Outlook 2015: Rajiv Ghatikar of Siemens PLM Software

Rajiv Ghatikar, Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN and Australasia, Siemens PLM Software
ASEAN is moving ahead to forge a strong regional supplier ecosystem and adopting disruptive technologies that will change the way people live and create products. The 3 noteworthy trends that will be big in metalworking and manufacturing in 2015 are:

Smart technologies
Smart technology will have the greatest impact on the manufacturing industry. Today’s products and machines are becoming increasingly complex, with operations that depend on internal software that’s typically more complicated than the design itself, not to mention the push to connect products to the Internet. Key to success in this manufacturing environment is to embrace “digitalisation”, a concept that extends beyond creating digital pictures to adopting digital as a fundamental approach to innovation. The next generation of smart products will have additional dimensions of connectedness and cognitive capability - smart innovation that enables a model-based enterprise in which smart product development is based on "systems thinking”.

Big data in PLM
In this new world of intelligent, connected products, data collected about a product’s operating environment and about how customers use the product can be tapped by product designers as they consider improvements for the next generation. But the value of that information is only optimised when designers apply intelligence and action to this data to improve product automation and production. This is where Big Data will come into play. Recognising the need for segregating the relevant pieces of data from the larger mass of information, companies are  diverting their IT spends towards setting up specialised data optimisation laboratories and arming their data centres with state-of-the-art data mining mechanisms. Traditional factory floor data analysis tools, like Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), are making way for newer, faster, smarter Product Lifecycle Management applications.

Digital manufacturing
A key point of integration between PLM and various shop floor applications and equipment, enabling the exchange of product-related information between design and manufacturing groups.

For instance, let’s look at the automotive sector - in 2012, the ASEAN nations manufactured more than 4.2 million vehicles, including nearly 2.5 million in Thailand. The highest sales were in Thailand (1.4 million), Indonesia (1.1 million), and Malaysia (627,000). It is predicted a 2.2 million-unit increase in passenger car production in Southeast Asia by 2020. With car demand slowing in China and reversing in India, global marques with excess capacity are retooling their strategy in Southeast Asia and taking bold steps into previously overlooked markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and even Myanmar.

With the growing ambition and growth, come key challenges like environmental issues, safety, information management and market complexity. Innovation is the only key to solve these challenges. PLM is important for manufacturers to empower businesses to make unified, information-driven decisions at every stage in the product lifecycle. A good example of this is Siemens PLM incorporating cloud capabilities in its software to increase cost effectiveness, improve efficiency and product quality, and speed up time-to-market.

A quick note on geographical trends in manufacturing:
While there were a lot of talks about reshoring in 2014, manufacturers from the U.S. and Europe still found the need to shift production closer to the growing Asian consumer markets. They sought outposts such as Singapore that have enhanced their capabilities in advanced manufacturing and other high-tech areas such as robotics and 3D printing. This trend will continue well into 2015.