Aerospace and defence firm BAE Systems, the biggest manufacturer in the UK and the biggest defence contractor in Europe, has appointed Siemens on a five-year deal to develop a “strategic blueprint” for smart manufacturing within its design and production disciplines. The pair are old familiars, having worked together for decades already. The new arrangement is presented as a collaborative endeavour, about co-creating bespoke Industry 4.0 solutions using the German firm’s Teamcenter product lifecycle management (PLM) software and Xcelerator partner ecosystem.
A press statement talks about co-creating and coordinating ‘factory-of-the-future’ solutions. Their new framework agreement covers regional and international projects in the fields of “sustainability, industrial digitalisation, and supply chain modernisation”. Siemens said the ambition is to develop a “framework to accelerate the commercial application benefits to BAE Systems within technology exploitation and adaptation” – which sounds like a grandiose way of saying Siemens will help BAE Systems to put new Industry 4.0 technologies to work.
A statement said: “This builds on and exploits the recent deployment of Siemens’ NX software for product engineering and Teamcenter software for PLM, from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software. Edge computing solutions and technology validation have also been successfully used across multiple catapult and technology centres… Siemens and BAE Systems will also continue previous initiatives to innovate and develop new approaches to digital manufacturing supporting the Factory of the Future initiative within BAE systems.”
Brian Holliday, managing director at Siemens’s digital industries division in the UK and Ireland, said: “Technology is transforming manufacturing at an accelerated pace and we are proud to work with BAE Systems at the leading edge of Industry 4.0 in the UK. The partnership is a good example of Siemens’ broader vision for how we want to work with customers via Siemens Xcelerator, which is built on a digital portfolio, ecosystem… [and] marketplace… By working together in a focussed way, we can accelerate the time to business and sustainability benefits through technology.”
Iain Minton, technology capability delivery director at BAE Systems, said: “Collaborations like this help us develop and invest in ‘digital-thread’ enabling technologies in a more integrated way. Siemens understands… our operating environment so we can quickly mature an idea to the point [it goes] into practice – [like] when we are looking to implement / optimise new engineering, support, or manufacturing capabilities. That’s the value of this collaboration – the trust and understanding we have built creates a powerful force in driving results for the aerospace sector.”
Ben Sheath, vice president and managing director for Siemens’ digital industries software business in the UK and Ireland, said. “We are pleased to extend Siemens’ two-decade long relationship with BAE Systems as it continues to deliver on plans to build the factory of the future. We look forward to working alongside the team at BAE Systems as it leverages… Industry 4.0 to help achieve [its] digital transformation goals. This is another example of how leaders in aerospace are choosing to partner with Siemens… as the foundation of their digital transformation.”
