4IR Technologies: the roadmap to a more sustainable future

4IR Technologies: the roadmap to a more sustainable future

The need to resolve the climate crisis becomes more urgent every day. Most people agree that greater sustainability in the way we live and do business will be crucial to building a better future for our children. Yet, the specific means of achieving sustainability are often murky and poorly defined.

Siemens is committed to finding greener solutions to industrial and technological challenges, no more so than in our Digital Industries business. Here we are developing and implementing innovative technologies that can help manufacturers and customers alike move toward a cleaner, more sustainable future.

Urgent need to decarbonize the industry

The manufacturing industry has a huge impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

Manufacturing produces about 20% of global CO2 emissions, with industry accounting for 1/3 of the world’s energy consumption.

These are massive numbers, and while measures are being introduced to regulate and ensure these figures are reduced, we are still a long way off from hitting global targets. As an industry, we have our own responsibility to find sustainable solutions to create a more efficient, smarter, and greener future.

Sustainability driving change

The climate crisis alone is a key driver for change within the industry. Add to this changing consumer habits, skills shortages, the global pandemic and strained supply chains, and manufacturers are more than ever feeling the pressure of having to play a balancing act; how to operate sustainably, while increasing production and keeping down costs.

While this is a complex situation, what we are seeing is that those who sacrifice sustainability for cheaper operations in the short run, will struggle in the long run.

The rise in adopting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles are a trend that will not fade away and is the prominent issue which all stakeholders demand to be addressed.

Investors seeking for future growth are looking at a corporation’s ESG principles as a barometer to their integrity, trustworthiness, and brand values. Employees and customers want to work with an entity that is responsible, and that takes sustainability seriously. And looking to the future, the younger generations hold sustainability very close to their values, and will not tolerate any unsustainable entity.

In short, corporations can no longer hide behind words and greenwashing, and will be held accountable for their actions. Therefore, now is the time to make a change, and transform the industry to a digitalized and greener operation.

Transforming the Everyday

Sustainability is an integral part of Siemens Digital industries. We empower our customers to drive sustainable growth and transform their industries.

Our Digital Enterprise portfolio has cutting edge technologies that not only improve and optimize industrial operations, but will reduce waste and create a more efficient output.

The Digital Twin is Siemens’ leading solution which is helping our customers in their drive for efficiency, saving resources and time across all verticals of industry.

A digital twin is a virtual model of the physical product, and creates a huge sustainability advantage over physical products, costly prototyping and the cost of design changes historically done manually.

In combination with innovative production technologies such as 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, this saves up to 50% of material.

With digitally optimized production processes, data analysis and virtual commissioning, and with innovative, integrated drive technologies, customers can save up to 40% energy and the corresponding amount of CO2 emissions.

By monitoring the performance of products and processes and feeding the data back into product design and production planning, the consumption of resources and the ecological footprint of products are constantly optimized across the entire lifecycle.

Cutting Edge Technologies

As well as the Digital Twin, there are other key technologies in the Digital industries portfolio which can help industry be more sustainable.

·????????Additive Manufacturing

Less material and less weight (>50% weight reduction). On-demand spare parts lower the consumption of resources, energy and logistics.

·????????Artificial Intelligence

AI technologies enable up to 20x faster use of intensive datacenter compute resources for design simulation. This drastically reduces the energy consumption without compromising on design accuracy.

·????????Cloud Computing

Cloud computing enables valuable insights into consumption patterns, demand and expenditure. Smart energy management through technologies such as MindSphere can reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 20%.

·????????Industrial Edge

Using data intelligently enables more transparency and optimal processes with less waste and rework. This can save up to 45% of energy.

·????????Industrial 5G

More energy-efficient than its predecessor standard. Reliable remote connectivity allows plant maintenance without travelling on site – more data, less energy consumption.

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Do More, with Less

At Digital Industries, Resources are Finite, but Data is Infinite.

We all need to do more with less.

The Digital Industries portfolio leverages the power of digitalization and automation to do this, as we embark on future technologies which will revolutionize manufacturing.

The success of these technologies comes from collecting, understanding, and applying the massive amount of data created in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The Digital Enterprise portfolio is doing exactly this by combining the real and the digital worlds. As a result, the infinite amount of data allows us to use our finite resources efficiently and with that make the industry more sustainable.