Use cases from the industry prove considerable time and cost savings thanks to the Asset Administration Shell

Eleven partners show commitment to a comprehensive open ecosystem at the Hannover Messe

Representatives of ten companies from automation, mechanical engineering and software development as well as the Industrial Digital Twin Association e.V. (IDTA) are meeting at trade fair Hannover Messe to jointly initiate further steps for the broad implementation of the interoperable Digital Twin for data spaces in engineering. The working group consisting of participants from Siemens, Bausch+Ströbel, Bosch Rexroth, CADENAS, Festo, HARTING, SICK, Phoenix Contact, WAGO, ENGEL and IDTA meets regularly to realise use cases on the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) in the industry. The initiative is already operating its fourth use case and demonstrates considerable results in reducing time and costs compared to existing processes.

To maximise the full potential of the industrial Digital Twin based on the AAS, it is crucial to adapt the standard across the board in industry. The initiative under the umbrella of IDTA has recently developed a use case for cross-company data exchange in engineering by means of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and the tool-side support across different data spaces. Along with increasing efficiency in the development phase, interoperable data exchange throughout the entire life cycle and improved data quality are made feasible.

Results from the use cases on the deployment of the AAS in engineering and the PLM tools prove cost and time savings of up to 67%, and up to 79% in the PLM processes of product change notification. The significant savings compared to conventional processes can be attributed to standardised information models, known as submodels, which provide and integrate information about components in a standardised and automated manner. Error-prone manual data integration processes are completely replaced. Invaluable and highly qualified labour resources concentrate on value-creating activities.

These findings prompted the companies to show their commitment to the Asset Administration Shell and to implement it in numerous real projects and use cases. The following statements from participating companies provide a sound insight with regard to developments in the context of the AAS:

BOSCH REXROTH AG
Dr. Mark Krieg, Vice President Development, Industrial Hydraulics
“The fast and cross-manufacturer exchange of data is the basis for the long-term competitiveness of industrial companies. For this to succeed, uniform data standards and technical systems are needed to generate, distribute, and process this data.
Bosch Rexroth provides automatically generated digital twins for over 880,000 product types and over 300 million product instances. Relevant data is bundled in the product’s administration shell. Being compliant with this industry standard is a prerequisite for seamless, scalable, and secure data exchange.
In a next step, we at Bosch Rexroth are working on making this information directly available in our customers’ engineering systems. This enables an effective and efficient use of product data.”

CADENAS
Jürgen Heimbach, CEO CADENAS
“CADENAS 3Dfindit.com currently provides over 8 million AASX models on a TYPE basis for download. Together with Bosch Rexroth and Wittenstein, the Asset Administration Shells have already been enriched with INSTANCE information. With regard to the download behaviour on 3Dfindit.com, we can see a clear trend that the AAS is continuing to gain significance. CADENAS presented detailed figures on the use of the AAS at the C-Level Meeting in Hanover. CADENAS 3Dfindit will also honour the participants of the first hour with a small prize as a thank you for their motivation.”

FESTO
Gerhard Borho, Member of the Management Board Information Technology & Digitalization
“Festo will make digital twins available as Asset Administration Shells in various development phases for machine manufacturers and operators. This applies to both new products and existing products. Because Digital First is the future of engineering. In addition to technical product data, such as manuals, we will also support virtual commissioning for selected components. For our sustainability goals, the product carbon footprint will be presented transparently.”

HARTINGNorbert Gemmeke, Managing Director Harting Electric
“For HARTING, the ‘Digital Twin’ in its form as an Asset Administration Shell is at the centre of our activities within the All Electric Society: The AAS is both the core element for the interoperability of all our processes along the entire value chain as well as the life cycle of our production facilities and products, thus enabling the future-proof sustainability of a circular economy.
This interoperability can only be achieved through norms and standards: Therefore, HARTING is involved in the IDTA for the joint development of the Asset Administration Shell models as well as in the international standardisation process at ISO & IEC. We are therefore supporting future development by active participation and the implementation of the Asset Administration Shell being created in the IDTA within our global organisation and for all connectivity products and associated ‘Digital Services’.”
We see the integration of native AAS interfaces in the SIEMENS PLM platform TEAMCENTER as the most important insight from this IDTA project ‘Digital Component’: Only this enables a seamless and thus cost-efficient infrastructure for the realisation of “digital twins”.”

PHOENIX CONTACT
Dr. Frank Possel-Dölken, Chief Digital Officer
“As an industrial company, we need to be able to implement data flows between multiple companies easily and cost-effectively. What we require to achieve this is a standardised data container (= AAS), APIs and general integration into commercial IT systems.”

SICK
Dr. Niels Syassen, Member of the Executive Board at SICK AG responsible for Technology and Digitization:
“In the past years we jointly made great progress in how the numerous advantages of the Asset Administration Shell can be used in industrial applications, e.g. by providing type level shells for almost our complete portfolio in the SICK AssetHub. Together with our partners, we’re excited to bring the Asset Administration Shell to the next level and thereby help customers simplify and optimize their business processes, such as qualifying product change notifications. We believe in the business potential.”

SIEMENS
Rainer Brehm, CEO Factory Automation at Siemens
“Siemens Xcelerator is part of Siemens’ strategy to accelerate the digital transformation of our customers. As part of this, Siemens creates an industrial ecosystem based on the principles of interoperability, flexibility, and openness. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is an important technology for the seamless exchange of the Digital Twin’s data along the entire value chain. The AAS implements all principles of Siemens Xcelerator and is therefore ideally suited for creating transparency along the product life cycle. In Manufacturing-X the AAS is integrated within core services and embedded across all use cases. As one of the consortium leads in the Factory-X project, we are actively promoting the use of AAS in industry.
Visitors and customers at Hannover Fair 2024 can already experience AAS developments from Siemens. For example, Siemens provides the first AAS for its automation products as defined by DPP4.0, demonstrates the software integration of AAS in the TIA Portal, Teamcenter, the Industrial Edge application Industrial Information Hub, and presents specific solutions such as the Siemens Battery Passport.”

WAGO
Dr. Heiner Lang, CEO WAGO
“At WAGO, we consider the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) a central tool for the technical implementation of our digital twin. Therefore, we published more than 18,000 administration shells for the 2023 SPS trade show. In the coming years, we will provide the AAS for all our items. In addition, we will pursue targeted implementation of other AAS application cases that improve the sustainability and efficiency of our internal workflows and our customers’ processes.”