Volkswagen, AWS, Siemens open Industrial Cloud to additional partners

MANILA: Volkswagen, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Siemens, its integration partner, have made the Industrial Cloud available to other technology and production companies.

New partner companies will be able to interact with Volkswagen facilities and add their software applications for maximizing manufacturing products and processes to the Industrial Cloud. Through this, a fast-growing roster of industrial software applications for the plants of Volkswagen will be made.

Every site will be able to acquire machinery applications, as well as equipment and tools, directly from the Industrial Cloud for optimization of the production process (through an app-store approach).

Aside from this, new business opportunities for smart products become more available and operational efficiency is enhanced across the whole value chain.

The Volkswagen Group anticipates essential productivity and efficiency benefits in its facilities. The partner companies have the potential to offer and upgrade applications in one of the massive automobile manufacturing networks worldwide. 

Through this, the Volkswagen Group will be able to consider the varied framework of its plants while evading the necessity for competent in-house improvement of specialized applications.

The partner companies will also be able to earn specialized knowledge for software development and scale up their software applications as market solutions.

As an initial step, eleven founding global companies, namely, WAGO, Teradata, SYNAOS, NavVis, MHP, GROB-WERKE, Dürr, Celonis, BearingPoint, ASCon, and ABB, will become part of the Industrial Cloud.

In the future, the Industrial Cloud will comprise all the facilities of Volkswagen worldwide and its global supply chain. It will also aid in information exchange between facilities and systems.

The system is based on AWS innovations in the areas of computational services, data analytics, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT), which have been extended particularly to meet the needs of Volkswagen and the automobile sector.

Software applications will enhance the Industrial Cloud development as a whole. Such applications include, for instance, an algorithm with artificial intelligence (AI) to compute the requirements of driverless transport systems for plant logistics and to deliver these systems in a suitable approach.

Furthermore, software that is available is for the optimization of plant efficiency (Overall Equipment Effectiveness or OEE), and a specific application for producing a digital twin on the cloud. This is for the simulation of the maintenance intervals and capacity distribution of machines without interference in the actual manufacturing process.

Both AWS and Volkswagen perceive the Industrial Cloud development into an open partner network as an essential step. It also aims to further strengthen the App Store approach.

Over the course of time, the goal of the partners is to establish a marketplace for commercial applications. All the participants shall be able to share their applications with one another, receive applications, and utilize them regardless of any connection to Volkswagen. The improvement of the technological basis for this sector is already underway.

Photo from Volkswagen

Also read: Volkswagen Group ramps up Industrial Cloud integration of facilities