Manufacturing Executive - January/February 2009 - (Page 31) addressed every verbal comment.” The town meetings turned out to be pivotal. One in particular, at UGS’ Cypress, CA, office in October 2007 — was the turning point for many employees who had been struggling to understand the intent of the acquisition and the future of Siemens PLM Software. Getting Buy-In When Huber called the UGS team into a huddle at the Cypress headquarters last fall, the concept of unifying product and production lifecycles was foreign to the majority of people attending the meeting. Nevertheless, Huber had each manager make a presentation, using the town meeting as a platform Tony Affuso for exchanging ideas. Still, many employees couldn’t Chairman and CEO of Siemens PLM Software grasp the big-picture vision. “You could feel the stress in the room,” Huber recalls. He, too, felt the stress at times. “There was a lot of nervousBut Siemens still has a lot of convincing to do with customers. ness buying this company at this price,” Huber recalls. “It was “We are not seeing a huge uptick of the digital factory,” says a stressful time, but we had time to talk about it [and sort things Manufacturing Insights’ Barkai. “The idea of virtual commisout,] from the integration strategy to the management team.” sioning is a good idea, and it’s making progress, but slowly. It He used the meeting in Cypress to lay it all out on the table. looks exciting in theory, but how do you take a great concept Slowly, he says, people began to understand. from PowerPoint down to the shop floor?” “There was a lot of regular communication with the purpose “It is an area of high interest, but a lot of people are still in of educating, because people were still trying to piece things tothe experimentation phase,” says Joe Kann, vice president of gether,” Carrelli says. “There was no single light bulb moment. global business development at Rockwell Automation. “In The light bulbs went off at different times depending upon who general, we see people in the ‘we are interested stage’ and not you were and where you were in the organisation with the difin the ‘we are spending money in this area’ stage.” e 27 ferent product directions of the company being unveiled.” Perhaps they don’t understand the big picture just yet. “People The good news is that the vision caught on, at least internally. look at the grand visions that exist in this area and try to match “They started to talk about the future where manufacturers would it up against the realities of the environment and the complexibe able to develop personalised products at the same scale, in ties of the real environment and they are hesitant because it’s terms of cost and availability, that mass-produced products could impossible for them to stop their business model and hit a restart provide,” Carrelli says. “It’s the idea of mass-customisation.” button,” Kann says, referring to the vision Siemens has outlined. the rules of the heart of making this all happen At gration at Siemens, was pulled in “We see things differently than Sietools. was Project Archimedes. Indeed, the to help manage the post-merger mens does,” Kann says. “It is a more rsions of its process. A 12-year Siemens vetcompany sees Archimedes as much more complicated world than perhaps the NX 6 digital eran, Newbury was running the than a roadmap for future products. “It’s way I’ve seen Siemens describing it.” ch with synU.S. process automation busiWHAT PROJECT ARCHIMEDES bringing two worlds together; that’s what To that end, manufacturers need flexness at the time of the UGS purENCOMPASSES Archimedes is about,” Ludwig says. ibility more than anything else, he says. lay a role in chase, but had also been at the Siemens’ Unified Product and Production Lifecycle “It is focused onof some of the need technology, Siemens’ Given that insight — albeit from a Initiative, code-named Project Archimedes, is a joint oject Archicenter for a long-term project, and collaboracompetitor — it’s interesting to take effort among Siemens PLM Software, Siemens s crucial to smaller software acquisitions. tion different business Februar a step back and measure the success Automation Systems, and Siemens Motion Control [Siemens’] acrossFor example, in units toy synchronise developmentEnergy & Auplans.” of the Siemens acquisition of UGS, Systems. The areas of focus include: ccess going 2000, Siemens’ The fitomation groupArchimedesrst-generation acquired Moore which will result in a tightly integrated enter PLM, Adaptive Manufacturing: Intelligent production enabled Products are expected to roll products in a $170 million cash PLM-to-production solution. Is the backbone. components for the integration of process and out before the end of this year, officials acquisition of UGS working? ns acquired deal geared toward strengthenautomation design with Teamcenter. say, starting Siemens’integration of the with the presence in As an integrated organisation, the st team up? ing Virtual Commissioning: The validation engine CAM and CNCAmerican process conto get a precise view answer appears to be yes. From a he core auNorth for process, automation, and MES. the market for the is and gas, PLM sales perspective, Teamcenter We saw of what trol CAM operationoil doing that Harmonized Lifecycles: Integrating the PLM ve a major relative pharmaceutical, and pulp and to the specific controller or marevenue was up 15% a year after the backbone with production (bidirectional MES and des the chine tool. A second development will abilpaper segments. A year later, in acquisition closed, and Tecnomatix controller integration). h machines Januar y 2001, Siemens Autobe geared to Teamcenter for the CPG license revenue was up 28%. But as industrymation & Drives acquiredIT, integrated with SIMATIC the far as Siemens PLM Software’s being Hi-Fidelity Machining: Tighter links between the former Orsi Group, an CAM and physical controllers. Siemens’ MES product. MES provider the de facto standard for the digital ow is chair- deliveryin Genoa, rst digital factory The based of these fi Italy. factory of the future, well, the jury is Mechatronics: The most advanced mechanical and oftware,products will be an important milestone. the Newbur y helped facilitate still out. ME electronic systems engineering and management. HUBER AND AFFUSO, THE FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO OF UGS, HAD BEEN DISCUSSING THE IDEA [OF MERGING] SINCE MAY 2006, WHEN THEY FIRST MET TO TALK ABOUT A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP. inside INSIDE LOOK look UGS make e been dis, when they elationship. both the Moore and Orsi acquiSource: Siemens sitions, understanding that Siemens wanted to be a stronger software company. Yet, he admits he didn’t Manufacturing JAN/FEB-09 Executive 31
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