ABB and Dassault Systèmes enter global software partnership

ABB and Dassault Systèmes have announced a global partnership to offer customers in digital industries a software solutions portfolio ranging from product life cycle management to asset health solutions. The two companies will provide customers an end-to-end offering of open digital solutions, designed to enhance the competitiveness of industrial companies, while increasing flexibility, speed and productivity of their products’ life cycles, manufacturing and operations.

The partnership will combine ABB Ability digital solutions and Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and build on both companies’ installed base, deep domain expertise and global customer access. ABB has already adopted the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to model and simulate its solutions before delivering them to its customers. With this partnership, ABB will develop and provide customers with advanced digital twins, enabling customers to run ABB’s solutions and their operations with improved overall efficiency, flexibility and sustainability.

The companies will, in a staged approach, focus on factory automation and robotics, process industry automation, as well as electrification solutions for smart buildings. The first joint solutions will be showcased at the upcoming industrial Hannover Messe trade fair in Germany, 1–5 April 2019.

“This game-changing partnership will serve our customers to lead in innovation and growth, fundamentally transforming their entire value chain to tap the vast opportunities of industrial digitalisation,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “Together, we are offering an open, end-to-end digital portfolio — from digital twin to asset health — that gives our customers a competitive edge, building on our combined offering, domain expertise and global reach.

“ABB is adding Dassault Systèmes to its strong partner network for industrial digitalisation, including Microsoft, HPE and IBM. We look very much forward to working with the entire global Dassault Systèmes team to drive innovation and customer value.”

“The industry of the 21st century is no longer determined simply by the ability to manufacture goods,” said Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman and CEO, Dassault Systèmes. “Today’s leaders will be determined by superior mastery of technical know-how. This is the new competitive differentiator and it’s happening now due to a convergence of digital technologies that are transforming every aspect of industrial business.”

The ABB-Dassault Systèmes partnership will initially focus on:

• Factory automation and robotics: Digital twin experiences for end-to-end optimisation of processes and systems, combined with the flexibility of robotics automation, will give factories the agility to adapt to increasingly dynamic markets.
• Smart buildings: The digital partnership between Dassault Systèmes and ABB around digital twin systems will enable a seamless workflow during design, engineering and operation of buildings, as well as connected sustainable transportation solutions.
• Process industries such as mining: A digital model of the underground environment, in connection with mine planning and control systems, would allow the optimisation of energy consumption and mine automation, as well as enable mine operators to monitor and optimise production in real time, while running virtual simulations of future scenarios.

Image: ©stock.adobe.com/adam121