Siemens and AWS Combine to Deliver VW’s Industrial Cloud

Siemens and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are working together to deliver Volkswagen’s Industrial Cloud platform. The platform will be the cornerstone of the automobile manufacturer’s Industry 4.0 plans, connecting its 122 manufacturing plants, improving the firm’s capabilities to analyze data in real time (by connecting machine, plant, and systems data), providing staff with a centralized app store, and enabling third-party suppliers to collaborate and develop applications that will be available via the app store.

AWS is tailoring its expertise in collecting, assimilating, and analyzing data for automobile production. With domain expertise in the automotive industry, Siemens is working as an integration partner on the factory floors, automating the data collection and connecting the machinery and plants to the Industrial Cloud. VW’s data has been transferred to the Industrial Cloud since April 2019, and partners have been added to the platform throughout 2020, including ABB, ASCon Systems, BearingPoint, Celonis, Dürr, GROB-WERKE, MHP, NavVis, SYNAOS, Teradata, and WAGO.

Volkswagen’s Industrial Cloud is an ambitious endeavor not only looking to be a centralized data hub for the manufacturer but also act as a catalyst for innovation by outside suppliers. For more information on how industrial cloud can encompass everything from the factory floor and support manufacturers’ supply chains, please see the ABI Research report The Industrial Cloud (AN-5014).

VW sets the strategic direction for the platform and the specific delivery requirements with regards to the IT architecture (including the firm’s digital production platform). Siemens is deploying MindSphere, the company’s industrial IoT as a service solution, enabling VW to connect and manage its machines and edge devices via AWS in order to perform tasks such as condition-based monitoring, predictive maintenance, and monitor Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). In addition, the company has the opportunity in the future to enable third-party suppliers and VW staff members to create their own solutions utilizing the Mendix low-code application development platform, which makes it possible for users to collect data and generate insights in real time, create custom applications, and run them locally as edge apps.

AWS will integrate the VW plants and continue to add third-party solutions to the platform. The Industrial Cloud platform will provide VW with the capability to control the flow of parts and materials around the plants, be able to quickly both detect and rectify any supply chain shortages or process glitches, and create digital twins of its operations to test production capacity and plan maintenance schedules. By the end of 2020, Siemens and AWS will have connected 18 VW locations.

The Industrial Cloud platform is evidence that Tier One manufacturers, like VW, appreciate the scale and deployment speed afforded by hyperscalers such as AWS, but also the need to partner with firms like Siemens that have the expertise to work with the machinery and staff on the factory floor. Indeed, the ultimate objective for VW is to incorporate data from the company’s entire supply chain, which includes more than 1,500 suppliers and partner companies that between them operate more than 30,000 sites.

For smaller software suppliers, the Industrial Cloud increases their addressable user base as more VW locations get connected and provide opportunities to accelerate product development by collaborating with other partners. In fact, VW is actively encouraging partners to share their data in order to create more efficient solutions. All participants can collaborate at the joint Industrial Cloud Innovation Center in Berlin. With plans afoot to onboard more than 200 additional supplier partners, there will need to be some consideration by VW, Siemens, and AWS for how the app store operates so that users can easily identify the applications that fit their requirements, and all suppliers have an equal chance of adoption and to generate revenues.