What about the data security of the customers? For example, do TULIP users know at any time exactly who has access to the data at any given time and for what reason, and is it basically possible for customers to determine sovereignly and at any time when which partner has access to the data?
Access to data can be solved on the customer side via existing authentications in the companies and with the help of role profiles within TULIP. These define who is allowed to see and change what. Basically, however, TULIP pursues the goal of transparency in order to avoid redundant data and to link processes with each other. TULIP does not want to create data silos. In the relationship between customer and supplier, TULIP offers both the standard REST API and a way to connect TULIP instances of customers and suppliers. Data is stored in Europe through Microsoft Azure.
TULIP stands for digitization that puts people at the center. How does that manifest itself in practice?
We now have many examples where people on the shop floor can solve their day-to-day problems. With TULIP, we have a tool that can be used in the guardrails of central IT. We also operate the agile development approach, which focuses on many loops including feedback and learning. So we don't want to build solutions past the problem. A good example is also the internal testing in our monoBLOCK Excellence Factory. When it was designed and built, DMG MORI heavily involved the team there to make the assembly of the machines as ergonomic and efficient as possible for everyone involved. This also involved the creation of the TULIP app, in which the individual employees were able to get involved. In other words, they undertook the digitization according to their requirements and did not have to submit to any rigid systems.
One challenge in digitization continues to be how to deal with the large amount of data. How does TULIP capture this in context with ERP and MES, for example?
ERP and MES are higher-level systems that manage processes from order entry to production to order completion, and the people on the store floor often do not have direct access to this information. With TULIP, the relevant available information can be made available to the people on the store floor clearly and quickly. Furthermore, there are always steps on the lower process level that are not recorded or specified by an MES, for example quality gates or releases. At this point, Excel tables or even paper documents are usually used again. TULIP Apps act here as connectors that can display information from the ERP system live and feed back data from production. To put it exaggeratedly, TULIP “forces” a company to “think in data”. This is an important step in digital transformation. Areas need to talk about processes and data and find a common company data model.
Does this allow conclusions to be drawn indirectly or directly about the respective operators?
In principle, yes, but TULIP can also be used with anonymous accounts. Thus, no direct relationship of data to persons is possible. In the case of very sensitive process data, the TULIP app can be adapted accordingly so that no conclusions can be drawn. Only the relevant process data is then stored. The rest can be deleted automatically.