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Amid an uncertain macroeconomic environment, digital transformation is on the minds of business leaders everywhere. In manufacturing, companies are laser-focused on increased automation, data-driven decision-making, sustainability, and new, innovative customer experiences to navigate the current environment.
Siemens, a global manufacturing company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare, is working to help its customers accelerate their digital transformation.
Lori Steele, Salesforce President & Chief Revenue Officer for EMEA, spoke to Hanna Hennig, CIO at Siemens AG, about the rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape. They also discussed where Siemens fits in, what’s next, and how Salesforce has helped accelerate the Siemens digital transformation journey.
Q. Can you tell us about Siemens’ new digital strategy and why it’s become a priority?
Manufacturing companies are under pressure to cope with high market volatility, climate change, sustainability requirements, and cybersecurity threats. They also find themselves in a new era of deglobalization.
What’s the recipe to successfully manage these challenges? I believe it’s combining the digital world with the real world to get customers the information they need to make the best decisions — and make them with confidence.
What’s the recipe to successfully manage these challenges? I believe it’s combining the digital world with the real world to get customers the information they need to make the best decisions — and make them with confidence.
Based on this, we have what we call our digital enterprise strategy: design, realize, and optimize, in a continuous loop. We help our customers simulate how a product will be developed on their product lines before it is manufactured.
For us, it is about getting to the next level of digitalization — not only digitally mapping and optimizing existing manufacturing processes and workflows for our customers but completely redesigning them.
Q. Where does Siemens’ Xcelerator program fit into all this?
True efficiency and flexibility lie in the collaboration of partners, customers, start-ups, and many more within a powerful ecosystem.
One of the key elements of Siemens Xcelerator, our open digital business platform, is a powerful ecosystem of certified partners – from solution vendors to technology partners — to accelerate our customers’ digital transformation.
The curated, modular Siemens Xcelerator portfolio is amongst our open portfolio of services that are interoperable and connectable — especially for partners, who can build on top of our products and add greater value for customers.
But the Siemens Xcelerator is more than that – it’s a large, ever-growing ecosystem of partners. The open digital business platform where buyers, sellers, developers, and partners come together to exchange solutions to help our customers digitally transform.
Salesforce has helped Siemens accelerate the launch of a game-changing customer experience with the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace by combining an effective off-the-shelf product with sufficient speed to make our launch visible, impactful, and relevant to our customers.
Q. We’re witnessing a watershed moment for technology right now with breakthrough innovations like generative AI that can transform business. How will AI intersect with Siemens’ digital transformation plans?
We are focusing and continuing to build AI into our products as much as possible.
For example, we integrate machine learning into our factory solutions so they are both automated and adaptive. With AI, we will also automate unpredictable events in the future. It will basically think for the customer.
However, human beings will always make the key decisions. If one of our systems makes a recommendation on how to improve itself, the customer will have the option of saying yes or no.
I think it’s helpful for people to understand that AI is not going to take jobs away from us or remove human thinking. AI will depend on our conscious interaction, and it must be rooted in trust and ethics if it’s going to work.
I think it’s helpful for people to understand that AI is not going to take jobs away from us or remove human thinking. AI will depend on our conscious interaction, and it must be rooted in trust and ethics if it’s going to work.
By having accessible guardrails in place companies will be able to reduce potential risks of AI and seize the transformative opportunities it presents.
And I’m absolutely convinced that, with AI, we can elevate what we have created so far to reach the next level of prosperity in terms of managing the challenges within business and the wider world.
Q. Finally, what does a digital future look like for Siemens?
It’s not just about technology, it’s about change. How quickly, how flexibly, how successfully can a company shape this change? That is the crucial point at which technology comes into play. Digitalization requires a cultural change in the organization. It also requires changes in the workforce – with completely different, new skills. Digital competences of the entire workforce need to be elevated.
Right now, the digitalization of our factories and, accordingly, the convergence of IT and operational technology (OT) are the most important projects for us. In the very near future, centralized and harmonized customer data from both worlds will enable us to tailor our production processes even more precisely to our customers’ needs. This will allow us to fully control production planning and make sound, data-driven business decisions.
In the very near future, centralized and harmonized customer data from both worlds will enable us to tailor our production processes even more precisely to our customers’ needs.
It will also help to open up new business and revenue models, which in turn, will also benefit our customers and partners.
