Amber Hickman |
German industrial engineering and steel production firm thyssenkrupp is working with Siemens to bridge skill gaps in the manufacturing industry.
Engineers at the thyssenkrupp factory in Chemnitz, Germany, are using the Siemens Industrial Copilot, powered by Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service, to speed up engineering and operational processes and support workers no matter their knowledge level.
“Talking to a machine and getting feedback in an almost human way is something that really resonates with people,” said Eric Scepanski, innovation manager for factory automation at Siemens. “We see a lot of potential to include the knowledge from the people who will retire, but also to onboard the colleagues who are not familiar with the machines and make it easier to understand how to solve issues.”
For example, workers can use the copilot to generate code for directing a machine’s actions, or they can use it to communicate with different machines whilst they are operating and find solutions for problems as and when they arise.
“We’re facing a shortage of skilled workers, not only in Germany but in Europe and the US,” says Marcel Pfeiffer, director of digital factory solutions at thyssenkrupp. “We want to enable less experienced engineers to be able to write coding in a short time, and we want to boost efficiency to a very high level.”
thyssenkrupp is also currently working with Siemens to adapt the copilot to the specific requirements of its machinery, and the firm plans to integrate it into its standard development and manufacturing process globally in 2025.