Enjoy greater accessibility to important product information and address the challenges of designing next-gen products.

Written by: Dale Tutt, vice president, Industry Strategy, Siemens and Andreas Kühmichel, global head of Technology Industrial Sector, IBM

To keep up with rising product complexity, engineers need more powerful systems engineering tools that offer enhanced modeling capabilities and leverage the power of generative AI. Siemens and IBM announced last year that we are collaborating to accelerate sustainable product development and operations. Since then, the two companies have partnered to provide standard systems engineering solutions through the integration of IBM Engineering Systems Design Rhapsody with Siemens Teamcenter, Polarion and Capital. By working together, we have updated the interface of our systems engineering tools and developed prescriptive templates for engineers to seamlessly adopt the solutions. Siemens and IBM are now collaborating to augment the product development and operation optimization capabilities enabling engineers to build with IBM’s AI and data platform, IBM watsonx. This helps provide access to relevant information and tools throughout the engineering process.

The joint team is continuously extending and innovating the solutions using a digital thread approach, providing leading-edge digital tools that enable organizations to create, maintain and capitalize on digital threads. These digital threads seamlessly connect data sources across the product and service lifecycle. As a result, organizations enjoy greater accessibility to important product information and can address the challenges associated with designing next-generation products based on actual data from manufacturing and operations.

Digital threads connect every aspect of the product lifecycle

Digital threads are the essential link to a product’s mechanical, electrical, electronics and software design. This includes manufacturing and other downstream operations, such as maintenance, service and end-of-life management. Digital threads are becoming the essential and mandatory technology to cope with regulatory compliance and maintenance requirements and are implemented and defined during product design. Product-related information can flow seamlessly between cross-functional teams, breaking down data silos and communication barriers that impede collaboration and put product quality at risk. Engineers and other stakeholders work from a single source of truth to coordinate work more efficiently without worrying that information is lost or outdated. As a result, stakeholders can make well-informed decisions throughout the product development process.

The digital threads and digital twins of physical assets, fleets or factories ensure accurate contextualized data flow and optimized service processes from engineering to operations. With increasing requirements and more regulations from the EU, as well as in other countries, the need for monitoring and management of the product lifecycle has become even more important.

The new combined engineering solution from Siemens and IBM can provide data visibility and support traceability throughout the product lifecycle, from early design and manufacturing to operations, maintenance, updates and end-of-life management. This can help companies make informed decisions earlier in the design and provides an engineering process to help drive improvements in cost, performance and sustainability.

GenAI-enhanced digital threads can automate and transform workflows for companies and bring complex and more sustainable products to market faster

Systems engineering is a very complex process that requires engineers with unique skill sets. When bringing GenAI into our systems engineering solutions, the technology can help automate the creation of system models. Engineers can also then use natural language processing to operate faster. Instead of manually typing, drawing and curating the design by coding, engineers can instead verbally instruct the system and software on the task they want to perform.

There will be a process to develop the knowledge base that trains the model, but over time it will be able to assist the engineers with recommendations and speed up the design process. Then the next step will be to generate software codes automatically using GenAI technology, leveraging the extensive knowledge base that has been built into your system. In reality, this helps to democratize systems engineering and make it accessible to more people with a broader skill set. There has always been a shortage of specialized experts in the marketplace, and this approach can help broaden the potential pool of engineers that companies can hire for systems engineering jobs, accelerating the product development process and shortening time to market.

IBM’s AI and data platform, IBM watsonx securely enables engineers to use large language models (LLMs) and other foundation models in a truly open environment, avoiding vendor lock-in based on development in IBM Research. This open approach enables engineers to design highly complex products with confidence and spend more time focusing on key differentiators such as quality and sustainability.

Siemens and IBM are also collaborating on developing a SysML v2-based solution with an associated migration path for businesses to transition to the next generation Systems Lifecycle Management solutions. SysML defines a modern modular standard for the specification, analysis, design, verification and validation of a broad range of systems and systems-of-systems. Service lifecycle management can assist in maximizing business value for product serviceability by connecting service engineering and maintenance to facilitate new collaborative processes between OEM and operators.

Systems engineering is being adopted by nearly every industry as a more holistic, collaborative and efficient approach is required in the market

Most people know systems engineering from aerospace and automotive industries; they are indeed the early adopters of the systems engineering approach. However, today the application of systems engineering extends beyond these industries into a wider range of sectors that have electronics and software embedded in their products. These industries require a holistic, collaborative and efficient approach to designing complex electromechanical systems.

Electronics

The integration of electronics into a wide range of products and industries is fueling significant growth and innovation around the world. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even greater convergence of electronics with other emerging technologies. For electronics designers and manufacturers, they need a solution that unifies electrical, mechanical and software domains on a single platform. This can provide a comprehensive system view that encourages innovation and accelerates development cycles. They also need a smart manufacturing strategy to enable businesses to connect and streamline processes from customer desire, engineering and production to service.

Aerospace

As the early adopter of systems engineering, organizations in this industry are developing cutting-edge platforms and systems with exceptional performance goals. Governments are transforming infrastructure and security systems for new aircraft and technology. Companies need innovation, facilitated by collaborative, synchronized program management across the product lifecycle and value chain. Multidisciplinary design and optimization provide a comprehensive design solution that integrates critical aspects of product development, including mechanical, electrical and software design. That way when requirements change, all aspects of the design can adapt simultaneously, significantly speeding up and reducing the impact of change.

Automotive

Software and systems engineering accelerates the development of electric vehicles (EV), advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), interaction with the vehicle for maintenance and usability and autonomous vehicle (AV) feature deployment. It does so by utilizing methodologies, processes and tools that manage the rapid increase of software and electronics while providing mechanical system alignment. As vehicle software becomes increasingly interconnected and integrated across multiple domain systems, combining advanced software and systems engineering are required to ensure software and hardware interoperability. This approach will help deliver vehicle performance, compliance, safety and cybersecurity while meeting challenging cost and timing targets.

Design and manufacture sustainable and complex products faster

Companies today face more pressure than ever to deliver sustainable and quality products on short timelines. At the same time, rising product complexity is making it harder to coordinate cross-domain engineering and manufacturing work with other functional departments. Siemens and IBM’s joint solution for systems engineering and asset lifecycle management helps manufacturers realize continuous integration across domains from concept through operation.

For additional information about current Siemens and IBM joint offerings visit our respective websites at the Siemens + IBM Partnership Page.