What can a low-code solution do for a PLM environment? The question is interesting, particularly from the perspective of several PLM developers investing in buying, integrating and developing this type of solution. Siemens Digital Industries Software is one of the clearest examples of this in the PLM world, with its 2018 acquisition of the low-code platform Mendix. But there are others in the arena, as well, such as Aras PLM. Salesforce, Microsoft and SAP are additional examples that lay outside the pure PLM sphere. However, according to Gartner's Magic Quadrant and the August 2021 platform evaluation, Mendix is positioned as a leader in terms of vision and ability to execute.

How important is this for Siemens? More than you might think. Since the acquisition, Mendix has grown in importance in a way that few could have imagined in 2018, even though CEO Tony Hemmelgarn was confident from the start.

“Mendix was originally used in banking and logistics to connect software stacks and build apps,” he says in an interview with engineering.com when the purchase was announced. “But what we have quickly shown is that the basic capabilities can be extended to virtually any industry. But it is above all the simplicity of performing things that have previously been very complex that makes people shudder when we demonstrate the matter.”

With this in mind, it is hardly surprising that Mendix is becoming a driving force in Siemens' digital landscape, with the PLM portfolio Xcelerator as its most important expression.

In today's article, I will take a brief look at Mendix as one of the pillars in Siemens’ PLM environment, and in light of recent news, how Mendix Workflow for process automation has been made available to companies for building end-to-end digital solutions on the low-code platform.

“The significance of this edition is that the areas of low code, and workflow and Business Process Management (BPM), are now merging,” says Mendix’s CTO and R&D leader, Johan den Haan.

“Solving problems with digitization and automation of business processes is a central issue for every company's CIO,” says Johan den Haan, CTO and Mendix R&D chief. "Our integrated approaches close the gap between the living reality of many organizations, where the flow of business logic lies with individual stakeholders.”

From CAD Models to BOMs and OT

In general, a low-code platform is a solution that at its best can provide access to all the components in the product realization value chain. Low-code and no-code development platforms provide a visual environment that allows users to build everything from full-blown enterprise applications to specified custom dashboards for people who work within the framework of product development and manufacturing. This is done by the drag-and-drop of application components, connecting them and creating mobile or web apps.

In short, you do not need to know coding language in order to put together a dashboard app. In PLM, for example, this can show current status reports on CAD models, simulation results, BOM lists, Operational Technology (OT) data, cost evaluations and other information from all software and machines that are part of a company's production apparatus configuration.

Nothing is designed in the low-code environment, but it contains algorithms for linking metadata, visualizing it and even adding alerts—for example, measures related to deviations—in everything that is part of a product development process.

This is how the analyst Gartner describes the matter:

A Low-Code Application Platform (LCAP) typically creates metadata and interprets this metadata at runtime and abstracts the underlying server infrastructure to facilitate use; many also allow optional procedure programming add-ons.

LCAP supports:

UI capabilities via responsive web and mobile apps.
Orchestration or choreography of pages, business process and decisions or business rules.
A built-in database.
"One button" deployment of applications.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Low-Code Enterprise Application Platforms has listed Mendix as a leader for five years in a row. (The chart above shows the 2021 Magic Quadrant in August 2021). Mendix has also been appointed a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multiexperience Development for three years in a row.

Connects and Combines a Broad Ecosystem of Software

The point of Siemens’ Mendix solution is that it ties together and combines the entire portfolio of Siemens software for design, construction and manufacturing. This means everything from the CAD flagship NX, the simulation solution Simcenter and BOMs on the PLM platform Teamcenter, to the digital manufacturing management approach from Tecnomatix (Siemens' Digital Manufacturing solution) and OT data from the workshop floor.

But it does not stop there. You can pick up fact-based insights from basically any program—even those outside the Siemens sphere—via Mendix’s ecosystem, which contains ready-made APIs for SAP or Ansys software, for example.

You can monitor status, send and receive alerts and look at 3D assemblies, variant configurations and system layouts, as well as trigger predictive maintenance measures, create workflows and pick data from other developers' software that is part of the production apparatus.

“Solving problems with digitization and automation of business processes is a central issue for every company's CIO,” says Johan den Haan. "Our integrated approaches close the gap between the living reality of many organizations, where the flow of business logic lies with individual stakeholders—which makes auditing and optimization of processes very difficult—and IT's ability to offer support and review. The Workflow Editor captures and documents tacit institutional knowledge that can be tested and verified through the DevOps test cycle."

Siemens has used its Mendix low-code platform to create more than 100 applications in less than a year by empowering over 10,000 employees as Mendix users and more than 1,000 as Rapid and Advanced Developers. The Mendix low-code application development platform is at the core of the cloud services in Siemens’ PLM software and services portfolio, Xcelerator. Globally the solution is implemented and used in more than 4,000 companies.

What Is the Point of the New Workflows?

The big news here is that Siemens has added Mendix Workflow and made it publicly and generally available. What's the main benefit of adding this new process automation workflow to Mendix? What does it gain that was not there before?

“The significance of this edition is that the areas of low code and workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) now merge. Historically, workflow and BPM tools have been fantastic at process automation, but lack the ability to define rich user interfaces for each device and the ability to define complex data models and integrations,” says den Haan.

“The low-code platform, on the other hand, has historically focused on application development with rich UI and data models, but lacked proper support for protracted, lengthy processes and intelligent automation,” he says. “With the ability to model workflows in the Mendix platform, including a full range of AI services to define smart workflows, the best of both worlds is combined. In addition, the developer experience is greatly improved and also the speed of development, as changes made to the user interface or data models are automatically spread to workflows and vice versa.”

Den Haan further points out that the expanded functionality in Workflow gives developers the opportunity to optimize and digitize complex business logic across external services, multiple end users and company data in general.

With the rollout of Mendix Workflow also comes an improved architecture and new features that have been fine-tuned during extensive beta testing. This is now available in both Mendix Studio's and Mendix Studio Pro's developer environments.

“[Mendix] Workflow enables better and more comprehensive collaboration between business experts and IT professionals to discover, design, build and optimize business processes with enterprise-wide automation," den Haan says. Using the visual modeling language of Mendix, the tool integrates user-centered and system data, data and third-party services to digitize processes in the company's application landscape. In addition, Workflow Commons, a module available through the Mendix Marketplace, has customizable, ready-to-use templates, pages, dashboards and smart services to kick-start intelligent enterprise-wide automation.

An example of a workflow process in Mendix’s environment.

What Are the Strategic Benefits of an Automated Process?

The workflow is one of the most important parameters in digital transformation. A lot changes when you switch from manual and analog processes to digital flows with process automation. Here, Mendix’s developers believe that intelligent automation, based on cloud-based scalability with more and faster implementations using fewer resources, provides important gains and competitive advantages in today's "digital-first economy."

Key analysts such as Deloitte and Forrester agree, but they note that the preoccupation with low-code is still in its infancy. Forrester reports, for example, that business-critical process automation is still on almost untouched ground, with almost 77 percent of companies relying on paper processes and email and 63 percent relying on Excel programs and spreadsheets.

Gartner's analysts also emphasize the economic necessity of automating complex business processes, saying that this feature is a "critical component" when evaluating a low-code platform. In addition, Gartner findings say that companies' need to scale hyper-automation will be one of the top three driving forces for using low code through 2022.

In this, Mendix believes its solution can help. Before Mendix Workflow, event-driven digitization has been difficult to manage and scale across the entire company, states Hans de Visser, VP and product manager within R&D at Mendix.

“We have implemented Workflow as a core function within the platform,” de Visser says. "It is not a fixed function for point solutions such as robot process automation or business process management software, but an integrated, built-in capability. Workflow Editor offers company-wide visibility and notifications about automated processes. It frees developers from reinventing the wheel by reusing defined processes and core business data, leveraging the same process-driven governance, control and oversight that infuses every solution developed on Mendix's low-code platform."

From Mendix’s Casebook: Mammoet

On the user side, the Mendix software has reaped a lot of success both technically and commercially. In the latter case, it can be noted that the solution is currently used by more than 4,000 companies in 46 countries.

One of these is Mammoet, which is a global player in heavy lifting logistics and transport. They have used the Mendix process automation strategy to accelerate and streamline IT support and system functionality across operations in 45 countries.

Mammoet is a global player in heavy lifting logistics and transport.

“The Mendix platform made it possible for Mammoet to integrate backend SAP data with digital work orders, collection of time reports, checklists for shipyards and stock supply and requests for technical support,” says Gerrit Dekker, Mammoet's CIO. “The successful implementation of process automation has already brought new efficiencies to our global operations. It also enables ongoing innovation by automating CO2 reporting data from our installed base of IoT sensors and devices."