Integrating real-time Digital Twin collaboration in production to improve decision making and operational efficiency

The benefit of comprehensive digitalization

Siemens Healthineers provides technology and expertise to over 70 percent of the world’s hospitals. Spun off from Siemens AG in 2017, Siemens Healthineers’ product portfolio ranges from medical imaging and laboratory diagnostic equipment to consulting and healthcare services.

Siemens Healthineers is a leader in digitalization and continuous innovation. The company uses the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services to implement a digitalization project throughout the organization from processes, procurement and products to artificial intelligence (AI), enhanced manufacturing and predictive maintenance.

“Digitalization is never ending,” says Christian Schmidgunst, head of business transformation, Siemens Healthineers. “It’s not just about optimizing your local environment but about optimizing your entire value chain.

A pioneering digital factory

Siemens Healthineers has an enormous High Energy Photonics Center (HEP) in Forchheim, Germany, which is the size of eight European soccer fields. It is a greenfield site for digitalization for the entire Siemens Healthineers Smart Factory network. At this site, all real-world products, processes and performances are “shadowed” by a hybrid onsite/cloud-based performance Digital Twin. This twin was created in Siemens Xcelerator and is supported by third-party solutions like Microsoft Azure. “We have entered what we call our ‘second horizon’ of Digital Transformation,” explains Markus Kaupper, head of digitalization, Siemens Healthineers, HEP Center. “We are advancing in areas like digital product development, factory planning and visualization as well as focusing on areas like generative AI and sustainability to reach the next capability and benefit levels.

“Even though we have made substantial advancements in the field of data availability, real-time digital twinning and KPI visualization, our processes remain complex. We needed a more intuitive, immersive way of interacting with status information and KPIs for our processes and equipment.”

Integrating Opcenter X Intosite

Working with the team from Siemens Digital Industries Software, the HEP team decided they wanted to move away from a pure dashboard-driven way of working and move toward collaborating using a Digital Twin. A new development in Siemens Xcelerator, Opcenter™ X Intosite™ software, a software as a service (SaaS) solution, was the answer the team was looking for.

“Thanks to regular meetings with the Siemens product management and development teams, we were able to develop the software collaboratively,” says Hakan Senkaya, project manager, Metaverse, Siemens Healthineers, HEP Center.

“It was almost a startup environment. The partnership with Siemens was agile and dynamic, and we were able to share multiple ideas and deliver requests directly to the Intosite team.”

Bringing your digital factory to life

One of the biggest challenges of digitalization is getting everyone onboard. Using Opcenter Intosite X does just that. It is a cloud-based web application that acts like a 3D version of Google Maps when using Plant Simulation® in the Tecnomatix portfolio or any other factory Digital Twin. Intuitive and easy to use and access, Opcenter Intosite X does what the name says – it gets you into the site and right to the issue at hand. Users can easily navigate through a Digital Twin of a plant or production line, collaboratively access information and real-time data by clicking on tagged objects, like an embedded product Digital Twin, status reports, production line information, documents and even videos.

“We’re currently in the process of a pilot rollout,” says Sebastian Grimm, head of manufacturing, X-ray tube, Siemens Healthineers, HEP Center. “We have a group of users who regularly provide feedback with the internal project team to drive continuous improvement.

“Opcenter X Intosite serves as a single point of entry, providing us with an improved overview. For the first time it gives us the ability to monitor our production in our Digital Twin and display location-based information at the right place within the production environment. This enhances decision making and operational efficiency. To start, we are estimating better reaction time improvements of 20 to 25 percent.”

Monitoring performance digitally

The first feedback was positive with data and information intuitively accessible and interactive. Opcenter X Intosite is used daily during shop floor meetings and as an overarching monitoring system or performance Digital Twin in selected production areas.

“Currently we have around 30 to 40 active users,” says Senkaya. “Our goal is to reach more than 200 active users over the next few years. Our vision is to scale plantwide for greater impact.”

The Opcenter X Intosite solution has been successfully implemented within HEP Center across several business units, including supply chain management (SCM), equipment lifecycle management (ELM) and research and development (R&D). Users from various departments can leverage the new innovative platform to perform safety supervision, maintenance activities, real-time production monitoring activities, etc.

Providing insight into complex processes

The HEP plant is known for highly complex and technical manufacturing, especially when it comes to medical generators and x-ray tubes. Opcenter X Intosite plays a vital role in achieving strong product quality. It lets the production team monitor important test cabins, logistics and equipment condition parameters in real time directly onsite.

“We can check environmental parameters such as temperature and humidity at specific production locations,” says Grimm. “The location-based data are displayed at the right place, which gives us further advanced transparency. The live status and equipment performance rates are also tracked in our Digital Twin, what we call our digital shadow, and synchronized in Intosite. We can be more proactive when it comes to maintenance and optimization, and it simplifies the maintenance processes.”

“Opcenter X Intosite plays a pivotal role by providing users with access to the digital shadow through an intuitive interface,” says Senkaya. “This is fundamental to our digitalization strategy because it enables data-driven decision making and promotes continuous improvement across our operations.”

Taking it to the next level

Opcenter X Intosite is the piece of the puzzle that takes a comprehensive Digital Twin to the next level, creating an intuitive, easy-to-use 3D overview by mapping the right information at the right locations, consolidating digital solutions and realtime data streams and making this information accessible to everyone.

“Over the past few years, the number of digital solutions and the availability of data specifically required for our production lines has steadily increased, which is fundamentally a positive development,” says Grimm.

“Quality is our top priority. We consistently deliver very high-quality products through our daily operations. Looking ahead, we expect Opcenter X Intosite to provide valuable support when it comes to improving our cost of quality metric by enabling faster reaction times and enhancing the speed and effectiveness of our quality processes. This is done by leveraging strong overall equipment effectiveness, which also contributes to sustainability from an energy consumption perspective.”

Key features in a new tool

Healthineers HEP Center had Opcenter X Intosite in place, the next step was to make the production process easier and reap the benefits of that highly accessible, real-time and accurate data.

For example, the solution uses place markers combined with table views to display key metrics directly in the production areas. Color coding is applied to highlight important status areas, helping users quickly identify equipment issues or maintenance needs. To easily reference historical data in existing solutions, users can open the relevant dashboards using a link in the place marker. In addition, new users can benefit from simple virtual tours if needed. Senkaya says the built-in search function is increasingly popular, allowing users to quickly locate equipment across the huge plant.

The most innovative contribution Opcenter X Intosite has made is the immersive visualization of the performance Digital Twin, which provides a whole new way for everyone to interact with and understand operational data,” says Kaupper.

The team is working toward a fully digital and virtual master control room, which is feasible thanks to Opcenter X Intosite. In the future, all relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) will be available in one centralized location for efficient monitoring and decision making while on-the-floor users will be able to view these same KPIs via Opcenter X Intosite on their tablet or touchscreen. This will significantly improve transparency and control across the entire production process.

What the future holds

“Unifying the Siemens Healthineers manufacturing ecosystem into one digital solution is our north star,” explains Jens Fuerst, principal, key expert, digitalization & automation, Siemens Healthineers, HEP Center. “Through our interdisciplinary factory network and collaboration with leading institutes, we pioneer innovation for everyone,
everywhere.”

In addition, the team is open about their adoption of AI and large language models (LLMs) with early potential for interoperability with Opcenter X Intosite.

“We already see the potential information exchange between AI-powered chatbots and our new immersive visualization capabilities,” says Kaupper. “In the future, we expect to see more elements of the metaverse integrated into our operations. Artificial intelligence will play an even stronger role, driving higher levels of automation and enabling more advanced predictive processes.

“Opcenter X Intosite adds a valuable capability to this roadmap by enabling immersive visualization within the greater Siemens Healthineers metaverse.”