Siemens Automation Solutions for the Automotive Sector

Author photo: Sharada Prahladrao
BySharada Prahladrao
Category:
Project Success Story

Customer Profile:  Established in 1945 and headquartered in Mumbai, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is a $20.7 billion multinational group.  It is a part of the Mahindra Group, an Indian conglomerate. What began as a steel trading company now spans several key industries with a wide spectrum of products and services. It is a leading manufacturer of automobiles, utility vehicles, tractors and farm equipment. The company operates in more than 100 countries and employs over 240,000 people. In the Forbes list for 2018 for world’s best employers it is ranked at 55; and in the category top regarded companies it ranks 164.

Customer Requirement and Objectives: M&M’s aim was to enhance efficiency and production quality across the entire vehicle lifecycle to achieve precision and consistency in manufacturing. They realized that in today’s competitive environment it is not enough just to have the required tools and solutions. Automotive manufacturers need strategic partners to guide them through the entire process of concept, planning, design, assembly, and manufacture to maximize productivity. M&M was looking for a strategic project management partner with a holistic approach stretching over the complete manufacturing value chain from design to execution and continuous monitoring. This would help the company to achieve its vision of delivering reliability, affordability, and fuel efficiency. Expertise and experience would ultimately lead to manufacturing excellence, technological superiority, and differentiated products. With these objectives, M&M began scouting and evaluating potential partners. After a stringent selection process, they chose Siemens as their strategic project management partner. 

Solutions: Combining its deep industry expertise with experience in delivering the latest automation solutions, Siemens provided a comprehensive solution across the entire value chain from design, planning, engineering, execution & services. This included Siemens Technology for Powertrain (STP), Industry Software (PLM) and Integrated Automation.  The Powertrain solution included SINUMERIK, SIMOTICS, and SIMATIC controls and drives, as well as CNC and PLC-controlled machines that are linked via the Profinet interface. Siemens’ automation solutions are integrated into M&M’s “Poka-Yoke” manufacturing philosophy that helps an equipment operator avoid mistakes. Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting or drawing attention to human errors as they occur.

Siemens also provided solutions to optimize lifecycle costs through knowledge management, troubleshooting packages, and training to help M&M achieve their project management objectives.

Industry Trends and Quantifiable Benefits: The automotive sector evolves at a fast pace and is a driver of the new era of digitalization. Siemens’ Digital Enterprise suite enables companies to digitalize and integrate their entire manufacturing value chain.  The main advantage of Siemens’ solutions for M&M and others in the automotive sector include the system’s breadth of functionality and its flexibility to integrate existing niche applications. Other benefits include: reducing time-to-market; accelerating production; customized and mass production; adherence to international standards; eliminated mean time to repair and mean times to failures; and improved cross-discipline collaboration.

Keywords: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Siemens, PLM, Project Management Partner, Automotive, ARC Advisory Group

 

Engage with ARC Advisory Group

Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients