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Press Release23 February 2015Siemens AGAmberg
German Chancellor Merkel visits Siemens' showcase "digital factory"
"Amberg is the best proof that high tech and top innovations can sustainably secure Germany's position as an industrial location over the long term," said Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG. "Our Electronics Plant is a prime example of a digital factory, and shows that Siemens is already implementing key elements of Industrie 4.0. The organizational model of the "Digital Factory" as a Division, established on October 1, 2014, also reflects this development in our company."
The Amberg Electronics Factory showcases Siemens' concept for a "digital enterprise." The factory already employs production methods that will be the standard in many manufacturing facilities in a number of years. Products in the plant control their own assembly by directly communicating their specific requirements and their next production steps via a product code to the machines. The Amberg factory has made substantial progress on the way to the future, where real and virtual worlds will be even more closely merged in production, and products will communicate with one another and the machines and optimize their own production process. In the future, factories will be far more flexible than today in producing individual products and achieving higher efficiency – faster, at lower cost and with highest quality.
Production is largely automated: Machines and computers are responsible for 75 percent of the value chain, and employees handle the rest. The product is touched by a human hand only at the beginning, when the basic component – a bare printed circuit board – is placed on the assembly line. From then on, everything is run by machines. Yet humans remain indispensible – for developing products and production processes, for planning production, or for handling unexpected incidents. The factory produces around fifteen million Simatic products a year. This means that one product leaves the factory every second on 230 working days a year.
This press release, press pictures of the event and further information on Industry 4.0 and Digital Factory are available at www.siemens.com/press/merkel-in-amberg
For this press release
Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. The company is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world's largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is No. 1 in offshore wind turbine construction, a leading supplier of combined cycle turbines for power generation, a major provider of power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2014, which ended on September 30, 2014, Siemens generated revenue from continuing operations of €71.9 billion and net income of €5.5 billion. At the end of September 2014, the company had around 357,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at http://www.siemens.com.
Contact
Günter Gaugler
Siemens AG
Wittelsbacherplatz 2
80333 Munich
Germany
80333 Munich
Germany
+49 (89) 636-34782