Siemens PLM Software Announces New PLM Initiative to Help Medium to Large Enterprises Address Global Business Challenges

PLANO, Texas : Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division and a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, today announced a new global initiative and online resource center (www.siemens.com/plm/answers/mle) designed to show medium to large enterprises how implementing a PLM strategy can help them address today's global business challenges and turn more of their ideas into successful products.

"Today's economic conditions put PLM on the agenda of virtually all medium to large enterprises," said Eric Sterling, vice president, Enterprise Portfolio Marketing, Siemens PLM Software. "Whether looking to expand their customer base in global markets, or seeking to leverage global resource pools where costs are more competitive, 'going global' is a requirement. The initiative we are announcing today focuses on enabling our customers to manage the complexities of a lean global enterprise with the simplicity of a local environment."

Research by industry analysts further validates the need to deal with the challenges of globalization and why – particularly in today's economic climate – it is the leading priority for most medium to large enterprises.

Kevin O'Marah, Chief Strategy Officer, AMR Research, made the following statements in a recent video interview conducted with Siemens PLM Software, "In today's global business environment the requirement … to bring new and profitable product to market, couldn't be higher. (This) environment… requires a system and an approach to managing information around your product that allows you to deal with those varied environments and still make money. (There is) really no way to compete in this global design-anywhere, make-anywhere, build-anywhere environment without a PLM strategy, so it is, I think, a prerequisite for competitiveness in today's global business environment."

In October 2008, AMR Research said in the article Five Lynchpins of PLM Not To Sacrifice in an Economic Storm, "All businesses need to take some cost cutting measures to survive an economic downturn. But these measures cannot be at the expense of product development, supply, and manufacturing efficiency. If anything, the current economy can be an opportunity to assess where you can be more efficient in the product lifecycle."

In its new initiative, Siemens PLM Software shows how top performing customers have addressed global business challenges to implement concurrent processes that reduce time-to-market by up to 30 percent, enable as much as 90 percent data reuse across global facilities and increase quality with up to 95 percent less rework.

Offered in the online resource center are videos and white papers that provide analyst perspectives on today's global business challenges, as well as video and written case studies on how companies in different industries have addressed their challenges.

* Roberto Scotti, CEO at Bolzoni Auramo Group, said, "We bought companies in the United States, in Finland, in Germany and one of the big challenges we have to face has been the possibility of how to harmonize all these companies in one group."
* Uwe Tontsch, Product Development & Industrial Engineering Solutions manager at Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH), said, "If you are a global business and you need to have 1000 engineers collaborate, and they are distributed to 30 or 40 R&D centers, then you need the software tools to support the collaboration process."
* Joe Campbell, Chief Operating Officer of Applied Manufacturing Technologies (AMT), said, "All of these market drivers put a real pressure on (global) manufacturing teams to be able to conceptualize, design, build and implement flexible automation solutions in record time and at record cost and frankly with very little risk."
* Diane Raymond, Director Information Management & Technology for BAE Systems Military Air Solutions, said, "We're now in a new business area where we're actually managing the maintenance of our aircraft for our customer and going into something we call availability-based contracting. We have to be able to maintain all of our (global) engineering data throughout the lifecycle of our products."

Also available on Siemens PLM Software's new on-line resources center are details on related PLM capabilities to support product development and manufacturing roles. For more information on how medium to large enterprises can address their global business challenges with PLM, go to www.siemens.com/plm/answers/mle.