not require heavy integration at the beginning of the journey. Plant Simulation has given us the ability to make more qualified decisions early in the project, prior to ordering equipment. We have saved thousands of dollars by investing in this technology.” - Douglas Hill, Manager, Emerson Electric
About the Customer
The Emerson Electric Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Ferguson, Missouri. The Fortune 500 company manufactures products and provides engineering services for a wide range of industrial, commercial, and consumer markets. Emerson is a global leader in the Energy & Emissions, Safety, Sustainability, Power and Automation sectors, amongst others. In a continuously expanding partnership, our leading Manufacturing Plant Simulation team is helping Emerson create living Digital Twins for both their HVAC and sensor manufacturing divisions in North America.
The Customer’s Need
As an innovator and market leader, Emerson has been on a journey of digital adoption ahead of the industry curve. Having already seen the benefits of Siemens Teamcenter Manufacturing to close the gap between their engineering and manufacturing data management processes, Emerson next looked towards the Digital Twin.
Douglas Hill, Manager for Teamcenter Manufacturing at Emerson Electric, explained the natural progression of Emerson's digital transformation journey and the value his team saw in the implementation of the Digital Twin: “The idea of a Digital Twin, at first, seemed to be a notional idea. As we have moved forward and through our digital journey at Emerson, we have recognized the importance of Model-Based-Enterprise and have had several initiatives that address this...We are continuing to invest in tools that support re-use of data, planning processes and simulations, ultimately allowing us to leverage our data across the business, bringing value by reducing costs and maximizing returns on investments. There are many ways to address and implement the Digital Twin, all the way from product engineering to manufacturing process development to shop floor data acquisition, reporting, and consumption. We have made investments in people and software because we believe in this strategy and desire digital threads throughout the organization to eliminate redundant and provide quality information that can be trusted."
Business Drivers
For this project, Emerson aimed to:
- Improve overall productivity and profitability
- Improve order promising and better predict module completion dates
- Gain insight into inefficiencies in product storage and idle times
- Improve allocation of workforce and resources to minimize risk of delay of completion dates
- Justify investment in new acquisitions and manpower
- Improve accuracy of the input data and minimize time of data acquisition
About the Project
For our first Digital Twin initiative, our team leveraged Siemens Tecnomatix Plant Simulation to design and build a complete plant simulation model for Emerson’s new HVAC division line. The virtual model could then be used to test scenarios and analyze different inputs to answer questions about the optimal layout of the facility, equipment and containers to be purchased.
Next, our team designed and built a second plant simulation model for one of the customer's Automation & Controls plants. Moving forward, this simulation template will be used as a global template for Emerson’s entire sensor manufacturing division. Since the completion of both models, our team has continued to expand the Digital Twins delivered to Emerson in order to add functionalities and improve the models based on the evolving needs of the customer, their operations and their business. We look forward to continue our collaboration with Emerson Electric and to support them along each step of their exciting digital transformation journey ahead.
