Exploring expanded working relationship in manufacturing process planning and design.

By Kathleen Maher

Bentley Systems and Siemens PLM have been working together to improve the ways they collaborate on factory design projects. The two have run into each other as Bentley’s products are used in factory design/build and Siemens is involved in supplying the factory’s automation—building the line, deploying robots, etc.

The two companies have been ex­perimenting with ways to use Bentley’s point-cloud tools with Sie­mens’ Tecnomatix 3D factory automa­tion products. The easiest and first appli­cation is to be able to scan factories and machinery for as-operated information. This kind of information enables factory owners and managers to understand how to move big equipment around to reconfigure a production line. They’re also interested in future technology such as real-time scanning to monitor the fac­tory’s performance, and for safety.

The companies say their new inte­grated solutions enable manufacturers to get an earlier start on production with a better understanding of how all the large machinery components will fit without interferences, and the products will enable better design using accurate simulations of factory layout configu­ration possibilities. Access to as-built/ as-operating information enables im­provements to operational performance.

Siemens PLM will license Bentley’s Vortex point-cloud technology to incor­porate it into their applications, and the two companies say they are exploring other ways in which they might work together.