Volkswagen has teamed with Amazon Web Services and Siemens to open up the company’s Industrial Cloud to other manufacturing and technology partners, creating one of the world’s largest automobile production networks.
New partner companies will be able to connect with Volkswagen plants and to contribute their own software applications for optimizing production processes to the cloud, creating a rapidly growing range of industrial software applications for Volkswagen’s plants. The partner companies will be able to scale and further develop their applications, enabling them to optimize their processes and products.
In the future, the Industrial Cloud is to include all Volkswagen’s factories throughout the world and its global supply chain and will facilitate data interchange between systems and plants. The system is based on AWS technologies in the fields of Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, data analytics and computing services.
“Today’s news continues our initial mission of the Industrial Cloud project to help Volkswagen together with Siemens and their partners to focus their resources on optimizing production, creating new business opportunities for smart products, and improving operational efficiency across the entire value chain,” said Dirk Didascalou, vice president of AWS IoT, Amazon Web Services Inc. “We look forward to watching the marketplace collaboration flourish as participants take advantage of the AWS native open architecture of the Industrial Cloud.”
Each location of Volkswagen will be able to obtain applications for its machinery, tools and equipment direct from the Industrial Cloud to optimize production — like an app store approach. Volkswagen expects significant efficiency and productivity gains at its plants. In addition, in the long term, all participants will be able to exchange their applications with each other, to acquire applications and use them.
Eleven partners have made their software applications available via the Industrial Cloud, including ABB, ASCon, BearingPoint, Celonis, Dürr, GROB-WERKE, MHP, NavVis, SYNAOS, Teradata and WAGO.
Volkswagen Group of America has a number of facilities in the United States, ranging from distribution hubs to research labs to its manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The manufacturing plant sits on 1,400 acres and currently produces the Passat and Atlas.
