Pictures of the Future      Spring 2005

A New Lease on Life

Siemens takes a life-cycle approach to its equipment. During product planning, engineers take into account how equipment can be repaired and resold later in its service life. Equipment from Siemens Medical Solutions is a case in point.

An integrated product policy involves taking a product’s entire service life into account. And that’s what Siemens has been doing for more than ten years. "We build environmental compatibility into our products," says Dr. Ferdinand Quella, head of Product-Related Environmental Protection at Siemens Corporate Technology. "In fact," he adds, "we have an internal standard for environment-friendly design through a product’s entire lifecycle." One focus here is on designing new products that can be easily recycled. This standard calls for fewer components as well as components and materials that can be easily dismantled and separated.

The European WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) guideline is also designed to strengthen environmental protection. Beginning in August 2005, manufacturers of electrical and electronic devices and equipment will have to take back their products after they have outlived their useful life—and then recycle or dispose of them. This poses a major challenge, particularly with regard to medical equipment. Magnetic resonance tomographs, for example, can weigh up to ten tons, and expensive electronic components account for about 30 % of most X-ray systems. Siemens Medical Solutions recycles up to 95 % of the materials it uses, and specific dismantling instructions for equipment make it easy to identify and separate critical materials. This has led to a 20 % reduction in disposal costs in recent years. The AXIOM Iconos R200 X-ray system, for example, which has been on the market since 2003, was designed with resources conservation in mind. The number of components in the unit is 70 % lower than the total for its predecessor model. In addition, Siemens specialists reduced X-ray levels by up to 93 %, which also extends the lifecycle of the X-ray tubes. Electricity consumption is very low as well—28 kWh per day, which is about the same as two lamps in an operating room.

Siemens has been taking back old equipment for years. The Refurbished Systems (RS) division accepts used medical systems from around the world, overhauls them and re-markets them with a quality seal. A new plant built for this purpose went into operation in Forchheim, Germany, in August 2004. RS also has a facility in Chicago that repairs computer tomographs and gamma cameras for nuclear medicine applications.

Siemens has created a comprehensive process chain to ensure all used diagnostic systems are resold in the best condition possible. The devices are first examined on site to determine their age, condition, capabilities and usability, and then removed by specialists. At a plant in Forchheim, Germany, they are dismantled to determine the individual elements’ degree of wear and potential for renewal—which can differ greatly for modules in X-ray diagnostic systems, for example. All useful components are then thoroughly cleaned, disinfected and repainted. Siemens experts replace worn-out parts with original spares and update all software and hardware before running complete tests on the systems. If all quality standards are met, the unit is given the "Proven Excellence" quality seal, including a 12-month parts warranty. The "new old" device is then transported to the customer, installed and returned to service.

Such devices are much less expensive than new products; customers can save 30 % or more. Overhauled systems are sold in relatively equal numbers to hospitals and doctors’ offices in industrialized countries and emerging markets. Siemens generates half of all resulting revenues in Europe and the Middle East, and about one-third in the U.S. "We’re posting double-digit growth," says Hans-Peter Seubert, head of RS, who believes the global market volume for such equipment is at least 1.3 bill. € per year: "Eastern Europe, and Asia in particular, have enormous growth potential."
                                                                                                                        Sylvia Trage