Can you present your role within Siemens, and the firm’s recent achievements in Singapore?

I joined in November 2022 as Head of Vertical Management for the Chemical Industry in the ASEAN region. Our main updates are in the realms of resiliency and sustainability. Having an efficient supply chain is key post-Covid-19, and we recently announced, along with our 115th anniversary of Siemens in Singapore, that we will invest in a EUR200 million new high-tech factory in Singapore. This will create 400 local jobs, boost regional growth, and increase supply chain resilience. The chemicals sector is one of the biggest producers of global CO2 emissions. Looking at decarbonization, the announcement of “Together for Sustainability,” an initiative of 47 chemical companies, will help to advance the overall sustainability of the chemical industry. In this partnership, we will leverage the power of SiGREEN, to track, manage and exchange product carbon footprint (PCF) data.

What capabilities will the new plant add to Siemens in Southeast Asia?

The plant will manufacture our leading automation portfolio which is widely used in chemical plants in ASEAN as well as globally. Europe and China remain strategic markets for us, and this plant in Singapore is a powerful addition to our global network of manufacturing sites.

How do you help your customers in the chemicals space accelerate digital transformation?  

Siemens has a uniquely positioned portfolio for the chemical industries, combining hardware and software, enabling vertical as well as horizontal integration, and empowering our customers to realize their vision of a Plant Digital Twin. To accelerate digital transformation at scale, we have launched Siemens Xcelerator, an open digital business platform that accelerates digital transformation enabling customers to unlock value faster. With Siemens Xcelerator, we are committed to making our portfolio of hardware and software modular, cloud-connected, and built on standard APIs. We are open to collaborating with certified partners from the largest tech companies to small independent software vendors and creating a marketplace to learn, exchange, and access this portfolio.  

Can you present your “SiGREEN” offering and expand on Siemens’ sustainability approach?

If you want to improve, you need to measure and collect data. Today’s emissions are partially estimated based on industry averages, with the result that improvements in your supply chain will not be reflected in your product carbon footprint (PCF), so that you cannot leverage this competitive advantage immediately.

SiGREEN is changing this. SiGREEN enables you to securely exchange and manage sensitive product carbon footprint data along your supply chain dynamically. And with the SiGREEN Chem Connect, you can calculate, monitor, and optimize your own emissions with a mass and energy balance-based digital twin of your chemical plant.

Sustainability is a key part of our strategy. It is deeply embedded in our business activities, investment decision-making, and governance. This commitment is reflected in our DEGREE framework, a 360-degree view of Siemens’ ESG priorities.

What major shifts have you noticed in the industry in recent years?

A few years ago, we had to bring up Industry 4.0 topics to our clients. Now, our clients proactively discuss digitalization topics, and this is a big shift. Those topics range from empowering the digital workforce to building digital twins, process optimization, and IoT & Edge in combination with Artificial Intelligence. However, companies need to reach a certain level of automation before being able to go forward with all these new technologies. Therefore, if you want to be more “digital native,” you must invest in your assets. If you are not focusing on automation, data quality, and openness of systems you cannot evolve in this digital transformation journey.

What will be the main workforce-related trends in Singapore in the future?

People that are currently graduating are considered “digital natives” and are used to digital information. For digital natives to flourish in the industry, we need to upgrade systems, get rid of data silos and paper-based documentation, focus on optimizing data flow, and embrace digital transformation in the job descriptions of the workforce.

To support this, our solutions are available and affordable. For instance, COMOS Mobile Worker is a “universal pocketknife” enabling multiple uses-cases of a Digital Worker, state-of-the-art vertical and horizontal integration with the Opcenter product family, and the capability to leverage citizen developers with Mendix – the Low Code Application Platform from Siemens for use-cases which go far beyond classical OT. Siemens has been appointed as a SkillsFuture Queen Bee by SkillsFuture Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Education, to provide training to help companies and individuals master skills and co-develop proofs-of-concept to pilot solutions with Industry 4.0 technologies.

What is going to be your main objective to keep growing in the ASEAN region?

Approximately 8.5% of the world population lives in the ASEAN. The average age is around 30 years, so great investment potential exists here. This strengthens our decision to build a new high-tech factory here. Siemens has been awarded one of the 10 most innovative companies of 2023. It is an exciting time to be part of the firm, particularly in the ASEAN region.