Siemens AG has honored its best suppliers worldwide in fiscal 2010. The four awards are shared between two major concerns and two mid-sized companies. The U.S. company Texas Instruments took first place in the overall ranking. In addition, Siemens selected the Trips Group Germany as the most innovative supplier, Franke GmbH with headquarters in Aalen, Germany, as the best in the Global Value Sourcing category and Deutsche Post DHL as the most sustainable supplier. “Siemens stands for innovative strength and sustainability – this is why outstanding achievements by our suppliers in these categories are particularly important,” said Barbara Kux, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG.
Siemens AG is starting its own large-scale fleet test with electrical vehicles. One hundred employees will test the cars in everyday use. The first 20 vehicles will be put into service in late November, ten each in Erlangen and Munich, and the others will follow in the months thereafter at both locations as well as in Berlin. Siemens will also offer employees zero-cost recharging. “With this fleet testing, we hope to improve how cars work in conjunction with the electrical grid, such as when many electric cars are recharging at the same time,” explained Prof. Dr. Gernot Spiegelberg, Director of Electromobility Concept Development at Siemens Corporate Research. The company is presenting its latest developments in electromobility at the eCarTec trade show from October 19-20, 2010, in Munich.
Ideas from Siemens employees have been contributing to the company’s constant improvement for the past 100 years. The 3i Program, the name given to the system for submitting suggestions in 1997, encourages ideas and suggestions from employees and rewards these initiatives. “Siemens has a huge number of motivated employees and thus enormous creative potential. This is what we want to exploit through the 3i Program,” said Siemens Head of Corporate Human Resources Brigitte Ederer. Thanks to the more than 1.5 million ideas from employees that have been put into practice, the company has saved over €3 billion. This commitment has been rewarded by premiums totaling €300 million.
Siemens expects that new orders and revenue at its Sectors will increase again in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year compared to both the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and the third quarter of fiscal 2010. “In all probability, our operating results for the fourth quarter will be very satisfactory. Particularly in new orders, we’re seeing a further upturn in business activity,” said CFO Joe Kaeser in Munich on Monday. The profitability of Siemens’ operations in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010 will probably extend into the fourth quarter as well. Siemens expects Total Sectors profit – excluding the announced impairment of presumably up to €1.4 billion at its diagnostics business – to exceed the comparable prior-year figure of €1.9 billion. Total Sectors profit will probably include restructuring costs of some €150 million – an amount that, due to the business upturn, is less than recently expected.
Siemens has reached an open-ended agreement with its Central Works Council and the IG Metal union covering its future reorganizational activities and structural adjustments in Germany. “This represents a clear and long-term commitment to Germany as a business location. Siemens is a responsible employer. Every single employee is important to us,” said Peter Löscher, President and CEO of Siemens AG.
Siemens will carve out its IT business, Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS), as a separate company on October 1, as planned. Set up as a limited liability company (GmbH), the new company will operate under the name Siemens IT Solutions and Services GmbH. The new GmbH will start with a clear, customer-oriented structure. As announced in March, the focus will be shifted from seven business units to three: a worldwide sales organization structured by industry and regional unit will be supported by the business units IT Outsourcing and IT Solutions. SIS will remain a long-term IT service provider and preferred IT solutions partner for Siemens’ Energy, Industry and Healthcare Sectors and thus continue to profit from the leading industry expertise of Siemens’ businesses.
Siemens is investing around up to €100 million until the end of 2012 to make its factories greener. The company is currently analyzing the environmental performance and energy efficiency of its some 300 most important sites worldwide. The goal is to reduce energy and CO2 emissions by 20 percent by the end of 2011. Siemens is also offering the green test to its suppliers. In the next two years they are to check their companies’ energy and environmental efficiency. “We want to be the first industrial enterprise in the world with an entirely environmentally friendly supply chain,” said Barbara Kux, member of Siemens’ Managing Board and Chief Sustainability Officer. It is estimated that the company’s 1,000 most important suppliers alone could reduce their CO2 emissions by 1.5 million tons a year and their energy costs by around €170 million.
Siemens and its employees have already collected over €1 million in donations for the victims of the flood catastrophe in Pakistan. In order to help the approximately 20 million people affected by the disaster, Siemens will match every euro that its employees donate by September 30, 2010 to a special account established at the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft in Germany. The aid collected will then be transferred to the German Red Cross.