Siemens shows the digital twin of a logistics centre

The logistics and intralogistics industry finds itself in a rapidly changing and challenging environment: increasing demand for energy efficiency and sustainability, labour shortages and cyber security threats are just some of these challenges. With a extensive automation and digitalisation portfolio along the entire value chain, especially for the intralogistics sector Siemens supports machine builders and operators of logistics centres in overcoming these challenges.

Digitalisation and automation solutions from the Siemens Digital Enterprise portfolio as well as IoT-enabled hardware and software from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio cover all areas of warehouse operations such as incoming goods, transport, storage, order picking, packing and despatch. Fully automated material flow systems make it possible to speed up warehouse operations, optimise processes, reduce costs and errors and ultimately achieve higher throughput.

This will be demonstrated in concrete terms at the trade fair using the digital twin of Siemens' own logistics centre in Nuremberg. With 12,000 orders per day, 22,000 delivery note items, 27 storage and retrieval machines and three kilometres of automated conveyor belts, the distribution centre serves 25,000 customers worldwide. Customers can find out more about this real-life example at the trade fair, how simulation scenarios help to optimise shift planning, for example, in order to achieve maximum productivity.

It will also show how Digital Twins help to identify bottlenecks and peak loads in order to optimise the material flow and how this can maintain the throughput and overall performance of the warehouse and thus the fulfilment rate of almost 100 percent. The seamless interaction between the real and digital worlds increases the productivity and flexibility of the systems, sustainably reduces costs and energy consumption and therefore also CO₂-footprint.