Extending product development cycle traceability and transparency by providing end-to-end solutions.

Siemens announced a new Digital Enterprise Industry Solution for the electronics industry.

Siemens' Software Engineering and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solutions help companies address the challenges of developing smart products, including managing security threats, privacy concerns, and product risks associated with Internet-connected sensors, amidst growing consumer demand for connected smart products. They also address the needs of quality teams who need to integrate accelerated testing processes to maintain or improve product quality while supporting rapid software development techniques such as Agile software, Scrum, and continuous delivery.

By integrating ALM software with PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) software, companies can effectively manage the traditional product development cycle and the software used to manage it. This allows software and hardware engineers to work as a single team, enabling true collaborative engineering. Additionally, you can work to improve and measure the processes of your products and software.

The new Digital Enterprise Industry solution enhances the efficiency and productivity of development teams across various disciplines. It also provides the means to track hardware and embedded software configurations across the entire product lifecycle, ultimately improving product quality and streamlining change management.

Furthermore, this solution allows engineers to enjoy the same user experience, connected in real time to an integrated workflow, while using their preferred and familiar development tools. Software components created and tested on the ALM side can be published to the Bill of Materials (BOM), creating a fully integrated BOM across mechanical, electrical, and software components. This allows companies to improve visibility across product development areas. Furthermore, real-time collaboration enables rapid identification of defects within complex systems, assessment of their impact, and resolution. Siemens is uniquely positioned as an integrated solution provider encompassing the entire spectrum of global product development, manufacturing, and support.

"To remain competitive, electronics companies must rapidly develop and innovate high-volume, feature-rich products without compromising product quality," said Ajith Krishnamurthy, director of Electronics and Semiconductor Solutions at Siemens PLM Software. "Software development plays a critical role today, and will only continue to do so in the future." “Siemens’ software engineering and ALM solutions enable companies to manage software development within their existing product development processes, increasing efficiency and enabling the development of products that meet consumer needs,” he said.

The advancement and enhanced intelligence of embedded systems have laid the foundation for the Internet of Things (IoT). As expectations for more intelligent systems grow, the amount and complexity of embedded software within these devices are also increasing. This necessitates the need for new tools that can bridge the gap between ALM and PLM.

Joe Dury, Director at Kalypso, said, "The IoT will continue to transform traditional business models by integrating software, data services, and online connectivity, enabling intelligent factories and smart products. By leveraging IoT and related analytics to integrate ALM and PLM technologies, electronics companies can analyze and mine data to gain new insights into product development, manufacturing, and supply chain management. These insights will enable smart, connected operations to efficiently manage increasingly complex environments and capture all the data to improve overall manufacturing processes."

Software quality is essential in today's rapidly growing world of connected, smart products. Meeting these quality standards requires an end-to-end approach that connects and manages all processes across the entire development cycle without compromising development schedules or quality. Tight integration between ALM and PLM provides complete traceability and transparency across all aspects of product and software engineering projects, from requirements creation to test cases and defect management. It also provides an effective way to create documentation, track changes, and communicate critical information to various stakeholders, including consumers.