Siemens and APM – Managing a New World of Energy Provision

As one of the world's largest and most well recognized technology brands, Siemens understands all too well how the world of energy provision is transforming before its very eyes.

Deregulation and the rise of renewables are creating a new role for fossil-based energy in daily cyclical generation and handling peaks in demand. This is not something most power plants were designed for, and is necessitating a new school of thought when it comes to providing field services to these kinds of facilities. Reliability must be provided and at the lowest cost possible if these plants are to remain viable.

This has led to Siemens developing an Asset Performance Management (APM) approach to its field service provision and is now working with energy companies to make its vision a reality.

Asset Performance Management

APM is a maintenance philosophy which focusses on the reliability of assets and seeks to ensure each piece of equipment can be counted on to perform its role without any incidences of unplanned and costly downtime.

However, APM does not simply focus of the physical wellbeing of a machine. The philosophy also covers people, processes, and management practices, as well as systems, data, reporting, and any other facet of business operations which determine performance.

APM, indeed, is a holistic field service philosophy. Whereas traditional field service would simply focus on the machines at the bottom level, APM understands the way the entire organization is run will affect potential asset performance and acts accordingly by translating those core business objectives into asset-related decisions, plans, and activities.

One aspect of the modern powerplant which is becoming increasingly critical to APM is data. Siemens has been at the fore of data science for many years now and understands how to turn raw digital information into actionable insights which can drive decision making.

"The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is increasingly significant for systems that used to be monitored through routine inspections," says Siemens in its white paper on how APM is boosting fossil fuel plant capacity. "It has become much easier and cheaper to use smart sensors for condition monitoring. Data is coming to match the asset itself in importance. That is why operational technology vendors are fast incorporating IoT into their products and roadmaps. This enables engineers to change their roles from reading and recording data to analyzing the output of smart meters: data turns into business advantage."

APM and SAP

To further boost its ability to deploy effective APM solutions to its clients, Siemens has recently strengthened its partnership with SAP.

The new, deeper partnership will initially focus of discrete manufacturing and will allow Siemens to offer SAP Asset Intelligence Network, the SAP Asset Strategy and Performance Management application, and the SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management package as part of its asset management offering. SAP will offer Siemens' Teamcenter® software service lifecycle management (SLM) portfolio to enable an ecosystem with integrated service engineering asset operations.

The plan is to deliver a more complete cloud-based package, which will create a new ecosystem of digital asset management solutions and boost operational efficiency, reduce unplanned downtime, and shorten design cycles and time to market.

"Siemens is helping industrial companies make more confident decisions by closing the loop between IT and OT," said Cedrik Neike, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries. "Through this partnership we are enabling a true digital thread that integrates real time operations-based data with virtual product and asset models using components from both Siemens and SAP to provide operational insights. This can accelerate digital transformation for industrial equipment owners, operators and manufacturers who can offer new business models including performance and usage-based cost, and to more efficiently use assets."

This new development will build on the strategic partnership established between the two companies back in 2020 and will help them offer a new level of digital APM moving forwards.

Final Thoughts

APM is undoubtedly the future of asset management. Companies which take a holistic view of the entire organization when creating strategies for the ongoing maintenance of their critical machines are the ones which are most likely to see the greatest returns in the future.

You can hear Siemens' Senior Vice President Global Services, Brad Haeberle speak at Field Service Palm Springs 2021, taking place in November at the JW Marriott, Palm Springs, CA.

Please download the agenda today for more information and insights.