COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerates Digital Transformation at Siemens

At the 25th ARC Industry Forum, hosted virtually, many industry experts gave their perspectives on accelerating digital transformation in the post-COVID world.  Andy Chatha, President & CEO of ARC Advisory Group, interviewed Eckard Eberle, CEO of Digital Industries Process Automation at Siemens.  Here are a few key takeaways from the interview.  The video of the interview can be viewed here and/or on YouTube.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerates Digital Transformation Activities of Siemens and its Customers

In an interview with ARC’s Andy Chatha, Mr. Eberle talked about the significant impact of the pandemic-induced lockdowns and “work from home.”  There has been acceleration in the digital transformation activities of Siemens and its customers during the pandemic.  Some of the activities from regional, digital transformation-specific markets are:

• In Asia and China, digital transformation activities are increasing, because large plants with completely new installations in greenfield are creating a digital twin
• In Europe, technologies, like modularization, are going beyond the classical portfolio-only automation
• Changes within the process industries are being driven by digital strategies and approaches
• Siemens has announced its plans to create the first modular plant together with Merck
• New cloud-based applications are being created to improve performance of equipment
• There is increasing interest in the industry in digital twins and plant simulation
• More emphasis on remote operation of plants

Digital Transformation at Siemens in the Post-COVID World

According to Mr. Eberle, many of Siemens’ customers have been forced to work and operate plants remotely.  This trend is not likely to go away in the future because these customers have realized that implementing digital transformation technologies that help in remotely managing plants has various advantages:

• Increased focus on other core issues
• Smaller teams needed on the plant floor
• More emphasis on predictive maintenance

Future implementations of digital transformation technologies will ensure more automation of processes and more autonomous plants.