Google Cloud and Siemens to bring AI to the factory floor

Google Cloud and Siemens will work together to develop innovative artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technologies for the manufacturing industry, with an emphasis on factories and shop floors.

Siemens will merge Google Cloud AI/ML technologies with its own digital industries factory automation (SDIFA) solutions as part of the partnership to develop new applications and use cases.

Digital quality checks or forecasting how easily equipment on the assembly line succumb to everyday wear and tear may be examples of these use cases.

According to Siemens, data is at the core of new manufacturing operations, but many organizations continue to rely on legacy hardware and systems. These strategies require several manual updates and consume a significant number of resources. Some organizations may experiment with smaller AI projects, but it appears that they fail to adopt AI at large.

Bringing AI to factories and combining it with automation, on the other hand, is a complex and specialized operation.

“The aim of the collaboration between Google Cloud and Siemens is to make the application of AI in connection with the Industrial Edge—and its management at scale—easier, empowering employees as they work on the plant floor, automating mundane activities, and optimizing overall quality,” Siemens says.

Dominik Wee, managing director of Google Cloud Manufacturing and Automotive, says, "Siemens is a pioneer in advancing industrial automation and software, and Google Cloud is a leader in data analytics and AI/ML." This collaboration will put the best of all worlds together and bring AI/ML to the automotive sector on a large scale. We help employees augment their critical work on the shop floor by simplifying the deployment of AI in industrial use cases.”

Siemens Digital Industries is headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany, and employs about 76,000 people worldwide. Siemens AG is the company's director. Google Cloud is used in over 200 countries and territories.