Siemens/Google Cloud: AI-based solutions in Manufacturing

Latest announcement made by Siemens and Google Cloud details their new cooperation to optimise factory processes and improve shop floor productivity.

“Siemens is a leader in advancing industrial automation and software, and Google Cloud is a leader in data analytics and AI/ML. This cooperation will combine the best of both worlds and bring AI/ML to the manufacturing industry at scale. By simplifying the deployment of AI in industrial use cases, we’re helping employees augment their critical work on the shop floor,” said Dominik Wee, Managing Director Manufacturing and Industrial at Google Cloud. 

Data and legacy systems in manufacturing

While “data drives today’s industrial processes”, many manufacturers continue to use legacy software and multiple systems to analyse information, with ‘islands’ of AI projects.

As part of their cooperation, Siemens will integrate Google Cloud's data cloud and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AL/ML) technologies with its factory automation solution. In doing so the two will help manufacturers to drive innovation in the future.

“The potential for artificial intelligence to radically transform the plant floor is far from being exhausted. Many manufacturers are still stuck in AI ‘pilot projects’ today - we want to change that. Combining AI/ML technology from Google Cloud with Siemens’ solutions for Industrial Edge and industrial operation will be a game changer for the manufacturing industry,” said Axel Lorenz, VP of Control at Factory Automation of Siemens Digital Industries.

Siemens and Google Cloud

By combining Google Cloud’s data cloud and AI/ML capabilities with Siemens’ Digital Industrial Factory Automation portfolio, the two aim to help manufacturers harmonise their factory data, run cloud-based AI/ML models on the data, and deploy algorithms at the network edge. 

In doing so, manufacturers can harness applications that visually inspect products or predict the wear and tear of machines.

Siemens and Google Cloud’s overall goal for the cooperation is “to make the deployment of AI in connection with the industrial edge - and its management at scale - easier, empowering employees as they work on the plant floor, automating mundane tasks, and improving overall quality.”

For more information on manufacturing topics - please take a look at the latest edition of Manufacturing Global.

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