Digital Engineering, Advanced Analytics, Connected Materials & Products – they are three Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) initiatives promoting digitalization and its value to innovation. Philipp Oestringer, Technology & Innovation, is the owner and coordinator for all three of the initiatives.
“Digital engineering is nothing new in itself,” Oestringer said. “It started with designs no longer being drawn on paper. Instead people began using CAD programs.” When he talks about digital engineering today, he is mainly thinking in terms of data exchanges and digital networking – for example, computer-aided design (CAD) coupled with the simulations used in computer-aided engineering (CAE). Another example: linkages to the computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) that supports production technologies. “These systems can communicate with one another and understand each other’s data. It is as though you can read information from an Excel file using Microsoft Word,” he said.
One current project in the Digital Engineering initiative is the introduction of a system for the end-to-end (E2E) product-lifecycle-management (PLM) process at FST. This is a software system that contains all of a product’s data over its entire lifecycle – the whole process chain from the original problem, to product development and manufacturing, all the way to recycling. As a first step in the project, FST is mapping a product development process in the PLM system with the help of Siemens’ Teamcenter software. The next step is expected to be advanced development.
Avoiding double work
The advantages of a PLM system are real: It creates transparency and even makes it possible to tap into details from a product’s development history and operating life, from cradle to grave. For audits, for example. This is especially the case when engineers get a requirements catalog that is the same as one already in the system or is similar to it. This kind of engineering know-how is available to every organizational unit. Engineers can build on existing knowledge, and double work is avoided. The same applies when similar questions arise at two or three different areas within the company. The system highlights the opportunity. This is a way to exploit synergies. The software also takes developers by the hand and guides them through each task that the development process requires. The approach is standardized, and the system keeps track of everything. Data sets can be shared with an inventory management system (SAP) or a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Extra work is avoided and efficiency is increased.
Another digital engineering project deals with intellectual property (IP) management, for example, on the question of whether FST should extend its patents or let them expire. The IP management system pulls data such as revenue and costs from SAP and links them to meaningful performance figures that support sound decision-making.
Collecting and evaluating data
The two other strategic digitalization initiatives are also making progress. Connected Products & Materials involves equipping a growing number of products and materials with sensors. For one thing, continual status monitoring with sensors gives FST customers the opportunity to perform pinpoint maintenance. This is known as condition monitoring. For another, FST can use the real-time data to make improvements in its products. Data from real-life operation supplement data collected in tests and simulations.
Data evaluation is the focus of the Advanced Analytics initiative. Currently unused “data sinks” are leveraged. And new data is collected as well. “We want to use these data and empirical values with intelligent algorithms for analyses,” Oestringer said. The objective is less trial and error in development and more smart forecasting based on robust data. “For example, we could use artificial intelligence to help with the development of compounds.”
The growing quality of the data and forecasts make it possible to limit prototype testing. It could be restricted to options that are forecast to perform the best, based on simulations. This saves time and cuts development costs. And it increases the quality of the engineering during the development process. This is immensely important. After all, if developers set the wrong course at the outset, it would be many times more expensive to correct errors during the next stages. At that point, the prototype tools may have been built, machines may have have been ordered, or quality problems may have emerged at the
customer.
But new business opportunities could soon emerge from the growing troves of data, Oestringer said. “We will be able to develop solutions to meet coming requirements, but we don’t even know whether these requirements exist due to a lack of data.” On the subject of new business: Technology & Innovation’s developers are always ready to hear suggestions from the business units.
