SIEMENS

Diversity provides inspiration, unleashes creative potential and expands horizons – all of which makes it vital to our success. That’s because people from different cultural and educational backgrounds approach problems completely differently – and when working together as a team, they often find the best solutions. Of course, it’s all the better when people find it easy to engage in dialogue across borders, languages and cultures. At Siemens, our Teamcenter software solution is promoting international cooperation at many company locations.

What are the aims of Teamcenter? To better leverage the opportunities presented by diversity, increase work efficiency, develop the best solutions and bring them to market faster. Allen Wang, James D. Palasek, Tesha Best and Christian Mellenthin (left to right) experience what this means in practice every day. Thanks to Teamcenter, they can work closely with colleagues around the world without leaving their offices in the U.S. city of Tucker, Georgia. Read on to learn how this software platform is making them feel even more closely integrated into the Siemens family.

On the ground in key markets worldwide“It doesn’t matter where at Siemens you work or what culture you call home: we all share the same goals. That’s probably the best thing you can learn at the Company.” James D. Palasek speaks from experience. The engineer from Tucker, Georgia has worked at Siemens for twelve years, partnering closely with colleagues in Mexico, Germany, China and India. His specialty is developing components and modules for control cabinets. Here – as in all our business fields – we’re aiming to achieve a leading position in all our markets worldwide. But only very few components are truly universal: technical regulations, industry standards and even climate conditions vary too much from place to place. That’s why we have developers working close to our customers, on site in key markets. And that includes Tucker, Georgia, one of the 15 worldwide locations of Control Components and Systems Engineering (CE).

But like the employees at the other facilities, James D. Palasek is active beyond the borders of his home market. “Our colleagues in Germany help us market our U.S. products in Europe, for example. By the same token, we reciprocate when they want to bring products developed for Europe to the U.S. market.”

Teamcenter – Collaborative softwareHelmut Staufer from CE’s product management center in Fürth, Germany goes even further: “New and redesigned products should work in lots of markets or must be easily adaptable. I’m continually discussing this issue with our international developers – by web conference, phone and e-mail.” In this context, optimizing the pushbuttons of our SIRIUS series for various markets is just one of many examples. Xu Huihui, a development engineer in Suzhou, near Shanghai in China, who’s been charged with this task, uses Teamcenter to consult with Staufer and colleagues in different countries. Teamcenter’s benefits immediately won over the eager networkers in Fürth, Tucker, Suzhou and elsewhere. Xu Huihui is thrilled: “With Teamcenter, I can work with anyone, anywhere, anytime, using a single platform. There’s no better way to share information, blueprints, CAD data and 3D views.” At Siemens in West Chicago, Illinois, U.S., Jayne Beck has been using Teamcenter from the very beginning. What she appreciates most are the uniform processes: “Our development teams used to work with lots of different software solutions. That made data transfer much more difficult. Now Teamcenter gives us a single platform for sharing product and design data and managing the entire product lifecycle – from the initial idea to the design, manufacture and ongoing development of our products.”

Benefits across the board – for employees and customersWhat are the advantages of using Teamcenter? Streamlined workflows, no more reduplicated processes and even faster solutions. And something that wasn’t a primary objective but may just be Teamcenter’s greatest benefit: a feeling of belonging that keeps on growing, transcending national and cultural boundaries. Every day, all around the world, employees at CE and many other Industry Sector units are experiencing how Teamcenter improves collaboration among women and men with different skills, knowhow and qualifications – and enables them to get to know one another better. Jayne Beck values diverse teams for yet another reason: “Our customers, like our employees, come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. All around the globe, we have colleagues who are especially good at putting themselves in our customers’ shoes. And their knowledge and insights equip us to develop better products and solutions.”

Embracing diversity as an opportunityAt Siemens, our unwavering commitment to diversity is firmly anchored in our corporate strategy. For a company that’s active in some 190 countries and generates more than two-thirds of its revenues outside its home market, diversity is more than simply a business necessity. Our people see diversity as offering great opportunities for their professional and personal development. “Working with colleagues around the world expands my horizons and changes my perspective. I can learn a lot at Siemens,” says Xu Huihui’s colleague Wang Yan Qin. Helmut Staufer draws particular inspiration from working with his Chinese counterparts: “They’re always very optimistic, positive and committed to their work.” James D. Palasek also feels a very personal gain: “I learn a lot about other cultures and their working style and can apply these insights to my own work.” Today, countless employees throughout our Company are passionate and motivated about networking and learning from one another in their day-to-day work.

Reach the customer twice as fast. Produce and bring to market while the competition is still in the planning phase. Put innovation on the fast track. And all this with 280,000 product variants, 60,000 employees and production facilities around the world. This is the ambitious vision of our Drive Technologies and Industry Automation Divisions. Integrate Enable Collaborate (IEC) is what we call our program for greater speed and maximum efficiency. The goal for the years ahead is to bring new products to market much faster, in some cases even twice as fast as in the past.

This will require perfect teamwork: developers, product managers, designers, production planners and many other specialists will have to work as one. And they’ll have to enrich the data pool with their product and process knowhow – whether in the area of computer-aided design (CAD), office applications (such as word processing) or computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). This is the only way to make all information available anywhere, anytime – including everything from the initial idea for a product to production planning, user instructions and service feedback. The cycle ends when development of the next product generation begins.

Teamcenter is the name of the Siemens software that makes smart product lifecycle management (PLM) across borders and time zones a reality. Some seven million users around the world are already working with Teamcenter or other products from Siemens PLM Software in Plano, Texas, U.S. – including nearly all major automotive manufacturers. It comes as no surprise that we’re also deploying this successful software platform in-house. Roughly 20,000 employees at our Drive Technologies and Industry Automation Divisions will soon be using Teamcenter at 90 locations in 15 countries.

The IEC program is unique in its size, its complexity and its broad range of applications. That’s why Teamcenter developers are eagerly awaiting feedback from those who are introducing and using the software. This feedback will be taken into account when developing the next generation of Teamcenter. And our interest is actually twofold, because at Siemens we don’t just sell our products and solutions; we use them.