We all have a smartphone in our pocket. Do you also play games on it? Alongside Playstation and the like, the smartphone has become a gaming platform: powerful, always with you and highly customizable. The gaming industry is constantly reinventing itself and quickly adapting to new needs – as seen most recently at Gamescom, the world’s largest games trade fair. Gamers and industry representatives are now visiting the exhibition – and not just because gaming engines are now also being used in industry. Lenze is also taking a close look. The automation experts are not interested in the game mechanics, but in the innovative power, the unrivalled customer centricity of the games industry and the speed of the sector.
Last year, the gaming sector earned over 180 billion US dollars worldwide – more than the music and film industries combined. The main driver of this success is the platform strategy of the major game studios and console providers. This is because it enables gamers to have quick fun and easy access to new games without having to read a manual – simply plug & play. Lenze transfers these guarantees of success from the gaming industry to the life cycle of machines. As a result, mechanical engineers can quickly create a new generation of machines packed with digital added value.
The Lenze NUPANO Suite is the answer to mechanical engineers’ engineering questions. It’s a bit like platforms in the gaming industry: as gamers, we buy a games console and the platform that comes with it helps us set it up – from the resolution on the screen to the internet connection, from creating an account for the store to user roles with different access rights – without system breaks, all in one place. Then I can get started as a player. If I want to, I can just insert a disc and play offline. But I can also go online, use the platform, visit the store and buy new games or unlock additional expansions – play online against other users or invite other people to play with me and I can even connect other platforms such as streaming services for films or music to my games console and surf the internet – and again, all without system breaks.
Selecting hardware, simple set-up, programming, activating and efficiently operating additional functions and collaborating with partners – all this is possible with the Lenze NUPANO Suite. What’s more: I can run updates for better performance of my console and more security on my device and if I have problems, there is a chatbot to help me. And this is all possible because everyone involved uses IT standards, and that’s what we do in the industry now. On the other side of the platform, game studios manage their software, their updates and collect data for new products and applications. This will be the future of mechanical engineering – engineering at the highest level over the entire life cycle of a machine.
From planning and operation to digital sales
So how does Lenze transfer the gaming analogy to industry? It’s about speed in development, commissioning, collaboration and new business models – via one platform. The customer starts the engineering with the support of the Lenze NUPANO Suite, buys his drives or his automation system and can minimize his effort with the application software, because Lenze provides the complete toolchain – from the initial idea for the machine to operation. The automation specialists have based the architecture of the suite on the product life cycle – from planning to operation and, in future, recycling of the machine. The user currently has access to three blocks.
1. During the planning phase, users of the suite have full access to planning and design tools such as System Designer. The idea: The wizard supports the user in planning everything from single-axis applications to complex machine solutions (from Lenze and third-party components). It is based on Lenze’s in-depth domain knowledge, and the calculation models are based on concrete experience. Drive systems can also be sized in an energy-efficient manner. Everyone involved in the planning process works collaboratively. The machine process is modularized, and the user can select solution elements or use wizards. Lenze provides the connection to digital services such as CAD, EPLAN and supports the user in creating a logic template.
2. In the Build phase, the focus is on engineering, commissioning and series production. At this point, the mechanical engineer is in the programming and configuration phase of the machine. He accesses a ready-made software framework to integrate, test and scale ready-made software modules from Lenze into his machine software, for example. Commissioning is first carried out virtually, while the control cabinet and the machine are under construction. Lenze relies on the parallelization of the development of software for mechanical and electrical systems. This shortens the development time. When deploying the IT software, Lenze provides a tool that simply and efficiently installs and manages containerized software on series machines. Open Automation is not just a slogan but must also be proven with the technical architecture. The supplier does not have to reprogram its applications, because Lenze wants to support the digitalization of its customers simply and efficiently. The customer’s software should simply run, because: IT capacity is scarce everywhere, which is why the industry is working together. The platform requirements: everything must be secure, open, simple and comprehensible for the mechanical engineer.
3. in the Operate phase, the mechanical engineer supports his own customers in the operation of the machine. Through the centralized machine management in the suite, he can, for example, offer him service ticketing applications for machines or add anomaly detection. This phase is all about constantly improving the availability of the machine and increasing its productivity, because that is what counts on the market today. There is also transparency for the mechanical engineer, as he has an overview of all machines, including software versioning.
Drive, suite, controller and cloud
Soon, industry-specific platforms will also be able to dock onto the Lenze NUPANO Suite. Take the Marketplace of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, for example. A customer could then download and use applications for their machine that Lenze does not offer on the Nupano Suite. Just as if they were streaming Netflix on their Playstation.
IT-inside controller and Edge device series
Lenze will also be giving a preview of a new generation of controllers at the logic trade fair in November. The machine controller can take over Controllers and IT tasks and therefore fits in perfectly with the platform strategy. The automation specialist will also be presenting an edge device with a pre-installed app management tool in Nuremberg to enable IT to be scaled outside or independently of the Controllers in machines. In line with the motto “It just works”, the customer can transfer out-of-the-box IT applications to the device.
With the new hardware and the Lenze NUPANO Suite, the mechanical engineer is now entering a new engineering and business level with new opportunities for its customers – from the drive to the platform for new revenue streams, more transparency and safety, and the necessary computing power and connectivity. The goal: to significantly increase machine availability and productivity. Keyword availability: the suite approach is all the more convincing for customers, especially in view of the Cyber Resilience Act and NIS2. In the gaming world, this would probably be called an extra life or an asset that keeps the player in the game – or simply the extra competitive advantage.
* This article first appeared in the December/January issue of Design Solutions magazine.
