The Software Makes The Difference

Software is becoming the differentiating factor for purchasing decisions in machine manufacturing – which has far-reaching consequences for product development. WEISS is already working toward this today. The goal: To support our customers with software-based services over the entire life cycle.

 

In an article for the Wall Street Journal more than ten years ago, Netscape inventor and Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen made a claim that is still considered the unofficial motto of the digitalization movement: "Software is eating the world."

Andreessen meant that software is changing all areas of business from the bottom up and all companies must make mastering its complexity a core competency. Not only at Apple, Microsoft or Google, but everywhere – even in machine manufacturing. This isn't really new for the sector. Today, software development already plays a key role in machine, plant and component manufacturing. However, many underestimate just how dynamically the proportion is shifting from hardware to software and what requirements this puts on the sector.

Software-defined machines are the trend
A quick look at the development of the past decades reveals this trend. Thirty years ago, the mechanical system primarily determined the value of a machine. Since that time, the proportional value of software and electronics in the products of machine and plant manufacturing have continuously risen. Depending on the sector and product, it is now between 50 and 80 percent.

However, it would be false to assume that the proportion is too high now for further increases to be possible. The opposite is true. After all, a paradigm shift that gives software significantly higher priority – albeit in a new way – is currently taking place.

The process is most visible in automobile manufacturing. Earlier, both the customer experience and the competitive ability of the manufacturer were primarily dependent on the hardware. Today, however, customers expect their vehicle to be capable of complete integration into their personal digital ecosystem. In order to satisfy the changed set of expectations, cars are becoming computers on wheels with software-based services that customers can take advantage of, such as to enhance the functionality or performance of their vehicle.

Machine manufacturing as a service and its advantages
In machine manufacturing as well, the major players are leveraging the growing importance of software to set up open automation platforms that function like an app store and provide solutions for a range of Industry 4.0 tasks. Supplemented by the proprietary developments of the manufacturer, this creates a new service ecosystem with solid benefits:

1. Variability and customization at a low price: Versions of conventional products are expensive because each one requires a new physical component. With software, product diversity is much easier and cheaper to achieve. For example, John Deere has an engine in its portfolio whose power can be varied via software.

2. Continuous further development: Traditional machines are in their optimal state when they are shipped and are difficult to improve after the fact. Smart products are different. Within the defined hardware limits, they can be scaled by firmware or software updates over their life cycle.

3. Data-supported quality management: Networked products enable the continuous feedback of performance data during use. The data can be used for design improvements or to eliminate product problems.

4. Networked customer service: Sensors, data collection and diagnostics tools for status and performance monitoring avoid the threat of machine standstills with preventive measures. Beyond that, service efficiency increases because technicians are informed about the status of a machine in advance and are optimally prepared when they arrive at the customer's facility.

5. Stronger customer orientation with a shorter time to market: Changed or new customer needs can be served more quickly with changes to software than with hardware modifications. Furthermore, machine models with identical components in which the software decides about the use of the integrated features are cheaper to produce and faster to launch.

6. Foundation for new business models: With intelligent machines and innovative software, manufacturers can sell the bundle of product and data-based service, making a decisive contribution to consolidating customer loyalty. Selling the product is no longer crucial – what counts is maximizing customer benefits across the entire life cycle.

Growing and new requirements
Machine manufacturers that want to leverage these benefits must face some completely new challenges. On the one hand, the processes in the development, maintenance and marketing of software differ widely from those of physical products.

And the cycles of software products are not comparable to those of machine models. They are calculated in months, not years. Furthermore, the focus of product development must be to enclose individual functions in software modules that can be developed, managed and used independently of each other as independent parts of the modular system. This reduces the complexity to a controllable level.

WEISS sees no choice other than to meet these challenges. "We are currently experiencing a dramatic acceleration in the acceptance and use of a wide variety of software solutions," says Christian Göltl, who is Product Owner at WEISS as part of a global software initiative that pursues a holistic approach to the automation solution from the development process to operation and maintenance with the inclusion of digital services.

Virtual product support with digital twins
This is why WEISS already started developing proprietary software solutions years ago and plans to successively expand the virtual portfolio.

The W.A.S. 2 SCALABLE control package for fast, easy integration and commissioning of components has been established in the market for a while, and WEISS also offers a CAD product configurator on the website. Digital twins from WEISS offer further opportunities because they contain all the data for virtual commissioning and simultaneous engineering. With the next step from today's 3D engineering to the 4D engineering of the future, more, completely new potential can be realized in this area. By then at the latest, everything that makes up a finished machine – the components, control architecture, PLC logic, fieldbus communication and even the behavior of the finished product – will be able to be digitally mapped. "These are all topics we've been concentrating on. We will keep working on them and slowly start taking them to our customers," said Göltl.

On the path to integral automation
There is no rush to develop a data-based business model, added the head of the business unit. Instead, this will be based on the business environment and sector-wide infrastructure development. And that is where Christian Göltl still sees multiple unanswered questions.

For example, many large companies still have strong reservations about cloud-based services and the data protection and cybersecurity risks they entail. Furthermore, industrial IoT applications are based on the large-scale implementation of 5G and open communication standards like OPC UA and MQTT. And of course machine manufacturers also face having to make complicated make-or-buy decisions. On one hand, the risk of devaluation due to poorly programmed software must be avoided. And on the other hand, they must not become too dependent on external software providers.

Here as well, WEISS is closely analyzing further developments and making careful decisions. "Currently, we are at the beginning of a transformation that will proceed in phases at our company," said Göltl. The roadmap has already been printed. " Over the next few years, we will be working towards the goal of providing integral components of a machine in the disciplines of mechanics, motors, drive controllers, controls, software and services. In other words, we will provide software that delivers measurable added value and supports the customer purchase decision. In the medium term, you can expect great things from WEISS."

 

 

 

Contact Person

Sonja Aufrecht
Marketing & Communications Manager
Phone +49 175 5027689 
sonja.aufrecht@weiss-world.com