Siemens 2012 Annual Report Download - page 58

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No problems overnight
Checking his machines first thing in the morning, Johannes Zuckschwerdt
finds everything running smoothly: no error reports in the last few hours.
Zuckschwerdt is responsible for developing new services at the medium-sized
company Schwäbische Werkzeug maschinen (SW). Headquartered in south-
western Germany, SW specializes in producing top-quality multi-spindle
machining centers and manufacturing systems – primarily for customers in the
automobile, hydraulics and aviation industries. Specially designed for series
production, these machining centers and manufacturing systems enable custom-
ers to process, for example, the cast parts from which components like the
high-precision hydraulic valve blocks installed in virtually all of today’s cars world-
wide are manufactured. Around-the-clock operation with minimal downtime
is vital for optimal large-scale production.
Availability and world-class service are the key factors in SW’s success. Wher-
ever the machines are – in Mexico, Brazil or China – Zuckschwerdt and his
colleagues can monitor their operation precisely – thanks to Siemens’ remote
ePS Network Services, which permanently link SW’s machines to their develop-
ers in Germany via an encrypted Internet connection. Experts can now work
proactively. “We can see early on when a part needs changing,” says Peter
Siegel, initiator of online services at SW. The company’s specialists access the
machines’ centrally-stored status information, initiate analyses and isolate
problems online to forestall expensive failures. And this is just one side of the
coin: SW also uses the collected data to help customers run their machines
more efficiently.
Ten years ago, Siegel was searching for ways to expand SW’s services, improve
customer support and intensify customer loyalty worldwide. Then, in ,
he met Jochen Heinz from Siemens. Heinz had the solution Siegel was looking
for. “Siemens’ ePS Network Services were market-ready at that point,” Heinz
explains. “We’ve continued developing them with partners like SW ever since.”
Headquartered in southwestern Germany,
Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen has around
 employees and produces highly specialized
machine tools for customers in Europe and
around the world.
Collecting and analyzing machine
data enables users to enhance
machine productivity.
Lifecycle management
 
– optimizes maintenance processes
– schedules preventive and status-oriented
maintenance procedures
– reduces machine failures
– increases machine uptime
– improves capacity utilization
– prevents costly unplanned repairs
-- 
– lays the basis for reliable production
processes
– detects faults early on and prevents
machine downtime
– systematically manages improvements
 
– optimize capacity utilization
– accelerate fault processing
– enable in-depth error diagnoses