Empowering customers with Siemens technology to unlock the potential of digitalisation

Dr. Pham Thai Lai, president and CEO of Siemens ASEAN and Vietnam

What can Siemens offer present and future customers undertaking the digitalisation journey?

Digitalisation is transforming all areas of our lives and is rewriting business models even as we speak. Manufacturing industries can benefit a great deal from technology such as generative design and intelligent models. Production becomes more innovative through additive manufacturing, advanced robotics, AI, and new service models are being developed with the use of cloud solutions and knowledge automation.

To enable companies to fully make use of their digitalisation potential, Siemens is offering Digital Enterprise, a holistic portfolio of software and automation solutions. The portfolio enables industrial companies of all sizes to implement current and future technologies for automation and digitalisation. Thus, they can tap into the full potential of Industry 4.0 and get ready for the next leg of their digital transformation journey.

Which challenges currently facing Vietnam’s manufacturers can digitalisation help address?

Reducing time to market, increasing flexibility, and improving quality while also ensuring energy efficiency are the main challenges manufacturers are looking to resolve today. At the same time, they must decide where to start their digitalisation journey and what to fix first.

Digitalisation can help manufacturers with their complete value chain starting from product design and production planning to product engineering, product execution, and finally, operational services. Siemens offers a holistic approach to the integration of manufacturers’ value chains. We are the only technology provider to have a thorough product portfolio addressing all the five aforementioned value chain steps. We go beyond our role as a product or system provider to being a consultant that provides additional advice to manufacturers on how to customise and tailor an ideal digitalised road map.

How can Siemens digital solutions help manufacturers achieve greater success?

Manufacturers are looking for solutions to address different challenges. They may look to shorten the time it takes to bring a new product to market while ensuring consistent quality on a global scale. Alternatively, they may want to improve management or achieve more flexible product variations. The “one product fits all” approach is no longer an option when consumers want to custom-fit products.

For example, we introduced our Braumat system to help automatically control the brewing process for producers. The challenge is that an increasing number of consumers do not favour standard taste, they long for different flavours. The demand for variations leads to the need for a brewing control system that allows manufacturers to quickly switch from one recipe to another without compromising time and quality. Siemens offers the solutions that enable manufacturers to gain transparency, know what is happening during the brewing process, and change recipes without much downtime.

Another field is energy efficiency, where our condition monitoring systems could help manufacturers anticipate when, for instance, a motor should be changed, even before it breaks, based on key performance indicators like temperature, vibration, and noise, among others. This anticipation prevents manufacturers from shutting the whole factory line and drastically reduces maintenance expenses. In short, digitalisation provides manufacturers with better visibility of their production for a timely response.

Backed by over 170 years of industry know-how and understanding, Siemens as a digital technology provider can help enterprises optimise their entire value chain.

How is Siemens helping customers in Vietnam unlock the full potential of digitalisation?

In Vietnam, we are pleased to work with several enterprises that are pioneering digital transformation, such as VinFast and Truong Hai Auto Corporation (THACO).

As Vietnam’s first volume car manufacturer, VinFast has successfully produced its first cars ahead of schedule using Siemens’ portfolio of integrated software and hardware. The entire value chain has been integrated and digitalised with Siemens’ Digital Enterprise portfolio.

In particular, VinFast has selected a suite of product lifecycle management (PLM) tools from Siemens Digital Industries Software to help realise their plans for next-generation automotive and transportation design.

Siemens has provided a digitalisation solution across the entire automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) value chain, which enabled VinFast to become the first Vietnamese-made automobile brand and to promote the development of the industrial and manufacturing sector in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, THACO – a well­-established auto manufacturing, assembly, and distribution enterprise – has been a valued Siemens customer for many years. THACO has deployed Siemens Teamcenter, an integrated computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) solution, Simcenter 1D and 3D, and the Siemens LMS Test to build the corporation’s research and development centre.

Last but not least, the partnership between Cosmos and Vietbay, a Siemens Digital Industries Software partner, led to the implementation of NX software solutions. Through the use of NX, Cosmos digitalised part of its manufacturing process, from CAD models to finished parts. The integrated CAD/CAM solution helped improve production efficiency by 50 per cent, while increasing quality and reducing costs.

At Siemens, we are well aware that each company has specific needs and requirements that need to be acknowledged individually. Therefore, our Digital Enterprise portfolio is specifically tailored to suit the individual needs of various industries. We can help to maximise the journey to digitalisation and Industry 4.0 by unlocking the full potential of digitalisation for all.