To Conduct Digital Simulations - Even Before the Product Itself Is Built
Boaz Budnick, the Business Operations Manager of Siemens Digital Industries Software in Israel, dealing with software solutions for planning, designing and manufacturing complex products, explains how digital twins can significantly shorten development time and time-to-market while saving money.
From air defense systems through fighter jets, vehicles and machines, to smart phones: Siemens Digital Industries Software's advanced solutions in Israel assist in designing a wide range of complex products from engineering and industry realms. As part of Siemens AG, the company develops software solutions that help organizations of all sizes and industries plan efficiently, effectively, and conveniently for the next generation of innovative products encountered in our daily lives.
"Our solutions are relevant to anyone developing and manufacturing multi-disciplinary products," says Boaz Budnick, who manages Siemens Digital Industries Software's business operations in Israel. "We touch on a wide range of products, including missiles, aircraft, vehicles, and electronics. In fact, almost all our developments are strongly felt by the general public - in smartphones and other electronic products. Much of our work is carried out with various security companies that develop military solutions and counter-terrorism systems. Our other customers in the country come from medical, machinery, and electronics fields."
Budnick emphasizes that while they work with industrial manufacturers, their focus is on software technology. "Although we belong to the global Siemens, which deals extensively with manufacturing, we are a pure software company. Our mission is to bring digital transformation to the engineering world using advanced digital twin technologies, simulations, and other smart design solutions."
According to him, Siemens Digital Industries Software in Israel is deeply committed to the Israeli industry. "Global Siemens arrived in Israel back in the 1980s and helped drive the local industry. Since then, we've been supporting various industries in the country. Especially in the current period, we continue to work closely with Israeli companies - many of them in the security manufacturing sector like IAI,Elbit, Rafael, and the Ministry of Defense. Today, the company operates a development center with 350 Israeli employees, developing software solutions."
Digital Twins and Digital Threads
One of the most prominent trends regarding the intersection of technology and industry is the world of digital twins. It's an innovative approach based on various technologies that allows for precise digital representations of physical products in the digital realm. The goal of digital twins is to conduct a variety of tests, examinations, and simulations of products even before the start of actual production, thus improving planning and development processes.
"When we conduct simulations using digital twins instead of physical products in the real world, we can significantly shorten the development time," explains Budnick. "The result is not only cost savings but also quicker market arrival with a finished product. Digital twins don't just deal with the mechanical product itself but also with controlling software, electronics, and various disciplines."
Budnick mentions an Israeli startup developing an explosive material detection system designed to secure airports and other human sites from terrorist actions. "Their system includes a vacuum head, much like a vacuum cleaner, capable of suctioning air particles and identifying explosive materials within them. The same company spent too much time trying to improve the vacuum head itself: they underwent numerous trials and errors to examine its effectiveness in suctioning particles even from a great distance. Nowadays, there are technologies that can digitally simulate air suction. In other words, instead of planning the product for months, printing various components in 3D, and conducting physical tests - they ran the simulation with us and managed to achieve the maximum solution within weeks."
Another significant trend in the world of software solutions for industry is digital threads. "A digital thread links all development processes from the beginning to production," he clarifies. "In essence, a digital thread includes defining requirements, system engineering, software development, and even the manufacturing processes themselves. The digital thread connects these processes end-to-end. When a change occurs, for instance, it's easy to see its impact on all the different disciplines of the development processes. On the flip side, if a product has a flaw in the field, we can track it along the digital thread and make changes to solve it easily."
Smart Tools for Product Lifecycles
Budnick notes that Siemens Digital Industries Software in Israel provides advanced technology from the realms of digital twins and digital threads. "We know how to deliver the technology of those digital tools. For example, today, many companies want to introduce robotics and automation solutions into the production line. Before investing heavily in automation itself, our technology can simulate the entire production process using digital technology. If you're a product manufacturer and you want to introduce automation into the production process, instead of building the physical cell and investing a lot of money - you can model the entire manufacturing process in digital software. This way, you can check beforehand whether the processes are more efficient."
Our platform is called Siemens Xcelerator. It is the most advanced technological platform on the market, offered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud service, and includes a wide range of smart tools for product engineering, simulation, and product lifecycle management (PLM).
The software caters to companies of all sizes, enabling them to manage various planning and development tools in one address. It allows different planning teams access to diverse Siemens applications designed for simulation, digital twin management, testing, and data analysis.
Siemens Software recently announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft and incorporates AI technologies (Co-pilot) into its various solutions, allowing managers to interact with solutions in natural language, similar to interacting with Chat GPT - asking the Digital Twin different questions and adjusting parameters in the model through natural language.
The Blue and white term refer to products or developments that related to Israel (colors of the flag)
In collaboration with Siemens software for industry in Israel
