2006年3月1日，西門子“整合無間 協(xié)同制造”SIMATIC IT產(chǎn)品與應(yīng)用介紹會在北京麗都假日酒店舉行。據(jù)悉，這是西門子“整合無間 協(xié)同制造”SIMATIC IT全國巡回推廣會繼2005年12月22日杭州介紹會之后的第二站活動。會后，西門子Simatic IT亞太區(qū)業(yè)務(wù)經(jīng)理Armin Kratzer先生接受了國際工業(yè)自動化網(wǎng)記者的專訪。
據(jù)Armin Kratzer先生介紹，作為西門子SIMATIC IT全球推廣計劃的一部分，SIMATIC IT在中國的推廣活動是從2005年底正式啟動的。西門子在全球選定了20個國家作為重點(diǎn)，而中國市場無疑是重中之重。早在2004年中，西門子就已經(jīng)開始著手籌備SIMATIC IT在中國的推廣?！艾F(xiàn)在我們已經(jīng)基本完成了所有的準(zhǔn)備工作，所以，今年我們要做的事情，就是大舉進(jìn)軍中國市場”。
在談及西門子如何選擇產(chǎn)品推廣的時機(jī)時，Kratzer先生表示，西門子頗富遠(yuǎn)見地看到了MES在中國以及全球市場的無限商機(jī)。制造執(zhí)行系統(tǒng)（MES）并不完全是一個新的概念，“事實上，當(dāng)使用紙和筆來制定生產(chǎn)計劃并跟蹤記錄執(zhí)行情況時，所有參與這些活動的人都在扮演制造執(zhí)行系統(tǒng)的角色”。在過去的10年中，隨著自動化生產(chǎn)的發(fā)展，自動化生產(chǎn)線和各種應(yīng)用程序承擔(dān)了MES的職能，ERP系統(tǒng)也在某種程度上發(fā)展了部分MES的功能。但在各種系統(tǒng)之間依然存在著鴻溝。自二十世紀(jì)九十年代美國AMR（先進(jìn)制造研究機(jī)構(gòu)，Advanced Manufacturing Research）提出MES概念以來，MES在全球迅猛發(fā)展，正在被越來越多的來自各個行業(yè)的制造業(yè)企業(yè)采用。據(jù)統(tǒng)計，2003年全球MES市場的銷售收入已達(dá)到60億美元，而且持續(xù)保持著兩位數(shù)的增長。
“采用MES系統(tǒng)至少有兩點(diǎn)顯而易見的好處，一是節(jié)約了勞動力成本，減少了投入于非增值活動中的人力資本，人們可以有更多的時間來考慮如何改進(jìn)產(chǎn)品和生產(chǎn)流程；二是提高了執(zhí)行的準(zhǔn)確性和數(shù)據(jù)的可靠性。這是一個巨大的轉(zhuǎn)變，將使企業(yè)的生產(chǎn)效率大幅度提高”。不僅如此，MES在提升質(zhì)量管理、降低物料管理等其他成本與費(fèi)用方面也發(fā)揮著很大作用。因此，雖然在中國勞動力的成本相對較低，但中國的制造業(yè)企業(yè)依然需要制造執(zhí)行系統(tǒng)。調(diào)查顯示，截至2005年，中國主要制造行業(yè)都有企業(yè)在不同程度上實施了MES。Kratzer先生指出，隨著制造業(yè)在全球范圍轉(zhuǎn)移，將有越來越多的跨國企業(yè)把生產(chǎn)部門轉(zhuǎn)移到中國，中國的MES市場潛力巨大。全球資深分析機(jī)構(gòu)ARC制造業(yè)專業(yè)咨詢公司的調(diào)查表明，明年中國市場對MES的需求將不斷增加，特別是汽車制造和煙草等行業(yè)?！罢窃谶@樣的背景下，西門子敏銳地抓住時機(jī)，并且行動迅速”。
面對記者提出的SIMATIC IT優(yōu)勢何在的問題，Kratzer先生的回答有條不紊，表現(xiàn)出德意志民族特有的嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?！笆紫?，西門子是唯一能夠提供端到端全套解決方案的MES系統(tǒng)供應(yīng)商，不僅如此，西門子還能夠很好地解決各種系統(tǒng)沖突”，Kratzer先生不無自豪地說，并隨即作了一個絕妙的比喻，“這就好像是一場古典音樂會，不僅需要音樂家們來演奏小提琴、鋼琴等等不同的樂器，還需要一位富于經(jīng)驗的指揮家，這樣才能令各種樂器在適當(dāng)?shù)臅r候演奏出動聽的旋律，從而形成美妙的交響曲。SIMATIC IT就是這樣，它能夠提供舉辦一場成功的音樂會所需要的所有東西”。此外，SIMATIC IT的設(shè)計基于ISA95標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，可以通過對庫（library）的配置來滿足不同行業(yè)、不同生產(chǎn)流程的需要，并且由于采取Framework加組件的方式而具有良好的靈活性、兼容性和可擴(kuò)展性?；谝陨咸攸c(diǎn)，“我堅信SIMATIC IT是到目前為止市場上出現(xiàn)的最好的產(chǎn)品”。
Kratzer先生還表示，他對SIMATIC IT產(chǎn)品推廣活動到目前為止所取得的成果感到滿意。西門子中國自動化與驅(qū)動集團(tuán)SIMATIC IT中國區(qū)經(jīng)理張軍強(qiáng)先生說，在中國已經(jīng)有越來越多的人了解和關(guān)注MES，MES已經(jīng)成為時下自動化領(lǐng)域業(yè)內(nèi)人士討論的一個熱門話題。
對于西門子SIMATI IT產(chǎn)品在中國市場的前景，Kratzer先生滿懷信心?！霸谥袊?，西門子已經(jīng)樹立了很好的品牌形象”。他特別提到了西門子近期所作的一份市場調(diào)查。有520人參與了這次調(diào)查。當(dāng)被問及“你認(rèn)為誰是最專業(yè)的MES系統(tǒng)供應(yīng)商”時，有68%的被調(diào)查者選擇了西門子。Kratzer先生微笑著告訴記者：“正因為如此，西門子相信自己在中國市場一定能夠取得成功”。
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"We present the total concert"
--about Siemens, MES and SIMATIC IT
An open day was held by Siemens Ltd., China Automation & Drives Group in Beijing Lidu Hotel on March 1st, 2006. The Open Day is the second activity of the SIMATIC IT promotion activites. Indeed the first open day was held in Hangzhou on Dec 12th, 2005. Mr. Armin Kratzer, who is the Asia Pacific SIMATIC IT Manager, accepted the interview from CA after the Open Day.
Mr. Armin Kratzer said, as a part of the Siemens SIMATIC IT global marketing program, the promotion activities in China were launched in the end of 2005 with the first open day. Today Siemens is actively promoting SIMATIC IT in 20 focus countries. The Chinese market is absolutely one of the countries with the most importance for Siemens. Siemens started to prepare activities for SIMATIC IT since June 2004. "This year we really want to focus on going to the market, because we have done our homework and prepared ourselves."
When talking about why Siemens choose such a time to promote the product, Mr. Armin said, with a foresight, Siemens had found the market opportunity in China. MES is not completely a new concept, "in fact, when people execute a production plan and trace the execution of the plan manually with pen and paper, more or less they are playing the role of a Manufacturing Execution System." In the past 10 years more and more automated or computer based systems were developed and used in order to cope with the requirements of MES. ERP is one element that partly touches functions defined at the MES level. However, there are still gaps between different systems. Since the concept of MES was explicitly presented by different companies in the late 1990s, MES has been applied by more and more manufacturing enterprises in different industry in the world. According to statistics, the revenue of MES in global market reached 6 billion US dollars in 2003, with an almost double digit annual growth.
"Customers will benefit from MES at least in two aspects. First of all, you save a lot of labour based activities which do not add any value to your operation at all. People now have time to consider about how to improve their production, product and workflow. Furthermore, the information recorded is accurate and reliable. So it's a big shift." What is creating more impact, MES can also reduce the cost in material management and other sectors. Therefore, like foreign companies, Chinese manufacturing enterprises have the desire to set up MES as well. Although labor cost is low in China, quality improvement and scrap reduction is a vital topic. Mr. Kratzer pointed out that more and more multinational enterprises will transfer production facilities to China, which will extremely motivate the market demands. According to an investigation report from ARC, the market demands of MES in China will be continuously increasing next year especially in some specific industries such as car and tobacco manufacturing. In this context, "We have acted in the very first place, because coming in late never is good."
Mr. Kratzer introduced the advantages of Siemens SIMATIC IT. "Siemens is the only supplier who can provide a product covering the whole MES functional requirements, and further handle the interactions between functional components", Mr. Kratzer said proudly. " Just like in a concert, besides musicians who play the instruments, we have a conductor who can perfectly drive the workflow to ensure the whole performance. SIMATIC IT can provide all the necessities that a successful concert needs." Based on the ISA95, SIMATIC IT is capable to satisfy different requirements of different industries by adjusting the setup of libraries. The "framework+component" structure enables SIMATIC IT high flexibility and compatibility, and makes it easy to be enlarged. "If you look in the market and look for a similar approach, I think you won't find another supplier with a similar offering."
Mr. Kratzer was content with the outcome of the promotion activities in China. "In China, people never really talked about MES before. But more and more people have known this concept. MES has become a hot topic now", said Dragon Zhang, the MES Product Manager from Automation & Drives Group of Siemens Ltd., China.
"If you see Siemens as a brand, I think in China it is quite well established." Mr. Kratzer expressed his confidence with the future of SIMATIC IT in Chinese market. He mentioned a recent investigation made by Siemens with around 520 people from different manufacturing industries. When asked "which company do you think has the biggest know-how for MES solutions", 68% of them chose Siemens. "This is another building block to make us feel comfortable to be successful with SIMATIC IT in China," said Mr. Kratzer.
（轉(zhuǎn)載）
