The Siemens pop up factory is a modular CPG plant where virtual PLCs, real controllers, and a live digital twin run small batches side by side.
Most factories are built for long runs of the same product. Davide Picciotto explains why that model is being stretched. COVID supply chain shocks pushed brands to add flexible areas inside existing plants, and events like the World Cup raised a sharper question: what if a factory could be stood up close to demand, run personalized products for a season, and then move? Siemens is validating the idea with PepsiCo through what Davide calls a hybrid immersive prototype: half the factory is virtual, half is real, and both run as one system. Pininfarina, the design house behind decades of Ferraris, designed the modular shell.
Andrea Sassetti walks through the live environment that debuted at Hannover Messe. Four PLCs, some physical and some virtual on Industrial Edge, feed the Industrial Information Hub, which adds a semantic layer and pushes data to the cloud. Virtual PLCs also simplify firmware and security patching. A capability matching engine reads each recipe step, checks which equipment is available and stocked with the right material, and routes the batch in real time. The same engine builds rainbow pallets of mixed product layers, using the Simatic robot library over SRCI so the same code runs on a Universal Robots cobot or any compatible arm.
The most interesting idea is in the mixer. Traditionally, mix time and speed are hard coded into the recipe. Siemens ran thousands of Simcenter fluid dynamics simulations across viscosities, particle sizes, and impeller types, trained a model in AI Studio from the Altair RapidMiner acquisition, and deployed it on Industrial Edge. The recipe now specifies material properties, and the model infers setpoints on the fly, even when an ingredient comes from a new supplier.
Davide closes on what is still missing: digital threads between engineering and execution remain incomplete, with one CPG company counting thousands of clicks to launch a single product. PepsiCo has reported a 20 percent throughput gain at a US Gatorade plant from its digital twin work with Siemens and NVIDIA.
About the Guests
Davide Picciotto is Digital Enterprise Industry Director for CPG at Siemens Digital Industries Software. In 20 years at Siemens he moved from MES in Genoa to food and beverage presales in the US, helped found the Digital Enterprise team in 2015, and ran the Siemens showcase at MxD in Chicago.
Andrea Sassetti is an Innovation Manager on the Siemens Digital Enterprise team. He joined Siemens in 2009 as an MES developer on what is now Opcenter, then moved to the US in 2018 as solution architect for the Siemens showcase at MxD.
Timestamps
0:00 Welcome and PACK EXPO details
2:10 Meet Davide Picciotto and Andrea Sassetti
5:00 What Siemens Digital Enterprise covers
8:20 What is the pop up factory
11:20 The business case for modular factories
17:50 Pininfarina designs the modular factory
24:20 PepsiCo and the validation stage
28:30 Live demo: Industrial Edge and virtual PLCs
35:00 Rainbow pallets and SRCI robots
40:00 AI mixer setpoints trained on simulation
45:00 What visitors will see at PACK EXPO
51:10 The future of pop up factories
References
Siemens Industrial Information Hub: https://www.siemens.com/en-us/products/simatic-apps/industrial-information-hub
This episode is sponsored by
Siemens is a global technology company operating across industrial automation, digital software, smart infrastructure, and mobility. Siemens Xcelerator is its open digital business platform and marketplace.
https://www.siemens.com
About Your Hosts
Vladimir Romanov is a co-host of The Manufacturing Hub Podcast and the founder of Joltek, an independent manufacturing and industrial automation consulting firm specializing in modernization strategy, digital transformation, and workforce development. Joltek works with manufacturers and investors to de-risk modernization and build the internal capability to sustain results.
Connect with Vlad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladromanov/
Want to go deeper? Vlad and the team at Joltek have covered related topics here:
Edge Solutions in Industrial Automation: https://www.joltek.com/blog/edge-solutions-industrial-automation
Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES): https://www.joltek.com/blog/manufacturing-execution-systems-mes
Dave Griffith is a co-host of The Manufacturing Hub Podcast and founder of Capelin Solutions, an industrial automation firm helping manufacturers adopt smart manufacturing technology. He brings 15 years of experience in industrial automation and digital transformation.
Connect with Dave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegriffith23/
Subscribe to Manufacturing Hub: https://www.manufacturinghub.live
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