TIA is the basis of the Digital Enterprise
Digitalization and automation are the levers for industry to meet the upcoming challenges. The challenge is to collect, understand and make sense of the infinite amounts of data that are generated in companies. This requires becoming a Digital Enterprise by combining the real and digital worlds. It’s all made possible by Totally Integrated Automation (TIA), the unique automation concept from Siemens. And it’s been doing this for decades!Future-proof to enter new dimensions
Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) is an open system architecture and has been enabling the seamless interaction of all automation components, the software involved, and higher-level systems and services since 1996. This is ensured by consistent data management, worldwide standards and uniform interfaces – from the field level to the corporate management level.
End-to-end consistency is not an end in itself, but reduces expenditures, saves time, and enables the step into the next dimension on the path to the digital enterprise with room for future innovations.
Use IT and OT Integration as a lever for digital transformation
To bring machines to market faster, improve quality and react to changing customer demands immediately, manufacturers need to acknowledge the relevance of becoming more digital. In this white paper, Siemens commissioned Forrester Consulting to get to the bottom of successful IT and OT integration. We're going to shed light on what really holds back progress in digital transformation initiatives and why it is not just about the technology, but also about processes and people.
TIA and the power of three
Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) from Siemens means full integration: Hardware, software, and services are seamlessly combined. Information flows both horizontally and vertically. And new technologies are integrated into TIA step by step. The result, across all industries, is genuine added value, regardless of which phase of automation or which level of digitalization a company has achieved.
Integration of hardware, software, and services
With all software and hardware components working together smoothly, TIA provides maximum consistency and transparency. The combination of a comprehensive engineering approach, integrated security and safety technologies, communication standards, and data intelligence delivers real added value across the entire value chain. Specific services, from consulting to implementation and optimization, help machine builders and plant operators uncover hidden potential and fully exploit it.
Horizontal and vertical integration
The meaningful use of data is made possible by combining the real and the digital worlds. This is where TIA comes in: Rigorous, seamless connectivity enables field and machine levels to be linked together horizontally, and OT and IT vertically. TIA uses global standards to achieve maximum openness and transparency. That means existing software and applications can be ported to our Edge System and third-party components can be easily integrated, for example. You also benefit from integrated security and connectivity in your automated system and the Cloud. The TIA offering is rounded out by scalable solution packages, the TIA Use Cases. These help to become a Digital Enterprise and illustrate how the challenges of the future can be met quickly and without complications.
Integration of future technologies
Whenever new challenges arise, existing functions in the TIA portfolio are expanded to include innovations derived from new technologies such as edge computing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, autonomous systems, cognitive engineering, blockchain, and 5G. With TIA, technologies of the future are already anticipated today and integrated step by step – for a secure investment, regardless of the phase in which a company currently finds itself. TIA thus forms the core of a digital enterprise at the exact point where “digital” becomes “real.”
