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Weblog - Siemens
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Siemens - read the original article. Siemens is easily the largest industrial automation company in the world. What is it like working for Siemens? This is a summary of the collected insights of several managers who have worked fairly high up in the US Siemens organization. |
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Siemens - American Managers View updated Sept. 2003 in Jim Pinto's latest book Automation Unplugged. Read the Table of Contents. |
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Weblog Comments - Siemens
These weblogs were initially started with some success, and I continued this as a service.
The "anonymous" weblogs have been an experiment - allowing company employees to vent, when management takes no notice. Unfortunately, apart from the occasional positive blog, this has deteriorated to a mostly negative tone. I put in a lot of work and get nothing positive in return.
As someone suggested, "Negativity breeds negativity!". So, with very little in the way of positive results, I am stopping these automation company weblogs.
These are difficult economic times, and Siemens is doing about as well as most other industrial companies, perhaps better than most. I wish the company and its employees continued success.
Please feel free to send me an email:
jim@jimpinto.com
Sincerely:
Sunday, March 18, 2012
"Do you think the previous industry figures help anybody make the right decision?"
Nobody really takes notice of the industry figures related to sales as they do not indicate any degree of excellence in the market or product sector. Also, I am in the control valve business and if you wanted to compare Siemens control valve business to one that I am in they do not rate. If you compared Emerson Rosemount pressure business to Siemens, you have no doubt who on top.
The sales are significant, but Siemens should concentrate on strengths, not mindless statements.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Siemens tops the list of Top Automation Suppliers again for 2010.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
For the blogger of October 19th: You are completely wrong - Yokogawa never manufactured APACS or Quadlog, they private labelled Quadlog as their own Safety PLC (Prosafe PLC), back in the late 90âs, they needed a safety PLC to compete with the majors who entered the safety system market via acquisition namely Honeywell (safety Manager) and Foxboro (Triconex), this was all 3 to 4 years before Siemens purchased Moore.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Confirms what I said. The Siemens APACS2020 Webpage says "In October 2010, the APACS+ and QUADLOG process control systems moved into the mature mode of their lifecycle. Siemens will support all APACS+ and QUADLOG equipment through October 2020. While we support APACS+ and QUADLOG systems, we will also provide you with a range of modernization options to keep your plant productive and lead you along a successful migration path to SIMATIC PCS 7."
Siemens Marketing Baffle-Gab translation "Buy Simatic PCS 7! We don't make APACS or Quadlog anymore!"
Thursday, October 20, 2011
To correct the other blogger's statement on Quadlog: Iit was declared a "mature" product by Siemens effective October 1, 2011. So, in fact it could be purchased as new up until September 30, 2011. Additional I/O cards, cables, racks, power supplies, etc. may still be available. Support is guaranteed, as well as replacement parts through September 30, 2020. You can always go to APACS2020.COM for current information.
The Siemens DP/IO Bus module is a current product that will you to protect the installed I/O and replace the Quadlog controller with a PCS7F controller, helping protect your return on assets.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Quadlog? Where have you been? Quadlog which was based on the Moore APACS BPCS, has not been manufactured for 5 years or more. As a matter of fact, Siemens was so sure that they didn't need it, they licensed it to be manufactured by Yokogawa until it could be reverse engineered by the Japanese, improved and released as a critical part of the Centum BPCS.
Waiting to see what happens to Foxboro & Triconex !
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Safety systems? Why bother with another buyout when you already have the Rolls Royce: Quadlog. Simply the best.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Try this:
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Is Siemens in the smart grid business?
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - similar to Emerson blog:
HIMA is a small privately held company. It has a very niche market, especially in Germany and Europe.
If either Siemens or Emerson were to buy HIMA, then they would have to be content with their own developed Safety System namely in the Siematic S7 and the DeltaV SIS. Architecture and structure wise, all are based on 1002D (or 2004D - an extension of 1002D) selection technique.
In my humble opinion, a better bet would be to wait and try to get hold of Triconex. Triconex has by far the most number of install based distributed worldwide. TMR technology is an offerings which can give an end-user a choice of different architecture between dual or TMR.
Triconex TMR technology is time tested and is stable.(Of course, I have witnessed the DeltaV SIS tripping a plant as a result of a bad firmware patch in my plant.) Triconex has reference installations in almost all major oil and gas companies worldwide on land and on sea.
At the end of the day, these two companies are ripe for picking... The bean counters will roll the dice and decide...
Sunday, September 4, 2011 - TRUE OR FALSE?
Rumors about Emerson or Siemens looking to buy HIMA have recently increased here in Germany. It looks like HIMA can't grow globally anymore. HIMA Americas is in financial trouble and Latin America business is not moving due to a wrong management team; SIL-2 market is going up and HIMA solutions are always SIL-3 since the beginning (more expensive) they don't have in a short term a less expensive solution for just SIL-2 systems. Triconex has already moved into that market by modifying it's actual system. Emerson, SIEMENS or any other company could make HIMA a #1 safety provider. Any comment?
Monday, July 11, 2011
Well, I don't know about much of this. All I can say is that when it came to awarding contracts for GLOBAL FOUNDRIES Fab 8.1 being built in Malta, NY, a $7B bleeding-edge semiconductor fabrication facility, Siemens was cut totally out of the contracts. Winning bidders were Rockwell Automation for controls (ControlLogix), GE-IP for HMIs (CIMPLICITY), ABB for LV and MV drives, and a mix of Eaton and SquareD for electrical distribution. So far it's worked out well. This is in spite of (or because of) the fact that the general contractor awarding the contracts was M+W Group, out of Germany, and despite the fact that GLOBAL FOUNDRIES Fab 1, in Dresden, is an all-Siemens facility. You can draw your own conclusions. All I know is that I was working for a Siemens Automation Solution Partner and the time, and I heard that the guy Siemens sent from Germany to pitch their bid was a world-class butt-wipe. Offended everyone.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Bad apples run all companies, so no one will help you. Keep quiet or quit.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Unfortunately, the person to whom you are directed to report the "bad apple" is likely to be a bad apple themselves. Good luck.
Monday, May 2, 2011
I believe Siemens is a great company and have met many employees in the course of my life that are wonderful people. However, recently came across a "bad apple" of the company and didn't know where else to report this info. I hope someone will let me know who to contact.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Invensys will be better bait for Siemens. It has a new CEO and some higher executive management are or about to be chopped; with an almost inadept English Board of Directors. The share prices has just gone down drastically. Most Honeywell products are aging, whilst Invensys still have one or two good unbeatable products for Siemens to "destroy" from the market place.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Will Honeywell be the next Siemens move?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Having worked very briefly for ABB, it sounds like working for Siemens is about the same, in regards to the myopic corporate culture. A bit of my-way-or-the-highway mindset.
Sunday, February 27, 2011 - Re: "Someone always needs to be sacrificed for failure":
This is spot on. It is ALWAYS the blame game. The boss in NEVER wrong. The bosses ALWAYS apportions blame to cover themselves. Perhaps we have the pointy headed boss?
Friday, February 25, 2011
As a sales person for one of the Siemens Industry Divisions, I am shocked at how little "good will" exists in the market place when you present the Siemens name to a customer or prospect. It seems everyone has a story about being mistreated by Siemens in the past. The German culture does not understand the importance of showing respect to the customer - customers feel that their needs are ignored. Siemens wants to control their customers - tell them what to do and force strict terms and conditions on them. There is a feeling that if a customer relationship is too close, customers are taking advantage of Siemens!
Management actions are designed ONLY to look good to upper management and many useless tasks are assigned. Targets are inflexible. Market conditions and plant problems are ignored. Someone always needs to be sacrificed for failure - despite the true realities of the situation!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Is there any further substance to the market talk of Siemens doing an M&A on Invensys?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Read Jim Pinto's latest column in Automation World, February 2011. This specifically discusses reasons why anonymous weblogs are so popular.
During a period of recession, leadership skills are truly challenged. The solutions derive from strong management, which motivates good people to do what it takes to win during tough times. Mechanisms must be created for the workforce to share their feelings. It's the bad times that make good companies so much better during the good times.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Siemens has serviced our company for 15 years; I just had them remove their system from our lab. Their service stinks, they charge 33+% more than the competitor and we will never use them again. They should not deliver defective tanks and then charge you for them when they swap them out. After three times I told myself enough is enough. Customer service is the pitts. The inly time the manager called me back was after my email threatening to fire them. Needless to say I did that anyway.
Friday, January 14, 2011 - Re: CONTROL - Top 50.
Thank you for changing our company introduction from negative (narrow culture) to a positive one (largest). It motivates me to start contributing again. It would do us even more justice by changing the alphabetical ranking, and put us right at the top, where we belong.
I joined Siemens from Emerson 3 years ago. (victim of layoff after 18 years of dedicated service). I am highly motivated to teach Emerson a lesson in humility, and I there are many like me. We have been quite successful in recovering Life Sciences. Next stop: Oil & Gas. Unlike Emerson, Siemens is listening very carefully to our feedback. Several product improvements have been made based on our input. Many more are in the pipeline. Luckily Emerson is too arrogant to see us as a threat in the process industry. Emerson is too stuck up to understand their vulnerability. Blogs like mine are not taken seriously. I hope that the marketing team in Emerson remains in charge for a long time. The better for us.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
I have been reading the numerous posts by RA "alumni" (castoffs) who sing the praises of their short term tenure within this trainwreck formrly known as Siemens Energy and Automation. All of this "happy talk" indicates that you too are beginning to recognize that your emperors are displaying their cheeky goods...
Monday, October 18, 2010
My earlier comments regarding my past at Rockwell Automation were not meant to offend. I was simply drawing a comparison between the good days at RA and my current assignment at Siemens. I see Siemens as a dynamic and improving organization. Much of that improvement continues to come from a new wave of leadership, many of whom moved to Siemens after successful careers at RA and GE. I say to all of you who are fortunate to share in this promising future, stay the course and you will be rewarded.
Monday, October 18, 2010
One thing we all need to keep in mind is that all of these companies do not care about the employees. We are all hired guns. Some stick around and many get shot. The electrical industry in the USA is no longer a place to make money and retire from.
Management continues to get rich and keep their positions, and hire their friends. If you look at LinkedIn.com you can see most upper management(from different companies) personnel profile from any company in the electrical industry, all know each other, or have worked together in their career. So one could figure out it's like a who's who, and who knows who, to get the positions. So managers that were not successful, get high positions in other companies because they knew someone. Merit in your work, or if your a good employee, or have exceeded your quota, doesn't even matters anymore because we are all highed guns that can be fired anytime. Most of the upper managers at these large organizations are former Rockwell Automation personnel that managed during the good old days. What have they done when economy went bad? Well they let people go. Success is not measured by how many people you let go, its how many you have added and grown the business.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Companies can only be as good as the people that work for them. Unfortunately, the former SE&A has lost many dedicated and talented individuals, some being forced out and some leaving on their own. Many senior management positions in Sales, IA and DT have been filled with people that lack substance. So, as they say, attitude does reflect leadership. The same leadership, which has turned a blind eye to many "indiscretions", some of which Tiger Woods would be proud of.
Is anyone really surprised by the comments found in this blog?
Friday, October 8, 2010 - To the latest posting about how happy you've been with Siemens these past 8 years:
Well, we're glad that you're happy. However, during the past 4 years, Siemens has laid off almost 20,000 employee's; how do you think they feel? Since you say you've been there a while, then you will recall incident where the CEO, several upper level managers and employee's got caught with their hands in the other people's pocket (i.e. bribery). Some of those people were fired and some, like the CEO, got a severance package. To pay for that, several thousand employees were laid off, even though they had absolutely nothing to do with the crime. Also, new ethic's policies came out, not specifically toward management, but workers. Basically, the workers were constantly monitored for ethics violations, and told that anything would result in termination. What about management? Oh wait, I guess those rules don't apply to them.
How do you think those 20,000 laid off employees and their families feel? Especially those that have spent 20+ years with the company? Those people had put a lot of blood, sweat and dedication to build the company and reputation so that people like you can come in and grow. It's the same people who trained you. Now, they been tossed out like yesterday's trash.
Siemens bought our old company and in a short 12 years destroyed what was a very successful 125 year old company. Total destruction. That is true of a lot of other businesses that Siemens has bought.
So don't tell me that they were a small company 10 years ago with growing pains. You would - or maybe not - have any feelings if you were treated like trash like Siemens did to those 20K employee's. Enjoy your time with Siemens!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - To the author of the last post:
I am not a manager, a salesperson, nor an ex-RA employee for that matter. I have been working here for more than 8 years now, and must have missed the glory days you mentioned in your last post, because many of my co-workers who were here during the same period agree that Siemens was a far more disorganized mess then than it is now. The truth is that this company has turned a corner, and is finally headed in the right direction.
I can only describe the content of your radical, borderline postings as disturbing; perhaps mildly entertaining in a very paranoid, angry, and almost cartoonish way. Perhaps you are looking for sympathy? If so, I am sorry. You should really try harder to change your situation if it makes you so unhappy, life is too short.
In reality, Siemens in the US was much smaller 6-8 years ago than it is now; it's hard to argue with this fact (although the the last post will no doubt attempt to do so). It is also hard to argue that this growth has been anything other than positive as a whole. Some mistakes were made along the way, but we have gotten past much of that now. I have watched this company grow considerably in this time, and I am proud to be able to say I have been a part of what we have accomplished as an organization!
To the enthusiastic, new ex-RA employee: welcome to the team! You will find that most of us are not rude, presumptuous, or generally negative and unpleasant. You now work for one of the few true global powerhouses in our industry, and that is not likely to change anytime soon.
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - In response to the posting on Sept 28th:
Since you said you are an ex-RA, then it means your part of the management team, so you can take credit for destroying what a lot of hardworking people who spent 20+ years building, and ruined in less then 5 years. No the comments posted are not from Siemens competitor's, but from current or ex-employee's that were walked out like criminals. What kind of training did you get from RA? How to destroy a business and morale within the company? If you are not management, then you're in sales, so that means you have done nothing as well. You may be the HERO in Siemens eyes because you get jobs, but what is the real picture? You've probably low-balled the price to get the job, but everyone else has to figure out the nightmare of getting it done. Congrats, you're one of the few who can say they are proud to work for Siemens. Stick your head up and look around.
There are not a lot of people smiling there. Stop lying to yourself and everyone else, we know the truth!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
I am an ex-Rockwell employee who made the switch to Siemens a few years ago, and consider the change one of the best things I have done in my career. My manager allows me to apply the skills and training I obtained whoile working for RA and resources me when he assigns projects and goals. I do not understand the negative posts on this blog and wonder if they are not made by Siemens competitors. It is clear that Siemens is going some place, and I am happy to be on board.
Friday, July 16, 2010
I agree with the last post; management here just blows. Can you say "keystone cops"? No one seems to have a clue and no one says anything. Me, like many are scratchin our heads wondering what the next few months will bring and how many of us won't be here to see it. We all know the game now....4th quarter numbers bad, kill some salaries to make up the difference, hitting the higher paid, more experienced types so less have to go. (Sigh) what has happened to this once fantastic company....my belief is that maybe they are drinking the same KoolAid the DC types are these days.
Thursday, July 8, 2010 - Re: Comments made on July 8th about how impressive and soon the changes have been compared to 2009.
Well, you must have your head in the clouds or your full of yourself like all the Siemens management. You need to wake up to reality and look around. The only thing that has changed in the past year is the reorganization of IA from E&A to SBT and a new American general manager. Other then that, the rest of the incompentent managers are still there, and until that changes the screw-up culture will still be there. You must remove the cancer to stop what is destroying IA, and then Siemens needs to sell the service business to someone who really wants to be in that business. The only thing Siemens wants to do is sell pieces and parts, forget about how it will works, that's the end users problem. That is why Siemens think sales people are their hero's. Yeah right, just like management, incompentent! They don't even know what they are selling, and when do sell something their selling it for a loss. So before you tell us about this beautiful picture, you need to wake up because you're still dreaming.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
When compared with 2009, the second half of 2009 is actually looking pretty positive for both the IA and DT business units. There is definitely still work to do, but the situation has definitely improved. It's really kind of impressive this soon after restructuring.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Well folks, here we go again. Word has it more layoffs and furloughs are comin'.
Apparantly, those "in charge" who made initial decisions and appointments for what we now call Siemens Industry, have moved on to other roles or have been let go. So go figure; the re-org to Siemens Industry didn't change jack, except a leaner less viable Sales team, a weak support structure and the name, of course. Maybe if we spent less on the dang "Siemens has Answers" commercial blitz we could keep some people working.
Not sure why I would expect anything different though. Leadership at all levels is, as many agree, "lacking in testicular fortitude". Everyone keeps their mouth shut for fear of being the next to go. Morale is horrendous, not one I work with is happy in their work or comfortable with job security, and feels Germany is basically putting us here in the US "in our place".
So, I'm looking on Careerbuilder and Monster, cause with the way 2011 is looking, we will be making the cuts by October to show a pretty picture of the German Emperor with his new clothes. They'll make the numbers look good by cutting heads as they did last year.
Best to be ready....good luck everyone.
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Rockwell castoffs running the MAI talks a great game but... the results never seem to match the talk.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Whoever said that Rockwell people who joined Siemens were good? Maybe it was a competitive advantage to have them join our German friends...
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
With reference to the contributor on Friday, February 5, 2010 beginning....."With being down the first quarter by 30%, going into the FY'10 is not good.....":
I want to comment on the author's view over those employees that were let go by RA. Those individuals probably recognise their mistake and wished they hadn't bothered joining another large business. Lets face it, there is no sanctuary in Global Companies like Siemens (or for that matter, Rockwell) with such a hapless, feckless, almost untrustworthy short term view on business. Both organisation's appear to be faceless, cumbersome and have significant populations of workers who are almost completely disengaged because of a poor sense of worth (amongst other things).
Those ex-RA employees that have any sense will stay clear of large organisations and join a smaller balanced company that is correctly proportioned, has management that is in touch with the real world (not solely the board room or its politics) and is capable of understanding and delivering meeting the needs of its customers.
Siemens, as with Rockwell, is suffering from the constant internal battle of cost centre versus cost centre - on a seemingly never ending revolving basis. This will lead to the undoing of the company; eventually disemboweling itself and in the process rupturing its future prospects.
So much for globalisation.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
How is the circuit breaker business 3VL etc. going since transferring it from Ohio to Monterrey Mexico?
Friday, February 5, 2010
With being down the first quarter by 30%, going into the FY'10is not good..... Distributors could care less whats going on since they are not being pushed. OEM's and integrators not getting the support they deserve. Siemens E&A once a great company to buy from and work for has forgotten who makes the pay days, CUSTOMERS ! When the Germans pulled the funding from the Seiemens E&A it was like rats jumping ship. Except the bigger rats stayed on and were later let go with their dumb Rockwell attitudes from those that migrated to Siemens. Siemen E&A can not only blame the economy they can blame themselves since they had hired so many of the Rockwell rejects that it actually poisoned the organization. If they were so good at Rockwell then why were they let go from Rockwell? I have not seen to many former Rockwell personel actually do well in other large organizations. But Siemens continued to hire them by the dozens.
The other issue with Siemens was much of their marketing was done in the USA. Whereas, most other marketing for all the rest of countries where Siemens is, was done in Germany. Having the marketing in the USA just drove costs to the roof. Where as that cost could have stayed in Germany and not passed on, and burden Siemens E&A marketing in the USA.
Siemens automation products and controls is not seen at customers as much they use to be. Yes the economy is at fault, but you can't blame everything on that. The Germans invested a lot into Siemens E&A for this program or that program only to have the money diverted to some other program. For instance $32,000,000.00 to build a distribution model like Rockwell; you have to be kidding me. I know of one distributor where over $4M was given, they only recieved $350k each year they were on the program. You have to be kidding me. The distributors were hiring personnel at some very high salaries, only to let them go two years down the road. What a great idea.......
Where have all the managers gone? At least the ones that could lead and be successful, and that are actually have a personality and are human ?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
I was let go by Siemens during the big reorg in Oct. 2009 - after 21 years of dedicated service. Although it was a complete shock to be laid off for no reason, I am not mad and will not badmouth Siemens - as they are no different than any other publically traded company in the US. Companies are run these days by bean counters, MBA holders and lawyers, and most it seems are clueless as to what we workers do each day and what a customer needs from us. I think that the entire state of affairs in corporate America is pathetic, but one has no choice except to smile and roll with it...or find a new line of work.
Monday, January 25, 2010
It is saddening to see that things haven't changed with this company. Its a shame. Siemens has great products - some real leading edge solutions. Unfortunately the ugly corporate culture and sub-standard (actually quite poor) management has, and will continue to hold this company back. Its really too bad.
Get out now if you are unhappy toiling away for this miss-directed and poorly run outfit. The universal sentiment among those who have exited is that life is pretty darn good once one has effected one's escape!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
How is Siemens doing in Asia Pacific? I believe they have regional HQ in Singapore. How's their buisness and work culture there? I heard they did shut down benq brand electronics in Singapore and laid off. Do they have strong order book in energy automation division?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
I find some of these recent postings a little amusing. Almost as if I was listening to the liberal left in Washington, DC.
I have co-workers in Norcross with DT division (which previous blogger said was grinding away swimmingly now) who are taking unpaid furloughs, pay cuts, no raises or bonuses for the foreseeable future and many have their heads under their desks just waiting for the next ball to drop. And as previous blog post stated - the media blitz continues - cut a couple heads.....buy some commercial time. Yeah, that works. Sounds like it's going great now at the new Siemens Industry, eh?
Yes, our name has changed, but the top down leadership remains in most cases, and until that changes, we'll have no one leading the charge to enact real change that we can all believe in.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The previous poster was right, customers did notice something, that something isnt right over there. No return calls, slow service, salesman selling things below cost because it's not my job to make a profit, its operations problem. Many of us left because we couldn't service the customers with the support they were used to or deserve staying at siemens.
Do I think it's better over there now? Not from what I am hearing from my old co-workers.
Monday, January 11, 2010
There is no questioning the statement that it has been a difficult couple of years for most everyone in this industry.
Recently, I was reassigned from the mixed Industrial Sales force to the more focused DT Sales organization. I was a concerned at first, but have been pleasantly surprised. From Sales Management through to the product groups, things are starting to click and the customers are really beginning to notice. Based on what I have seen, Siemens is better positioned and organized today than in the past. I think that there are still a lot of folks internally who do not yet see this - but they will eventually; afterall, its hard to ignore success when it is going on all around you.
To those of you who have chosen to leave the company to pursue greener pastures working for the competition:
It is great to see that you still care enough about this company to continue to choose to spend your free time reading and posting to this website. We who have stayed behind wish all of you all of the happiness in the world, but only limited success in your new role.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Apparently you haven't read all of the emails. Yes, but also we are constantly proving our worth and value, answering internal questions - answers are within reach of anyone willing to look, covering our blank with email and complying with policy changes, system changes and outdated tools. With the administrative and back-office tasks now on the "customer facing" employees, there is no time to take "care" of the customer. You are right it is frustrating, but we do our best.
Up until now, I have been offended by all of the negative postings and chalked them off to disgruntled employee (present and former) and nothing more. I realize now that most of what is being said is, quite sadly, true. And I believe you would agree if nobody was looking at your answer. I have spent the best part of my career with Siemens and on their side of the field, only to realize that in the end, it is a one way street. There is only so much one can give of themselves to any endeavor when there is no reciprocation or respect received.
No more dodge-ball folks - someone please step up to the plate and do what is right for the customer, the Employee and the Shareholders. Think about it, your employees are all three. The economy doesn't drive respect and appreciation. That is driven by leadership.
I do believe our new SII US President can turn this around, but so far it seems to be more of the same. Untie his hands and lets get to work doing real work. That is what we are all here to do. Nobody wants to sit around getting their butt handed to them every day - we want to do our jobs and do them as well as we know we can.
Good Luck to Siemens - the Employee, the Customer and the Shareholder - we are ALL one and the same.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
It sounds like your stay at Siemens was frustrating. You have to ask yourself: did I make a difference or just toe the line? You said a lot of concerning things that many companies deal with on a daily basis. Did you take a stand and do what was important - taking care of the customer? If you did, sell sell, sell would come.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
A Siemens Perspective: Please enter your SAP number followed by the # sign...
Having worked in the industry for nearly 20 years and spending most of my time with two different large competitors, immediately after joining SEA it was clear this was by far the most dysfunctional and poorly managed organization I've experienced. When you work at Siemens, your managers send you emails telling you how to respond to questions on the employee satisfaction survey in order to make themselves look good!
Former employees had warned about how terrible it was to work for this company. Having worked in some volatile situations in the past I assumed it couldn't be that bad, a good company with a good name right? So how bad is it?
The mismanagement going on at this company is breathtaking. In latest purge, several folks I knew were cut loose, each with more than 25+ years. One was asked to leave 2 years short of retirement while another was a team member who was one of the most knowledgeable automation experts I've known over the last 20 years. Walked out the door like a shoplifter in custody, letting this person go was absolutely insane and angered many on the team.
Different divisions competing against each other and the allocation of sales credits based on activity logging and politics? While I'm sure a few AMs have said the hell with it and hit the happy hour, how dare the previous blogger accuse AMs as the problem. Do you think maybe there are some AMs that are tired of all the customer and distributor complaints? As the proverb says - "A fish rots from the head down." It starts at the top.
Problems at this company are well known and documented. The lies started even before my first day. As a new employee, the owner of a distributor told me right in front of my bosses face, "Give it two weeks and you will hate working here." My boss had nothing to say. Turns out he was wrong; I hated it in one week.
You see, when you are in sales at SEA, you are set up to fail beginning the first time you try to order literature. Inside help and literature assistance is non existent. The on-line and electronic catalogs are unusable. Customers have simply given up on trying to figure out how to use them.
From one software tool to the next, hours and hours and hours on the help line attempting to get the computer to run all the different software tools that have unresolved conflicts. When one situation was resolved and the software would work, then another would not - another call to the help desk.
An email based culture, the automated onslaught of company SPAM (Spamens or SIESPAM?) continues at all hours with some days 30-40 emails before 10:00 a.m. Often email chains go on for days & weeks with nothing resolved.
Pricing managers have contempt for customers and tamper with pricing on long standing agreements which take weeks or in one case, 6 months of haggling to renew. Three levels of approvals and days to get a price on a $10 overload. While I'm sure they were only doing their job, it was clear that for many of these folks a customer was something they learned about in a company on-line training class.
There are compliance issues to meal expense report scorecards, activities & opportunities logging, these are most important as was apparent according to the hounding that took place in monthly meetings and monthly AM/manager business reviews. Of course, all of the above were to be completed after business hours as I was told by the Regional Manager.
From reactive firesales to frenzied pushing of products or customer training events, SEA actually funnels who knows how many product lines and business units through a continually rationalized salesforce. The only hope is to know a little bit about everything and who to email for help. Forget trying to actually get someone on the phone without numerous attempts and sometimes days of waiting.
The SFA nonsense just keeps rolling down from the top. The abuse of the salesforce as an information resource rather than allowing them to get out and sell was incredible. The hours and days dwindle away on the phone solving problems, generating quotations and tracking down information that distributors and customers can not find. Corporate types flying in to see customers and flying out never to be heard from again unless there is something in the CRM they are fixated on - where is the order?
With all the different fiefdoms combined, the organization more resembles a Rube Goldberg contraption rather than a company. Growth by subtraction was the business philosophy rather than partnership and taking care of customers. Believe it or not, there is much more that could be mentioned but that would be tedious. Quite simply, working at SEA was easily the worst period of my professional life. The word nightmare somehow doesn't measure up.
Couldn't help but notice the new national advertising blitz. I guess it's all about what your priorities are. Sell! Sell! Sell! - that is if you are a shareholder.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Siemens has now dropped one of their longest standing "Premiere" Distributors for the NE Area from the Worcester area. I am sure that is at least partly why the previous blogger couldn't find help or answers on their hardware. The rest is most likely because the Siemens support mechanism is basically broken. Kind of funny, when you see all the commercial ads they are running now on how Siemens has "Answers".....that only applies I guess, if you can actually speak to someone who is left and that person knows something.....anything. Good luck.
Sincerely,
Monday, December 7, 2009
Boy, what is up with this company? I bought some hardware from our local sales guy in MA earlier this year and needed some additional parts as we are starting this project now. I tried his number and it is no longer valid; tried the local distributor who gave me a number to call for help in Norcross, GA. - said they had no one there who knew the product so just call Norcross. (Whatever). I called the Norcross offices and no one there knew who the sales rep was now, said they were just the marketing groups and product managers there, but the product managers for my S7 equipment I was asking about were all out that week...(furloughs maybe which I read about here?) Anyway, they scrounged a bit and gave me a regional managers name and number here in NE who I tried several times and got no answer and no return call... I then tried a number I had for the application engineer I spoke with about a year ago ... and HIS number is no longer good... However, he did write the hotline number on the back of his card though, so I tried them. At least I spoke with someone. They said they would call a local rep to contact me, but it has been two weeks now and still nothing. I started searching Google for help and found this website. A good read I must saym and somewhat enlightening now. I guess maybe I bought a bill of goods huh...?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Being one of the few that left a year before the layoffs and the all the Rockwell invaders infiltrated Siemens during my time. "Siemens is not same Siemens your grandfather once worked."(Cadi comercial). There is life after Siemens. Siemens has always been known for not paying as well as the rest of the industry. The former Rockwell managers, upper and middle, really messed things up at Siemens E&A. Once a strong compay in the US now is neutered, with no one calling on distribution and their OEM's, it has become easy pickings for the competition. With many great specialists and sales people let go. How will Siemens sell their solutions with very little, if any, support in the fiel? PLC's are not plug-and-play, specially the Siemens PLC's and drives. This setback will put Siemens back 15-20 years behind the competition, specially with the OEM's, and with customer service. Once the economy comes back, and it will, Siemens will play catch up as usual in the US.
Germany does not understand that US engineers are not trained like the German engineers, and they will continue to force out-of-the-box heavy engineering required products in the US market. Siemens PLC's and drives require a sticker on them "German supervision required, please do not contact Siemens for support."
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Lights are on, but no one's home at Siemens "Industry" Automation.
Well the good news is, Siemens has, for now anyway, stopped laying people off. However, the bad news is, they are now forcing 2-3 weeks of unpaid furloughs upon us. Happy Holidays people!
For a company that hired me with a theme (several years ago) of "Valuing People", they sure have squashed that thought process since then. Like previously stated in another entry, if you don't have a German passport now, you don't mean jack to this company.
I guess I should be thankful this Thanksgiving that I have a job. I just wish I was being paid for it.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Siemens has decided to invest in other markets. Power, medical, and energy all show higher growth rates. There has been a decision to give up on growing the US Automation market. The number 1 selling plc in the US, the S7-200, has been killed. Some distributors have had their credit cut so their customers can't obtain product. Prices have been raised to generate cash for US acquisitions. The strategy is to lure customers with the technology before they notice the lack of service and support. As long as Rockwell continues to burn customers, the strategy will probably work.
It's the European machine builders that will get hurt the most. The high price of spares and poor support will further push US manufacturers to look at Asian suppliers. Siemens misstep will begin to eat away at their home market in the long run. Maybe a sensible German will be back in charge before that happens. Austrians are burning down the house.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Is it not strange that Siemens lets a significant amount of personell go, only to bring the rest to Atlanta for product training and a head count of whos left? It must be strange to show up at Automation training, only to notice your friend did not make it. Looks like growth is not in the cards for Siemens for a few years here in the USA, at least for the automation group. Looks like easy pickings to steal Siemens business for the next few years. Because many of their experienced personel are GONE ...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Interesting news from JimPinto's eNews No. 273 - 12 October 2009
For sale:
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Kudos to some of the Siemens distributors in the NE region for exposing the last remaining Rockwell misfits. We also have been informed that the previous VP of Sales only lasted 4 months at his newest employer? Amazing, it took Siemens 4 years to figure this out.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
In reviewing this blog and the Rockwell, what is the difference? Passion.
It is obvious on the Rockwell blog that its employees are (were?) engaged and committed to the company.
For Siemens - its seems to be a Mcjob - where is the passion? The belief in the company? It seems if you work for Siemens in North America, and you don't have a German passport, your opinion is not valid. So why care? Just collect the paycheck and wait for the package, it will come.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
I'm not so sure - I've been with the company for almost 6 years and I am seeing some pretty skilled people (whom I have learned a lot from) let go. And much of that "deadwood" you all refer to still remains. Hard to figure out the rationale IMHO.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Or, Siemens is building a world-class team and dumping dead wood.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Oh yes, the layoffs continue and the last blogger is correct - it makes no sense. The only thing that is certain is that this organization is now run by morons who are letting the best, most talented experts go, and keeping on what could be characterized in some cases as mind numbing dweebs. There is no backbone to this organization anymore. You have Account Managers in many areas where they are nore concerned about when Happy Hour begins than closing a new order. There is very little new business, just run-rate customers which accounts for the dwindling numbers. Maybe if they got some of their AM's into AA and cleaned out some true deadwood, they'd stand a chance of making a comeback.
I agree whole-heartedly with the other blogs here - Germany is dumping it's desires for big business in the US and it won't be long before there is a run on the exits.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The layoffs started a couple of weeks ago. When you look at who was let go in a group, and who remains, the logic of the decision(s) is a lttle tough to figure out.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Siemens to have layoffs this week in the sales division. Marketing and management layoffs are done on Sept 30th for their last day. Its very apparrent Germany is pulling back from the USA due to ist economic issues. The once great company in the USA is cutting deep into the bone marrow.
Monday, September 7, 2009
It's purely a "Marketing Mentality" now within what was once a premier Automation provider known as Siemens Energy and Automation. Having been with Siemens E&A for more than a decade, I can tell you that not all is well within this division of Siemens. From the top down, drive is being forced upon the sales force to be all marketing driven vs. technical sales driven.
The result? A top notch Marketing team with a national sales team and application engineering group with no drive or leadership and a majority of which are just sitting around with nothing to do but wait for the next PowerPoint presentation to arrive. The marketing teams force the groups to sit through relentless presentations and the teams buy into the new strategies without speaking out. In theory, some of these would seem like a good plans, but when you have no one at the controls with the guts to push the implementation. Nothing ever gets accomplished and the result is dwindling numbers and lagging sales.
The leaders would have you believe it is the economy. But when the "leaders" who are in the drivers-seats now have no clue as to how to run technical support or a technically savvy sales team, there is little hope that anything will "click" within the ranks.
Where once the slogan was "Think Customer", now it should be "Think Marketing". There is no focus on the customer and it is all about strategies and marketing solutions. This is a complete reversal from what was once the belief "it's what's best for the customer".
With the massive changes of the reorg taking place, even more confusion circulates. This shakeup will take literally years to recover from. And at what cost? A loss of a dramatic amount of qualified people, as many continue to jump ship to work elsewhere, or are forced out. Those in power have no clue as to how to keep the ones that made the business a success over the past decade or more. It makes sense right? You finally get the business in the black, have one or two bad quarters which are directly due to the economy, tell everyone in the organization that we are in it for the long haul and that we will be there for our customers through the trying times, and then totally go back on your statements, shake it up real good and remove or lose the people that got you there. What a totally asinine approach!
I really fear for myself, the few really good people that remain and the overall future of this business, with the ones that are now running the show. With those in power letting key players go, there is little confidence that what is best, most practical and what makes most "SENSE" will ever be seen again within this part of the company. There are people in leadership positions now who have no backbone, no power and no voice when it comes to trying to get problems solved. Therefore nothing will ever get done, and good people and customers suffer.
I agree with the other blogger that this organization is truly broken and until someone who is high up enough to make a difference gets a clue, it will continue to spiral downward. In the end, of course, the customers are the ones who suffer. The only way to really fix this organization will be if they go back to a true "Sales" organization and let the people who once made this organization great revamp and rebuild what has been lost over the past couple years.
Unfortunately, many who were so instrumental in that regard are no longer with us. Therefore, we have to put the trust in the leadership which we now have. God help us all.
Friday, September 4, 2009
I also recently left Siemens but from the industrial services business unit. So much time is wasted on performance reviews and compliance that it is hard to take care of the customers, you know, the people who really pay the bills. Now I hear that they are asking people to work for free on weekends and take one for the team. Are the salesman and managment taking one for the team? No way! So many quality people have left and many more will be out by years end. The office once had 80 very skilled engineers and technicians and is now down to 35 with all the layoffs and departures.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
I recently left Siemens Water Technologies, and feel that it is a dying dinasour. Yes they are a big conglomerate and will they fall? Most likely not. They hold several patents on the legacy permutit and other brands, and will have a hard time.
One of the major struggles with Siemens, is the corporate lack of vision between the managers in the field, the product engineers and corporate managers. Everyone wants more margin and sales (for the share holders) but cannot get it due to blinders. As an example I ran into a bump / opportunity with product managers, Siemens WT / US Filter / Interlake has been using Aqua Fine UV systems since the dawn of theage, but Siemens recently purchased its own UV manufacturing division RCJ. When I found out that we could on average gain 20% to 50% more profit margin by using our own product, I asked the product manager why we were not using our own products. The manager indicated that RCJ / Sunlight was a cheap product and that he did not know much about it. (Really you can make that assumption of cheap without knowing anything about it. Hmmm). Now take for granted that 80% of the time, when we would order items from other divisions it would cost more than if we ordered it off the street from a Siemens Vendor…. (that too has problems)…
The other issue that was noticed is the push to get sales and stay customer supported etc. But the amount of meetings, and phone conferences, was astronomical. On average every week I would have 3 conference calls all 1 hour or longer, on top of web meetings and my official title (sales). It was a little constraining. I understand why they do it, for some items not others.
Coming from the outside in, then back out, I found that the biggest change was the politics, and the lack of procedures and policies training. When I first started, they taught you how to use the software. They were great on setting you up on a computer, desk, and compliance training. But as far as procedure, when something came in or if you closed a large order, or needed a RMA more job specific training they lacked. And trying to get answers from people was like pulling teeth.
There also seemed to be a common atmosphere too, that no one, wanted to do more than their share, and did just enough to stay out of trouble. I never understood, why some employees never wanted to do more than what they had to do. If you asked something of them, they would give you the cold shoulder. I mean, come on people we all work for the same company, not to mention that this is for the customer, the one who supports our pay checks. I know that in time those people are supposed to get weeded out. But it seems to me, it takes way to long.
Friday, August 21, 2009
As a long time member of the general sales division at SE&A, the frustration the previous poster discussed is quite understandable. With every re-organization, the corporate propaganda talks about how the action will allow better focus on the customer. Unfortunately, the internal culture at the top never appears to change. The latest re-organization will take us to four regions from six, with mostly new Regional Sales Directors. New Area Sales Managers will be announced by the end of the month. Reading between the lines, the reduction in force in the general sales division will come in September. Meanwhile, in order to reduce SG&A costs, more back office functions will continue to be shifted to the sales force making it even more difficult for the survivors to go out and build their business. This company is hopelessly broken and it is difficult to have faith that management has the vision to come up with and implement the reform that is seriously needed.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Now that the Siemens NE Industrial regional manager is out, perhaps they will continue the job and finish off the sales manager in NY and in New England. Then we can all sing the song "Ding dong the Bopp is dead." Peace will come to the land once again, and sales will increase.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
It is very interesting - what is said and more importantly, what is not said - on this weblog, from the people who toil at Siemens. Having just spent a very frustrating and fruitless short term there, I can assure you that not all is well with this giant organization. Energy & Industry continue to in-fight over orders for products that they each have in their product bags to sell; Medical is under investigation by the US - DOD; management spends all of their time playing internal politics hoping to advance their own personal ambitions; internal procedures use up all of your time detracting from the real purpose - external focus with customers. Arrogance is rampant with the "But we are Siemens, that is all you need to know" mentality. Another re-organization? Hope they get it right this time, because this company is morally and procedurally broke. I guess size and momentum does mean something, but not in the North American market. There is no transparency in this market for the mass confusion occuring internally.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Huge shake up coming at Siemens. Several key people out. Should be an interesting few weeks for any poor shmucks working in sales for Siemens!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Open web site: July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineer, reported third-quarter orders that missed analyst estimates as the global recession and contract delays spread from industrial customers to energy.
Siemens web site: Munich, Germany, 2009-Jul-30 -- Siemens has confirmed its targets for fiscal 2009 even in the current challenging global economic environment. “Our third-quarter results demonstrate that we are fully on track to achieve our targets for fiscal 2009,” said Siemens’ President and CEO Peter Löscher.
Make your own conclusions.....
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Can someone expand on how the Siemens legal Hearing might be affected. What is the employee morale in sales, service and engineering? What are some of the tough challenges they face ahead. Especially with the incedint "The federal raid by agents from the Department of Defense (DoD) on Siemens Healthcare's facility in Malvern, Pa."
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Here we go again... Buckle up; this will be ugly, how many chances will the US Fed Govt. give us ?
Criminal investigators with the Defense Department executed a raid Wednesday on Siemens Medical, a division of German-based Siemens AG. The reason behind the raid at Siemens Medical’s facility at Malvern, near Phillidelphia is not clear, but reports suggest that the investigators were seeking documents related to the company’s military contracts. According to Philly.com, the company recently received a Defense Department contract worth up to $267 million to sell medical-imaging equipment to the military. Siemens Medical confirmed the raid in a statement, and said only that they will "continue to cooperate fully with the Governments investigation."
Siemens Medical Solutions has 49,000 employees world wide and did $17.2 billion in sales in 2007
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Many thanks for the response; it is good to see finally things changing at Siemens. Unfortunatelly it happens in the worst crisis since WWII. What do you mean by 'it is not pretty from the inside'?
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The reorganization of Siemens is changing some things that have needed to be changed for a long time. As a woman, I am extremely happy to see the diversity issue addressed internationally. They put a woman on the board, and a woman is in charge of the diversity team. I personally am happy that this is being taken seriously and that memos are coming down from the top that should have come out 20 years ago. As for reducing the number of businesses, it has brought some needed synergies here in the US. Companies that used to run in their own silos are working together for the customer. It isn't always pretty on the inside as we make the adjustment, but it is getting easier.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
I am curious to hear comments from Siemens employees about the change in the organisation and management structure and culture brought by CEO Loescher.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
As an insider, I can tell you the re-organization is over a year behind us, by-in-large complete and outwardly transparent. Certainly seems a better place to be as an employee, customer or distributor, than some of the other companies one reads about on this blog.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Would love to hear comments from employees at Siemens regarding the recent re-organization and the disfunctional in-fighting occuring between the new Industry and Energy divisions.
Thursday, March 12, 2009 - Extract Springfiled News Sun:
Urbana, Ohio
The plant, which employs about 175 salaried and hourly workers, was originally scheduled to close in 2010. The Urbana facility makes circuit breaker components and the company is planning to move the lines to Monterrey, Mexico.
Jason Woods, president of the local branch of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union, said of the 174 employees at the company, 135 are union members and 86 are currently working. The rest have been laid off. Although the employees knew in 2006 about the plant's plan to close, a majority of the employees have not yet been able to find other jobs.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - Re: cancellation of the Exiderdome tour:
The "legal dispute" was NOT with Siemens; of course they would have settled rather than blow off a very expensive undertaking. The dispute was between the barge company and the rail company as to who had the "right" to unload the containers! Siemens was just caught in the middle and had no voice in the matter. They even offered to pay BOTH contractors and yet the infighting continued because of their "turf wars".
Now they both lose, because Siemens is just sending the barge to another country and canceling the entire rest of the US tour.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
The agreement reflects the U.S. prosecutors’ express recognition of Siemens’ “extraordinary cooperation” as well as Siemens’ new and comprehensive compliance program and extensive remediation efforts. Based on these facts, the lead agency for U.S. federal government contracts, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), issued a formal determination that Siemens remains a responsible contractor for U.S. government business.
Monday, December 15, 2008 - news extract:
The German industrial giant Siemens has agreed to pay more than $1.3bn (£850m) in Germany and the US to settle long-standing corruption charges.
It will pay $800m in the US and 395m euros (£353m) in Germany. Siemens was charged in the US with bribery and falsifying its books, while German prosecutors said it had a "lack of control over its business activities". The US Justice Department described the case as its furthest-reaching foreign corrupt practices trial.
Siemens agreed last year to pay $287m in fines to German regulators for similar offences. The settlements had been widely expected after Siemens announced earlier this year that it was setting aside about 1bn euros to cover any fines. As part of the settlement, Siemens will maintain its "responsible contractor" status in the US, which means it will still be able to bid for government contracts.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Sounds like there is another new VP of Industrial Sales at Siemens. It appears sales groups are being combined in this new appointment.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - "Total bust !":
Yes...
Siemens continues to pour money into the zone champion program, I believe its official its a failure. The key promoter for the program is gone, his successor is also gone. Who's running the ship in the US? Big changes in the horizon for Northeast Industrial sales for Siemens.
Buckle up the ride is going to start very soon.
Monday, November 24, 2008
I went to Exiderdome in Boston, and there is no question that this is a truly unique experience that I would recommend to anyone because its fascinating!
I wonder what might happen if Siemens marketed this concept as more of an educational opportunity as opposed to a selling tool. I cannot imagine a collegiate level electrical engineering program on the face of the planet who would not line up and wait for days to get in on a cutting edge demonstration of what is possible today in their chosen field. I certainly wish that someone would have offered me this opportunity when I was at that level.
P.S. Be sure to bring a dump truck with you because you are going to need one cart off all of the resumes. Had I seen this demonstration as a student, I would have been very excited to work for these guys! If growth is the goal, market for the future.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Exciderdome cancelled Charlotte due to "legal disputes involving key logistics suppliers preventing exiderdome from being removed from the barge and transferred to land for the second half of its U.S. tour"
If it was so successful wouldn't Siemens settle the dispute and keep moving forward? Makes you wonder.
Monday, November 10, 2008
"Total bust"? Doubt it. More like wishful thinking or sour grapes? Low numbers on one day, (cold, raining and Election Day) hardly constitutes a total bust in my estimation. I went on Wednesday and it was packed! That exhibit is amazing, I've never seen a building or layout like that in my career. I saw stuff I never knew they had. Wish I could go again.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Exider Dome has become a total bust in the New York city area, less than 100 people in one day. Mainly due to lack of local sales support especially from the local managers. It is thought that the local management will be moving on due to the sales numbers that are lacking.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
I have always loved the way that Siemens does not shy away from differentiation of their products, even if the rest of the world is not really ready to buy in totally yet. Although sometimes logistically challenged, you really can't criticize the product in terms of reliability and programmable flexibility.
If distributed intelligence is wave of the future, Siemens is way ahead of the competition...a little marketing would go a long way!
Monday, October 27, 2008
As opposed to the 'asian glut' of virtually identical products, Siemens actually has some very useful features integrated into their VFD units. Speaking from the perspective of someone who has worked with many products over many years, I can tell you that the Masterdrive, Micromaster, Simoreg, as well as the new Sinamics G120 and G150 drives are all solid units...forget trying to get an MM4 in an enclosure though.
There are still some gaping holes in the product offering as a whole, but from what I have been hearing someone, somewhere has finally realized that a basic understanding as to the proper application and use of these products is the key to success for many related businesses. I would not bank on this trend continuing; Siemens is a big company and is more than capable of accomplishing anything that they really want to accomplish.
Friday, October 24, 2008
I know this blog is more about corporate issues - But I have a point here about Profibus ; How do they declare Profibus DP and PA an "open" technology if there is in whole & entire world just one independent supplier (Pepperl+Fuchs) that does a DP/PA coupler !
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Regarding the dramatic decrease in drive sales over the past five years, I believe this is the same time period that the "Zone Champion" distribution failure was introduced. If zone champions like CCA could actually support Siemens products the internal workings of Siemens product classification would be completely irrelevant.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Siemens continues to suffer from the variable speed drives disorganization imposed by Germany. DC and General Purpose drives are under PCD (Power Control Division) while Motion Control is under AMD (Automation and Motion Division). So far this seems OK -----EXCEPT...
High end drives such as Master VC and Sinamics S120 are under AMD through 200 kW and PCD > 200 kW. And guess what - a 5kW Master or Sinamics drive in an enclosure is through PCD. All of the above without regard to applications or industries. The net result is Siemens induced confusion among customers, distribution and even their own salesforce. This issue is likely one of the largest reasons for loss of Siemens drives business over the past five years.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sinking money in the US? Certainly not in the software and MES businesses. Quite the opposite, shifting more back to Europe. Lots of departures already and many resumes on the street.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
I had the opportunity to visit the Siemens exider dome in Detroit. If you haven't seen it, you should try to make one of the stops. http://www.exiderdome.com/us
Interesting that they are sinking so much money into the US. Seems rather contrarian the economy being what it is and in light of the cuts that Rockwell announced this week. I read someplace that this is a major multi-million dollar investment. I get the feeling that Siemens is really getting serious now about the US.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Has anyone heard how the move of Breaker production to Mexico is going?
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Extract from AP News)
Siemens will consolidate its businesses from the current 1,800 separate legal entities to fewer than 1,000 and take its 70 regional companies and transform them into 20 regional clusters.
The company said it would also reduce costs further by cutting back expenditures for information technology infrastructure and consultants, and the recent streamlining of its management structure and divisions.
Siemens said 5,250 jobs will be cut in Germany - with operations in Erlangen, Munich, Nuremberg and Berlin bearing the brunt of the cuts. Siemens employs approximately 136,000 workers in Germany.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
I was about to become Siemens employee. They sent me draft contract to read while they worked for internal approval on the document. In the interim, they notified me the progress as well as postponed the start date. The start date kept postponing for 12 weeks. Suddenly, they came back with: Sorry that the hiring was now cancelled and disapproved by their management at corporate.
My point is that they reconfirmed me many time the hiring and provided the hiring document. This made me to decline other offers. Their attitude was, once apology is made, that we don't want you anymore and we can give you only the apology, which is enough. This is surely illegal act in my country and inhuman. They claim they are good governance and ethical company but they give commitment which they cannot follow.
Anyy suggestions?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I am a German IT-guy, working since many years in the area of automatic material handling systems, doing SW-development for big car manufacturers, airlines etc. all over the world, even "Down-Under".
Very often there was some form of contact with Siemens, and never-ever it was anything positive.
From a technical standpoint of view, I can simply copy the remarks of a higher Siemens executive, whom I met during a business meeting in Frankfurt. He was wondering about the fact, that my (small) company at that time got a large SW-contract from a German airline, instead of Siemens receiving the contract. They only got the contract for the lowel-level controls. During lunch time, after some discussion, he said: "No wonder, that Siemens only has second choice professionals. The good ones form their own company".
Personally many years ago I had to program a device driver to communicate with Siemens S5 PLCs. Because of rigid timing requirements, there had to be spontaneous telegrams both from the PLC abd from my device driver on the controlling computer. So I wanted some info regarding the communication protocol from the guys in Erlangen, one the development centres of Siemens in Germany. These guys could have asked me some questions, could not answer any of my questions. They even warned me about what I wanted to do: They did not believe, my driver would work in interrupt mode. After that, my device driver worked for many years, in a high-availability environment at Frankfurt airport.
Another example: Once I was introduced to the IT-manager of a well-known German company of sports wear. Because my company had to do the SW for a high-rise warehouse and distribution centre for this co of sports wear.
Then this IT-manager asked me, whether my company (or I) have anything to do with the high-rise storage control, just being commissioned on the other side of the street, within a factory for special types of bearings.
No, I even did not know about it. And the sales guy of the general contractor, my co was working for, confirmed it with the words: "No, that is Siemens doing". Later on I asked the sales guy, what is going on. He responded. "Oh, there are some problems during commissioning". 9 months later, my co already got the acceptance document signed, Siemens was stil commissioning ... Remember, we just started a similar task when Siemens already was commissioning!
I can add a few more stories about Siemens failures in my business, at least.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Siemens is a great company with awesome technology and great solutions. Little Ceasar was an agent of change,
an advocate for the customer. It just so happens, as in any company, the new guard who push for radical change and focus on the customer face an uphill battle with those whom want the status quo and inaction.
I have worked for the number one competitor in core PLC's for over 10+ years. Siemens is a bright spot compared to Rockwell. Yes, there have been management changes. It happens in every company.
Rockwell has changed over 20 sales managers in the USA and that is why their teams are weaker than ever and follow behind the distribution channel.
Siemens best days are ahead.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Oh I think a little rejoicing is in order. "Little Caesar" was a bully of the worst kind and it seems only appropriate that the survivors have a bit of fun.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
I have been an empoyee of Siemens in the US for several years now, and I can relate and/or attest to almost all of the posts made previously in this blog. I would also like to point out that the infrastructure required to support what has been an utterly ineffectual sales and marketing strategy has never taken root because it is too expensive, and almost completely illogical...I hope that future management keeps this in mind.
In a nutshell: The process of selling engineered solutions is very different than selling horse breaking services, internet service, pre-paid legal, newspapers on street corners, or soap-on-a-rope.
Moving Forward: As much as I may hate to admit it, Little Ceasar is a person too, and rejoicing in his impeachment, or any other form of negativity for that matter, is likely not going to fix anything at this point.
Those of us that are left now have the responsibility to focus on the future, and to build our organization into a hopeful and powerful place where the most talented desire to work, where those who want to learn can be taught, and where everyone has the opportunity to succeed personally.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The real question is how will Siemens live without it's "Parts Guy"? Because as everyone knows "You always need a good Parts Guy".
Saturday, May 17, 2008
(edited) This "Little Ceasar" you speak of. He was the same at Rockwell too. Not sure if he was walked out, but if not, he should have been. He ruled with the same format as I see on this blog. How do these miserable people get ahead? When will people stand up for themselves as a group, or the Govt. step in and slam massive lawsuits against the companies that allow this nonsense?
Friday, May 16, 2008
I'm not sure the author of the "6+ years of growth" comment has a clue. Probably he is tied to the regime and is trying to save face? If the VP was so good then why did he get cut loose? Ethics? Maybe that's why they are on probation globally. "Oh by the way", most of the growth was through Siemens AG acquisitions over that time period. But go pat yourself on a the back for your job well done. Please....!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Specific to the recent change in VP - look at the last five or six years. The Siemens industrial business saw growth rates of 20+ pecent each year with major wins in all areas. The market certainly did not see that growth. Sr. Management led that charge. In general, Sr. Management is a pretty mobile group in most large companies, making their impact and moving on to new challenges. Siemens too will move on and will have continued success.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Ding Dong the wicked witch is dead....... Look out all you dead-beat managers, your cover is gone.
Friday, May 16, 2008
It has finally happened - "Little Caesar" has been canned! His posse is in a state of sheer panic. "Paybacks".... Sit back and watch the fireworks. It’s to bad that his regime ruined and abundance of good peoples lives in the process.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Unfortunately, Siemens builds trade show booths a lot better than they build software. The Simatic IT story is a mangled, jumbled mess. In North America, most installations have been disasters. Many US employees are actively looking for other opportunities. No one in Erlangen (or Genoa) has the guts to "rightsize" this thing.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Despite sour grapes posted here, this company has its act together. Taking it to the industrial market with exiderdome. Check out their web site:
Friday, May 9, 2008
Regarding the last post, the industrial senior management team has no desire to have competent leaders at middle management. This could expose their incompetence. It truly is a shame that a hatchet man is running the best automation company in the world and has been allowed to surround himself with weak kneed yes men. Imagine the growth that is possible for Siemens Automation in the US with real leaders in each region and a real distribution / integration strategy vs. the zone champion failure. The only light at the end of this tunnel- "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword."
Jim Pinto
Monday, April 28, 2008 Concerning the latest post. It will be interesting to see what happens with Siemens as certain business unit upper level managers, who don't have a clue about certain vertical markets they are responsible for, are free to either "set up", sacrifice, or drive out experienced employees, lest they be unmasked and shown to be the root cause of the problem. Unfortunately, this demonstrates a calculating passion for self preservation, whatever the cost, at much higher levels. Tragic, when you know what is possible with the right people in place. Friday, April 25, 2008 The Siemens Mid-Atlantic industrial sales management team is a disgrace. The Regional manager, also know as the invisible man, and his total lack of leadership skills, work ethic or people skills would make his boss blush. The area manager for the Carolinas is on equal footing with his boss as it relates to management & work ethic skills. His motto"Do as little as possible for as long as possible for as much as possible." The regional drives Rep is even better than his boss, he only leaves his house for a free round of golf or lunch at the local mens club. Now that the wave of revenue from a strong global economy is heading back out to sea, perhaps the Germans will recognize the damage that has been inflicted on the industrial group since 2002 and make some very necessary changes. Friday, November 9, 2007 Anyone looking for an APACS HMI based on up to date versions of Wonderware may want to look at InSightHMI.com Wednesday, October 24, 2007 According to recent events Mr. Bi-Polar is extremely upset with being famous and making the internet blogs. According to one, someone that recently was at an event with him. He could not understand why everyone would leave him as manager. Also that why where ever he goes he leaves mayhem behind. Apparently he is on the path of being the team of "ONE". Because sooner or later he to will be putting the remain personnel on performance reviews. He has become a cancer to sales and anyone that has reported to him in the past and currently. Siemens needs to clean house with in the Northeast management. Since they are mainly puppet heads to Lil Ceasar. A lot of good people are still working there only to have to deal with someone that is medicated, and lies to save his own rump only to throw his people in the lions den. This to will catch up to him. With the new president in place and the roll out that recently happened, he will have a little trouble hiding. Tuesday, October 16, 2007 A stunning turn of events must have transpired recently in the NY/NJ metro Area. It seems that the ASM Mr. Bi-Polar himself has been baffled by a recent hires departure. "Image that, his chosen disciple”. With only few to manage in that region, what will the posse and the dictator do next? Maybe they will put themselves on "PIPS". The freak show continues and yes, once again more will leave. This has nothing to do with the economy, goals or margins that a fellow blogger has surmised. Sunday, October 14, 2007 Seems there were a fair amount of SEA salespeople let go recently in the US. What's the reason? The economy? Germany not getting the gains they want? Cutting dead weight? Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - Re: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 weblog. Doesn't Siemens & EA do neurological exam on new hired sales managers? Hmmmm sounds like a interesting thought? Or do new manager hires have to read enough "How to sell, and kill off your sales personnel" books to make them a sales manager in the Northeast Region? Or raising horses is the key, the combination of the two? Or is it key to be a social misfit that lies to HR about their actions on how they treat people? HR continues to swallow the lies from local sales management. Everyone knows that "Little Ceasar" rules the place. But soon that castle will also fall and his "Boys Club" will be escorted out. They all fall sooner or later. With a possible lawsuit to come down. This too will pass hopefully soon. But we have all been hoping this for a while..... The area will never be the same again. Ruined again by so called experts in management, that have no customer experience, and do not trust their people. Sounds like a dictatorship. Or could I be wrong? Its amazing how people who were employed by the number one marketshare company believe they have all the answers - when they were really only mantaining the business that was built way before their careers had started. Yes it is also difficult, but not as difficult then trying to convert business. Wednesday, August 22, 2007 People should check their facts before posting comments about others on a public site like this. If they think the grass is greener somewhere else; they should surf over to any one of the weblogs which discuss the major suppliers in the industrial automation market (on this JimPinto.com website). Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Now the Siemens Industrial team in the northeast region in shambles. What is management to do? A once strong region that had experienced sales people with a min of 5-8 Siemens experience are all but gone. The former "Rockwell HACKS" that could not make it in Rockwell have all but destroyed a very strong market share region. People continue to leave, like rats on a ship. The local management continues to hire inexperienced sales people from different industries. The last one was a joke, a person who raised horses for the past 4 years. I guess that qualifies him as a sales manager for the largest automation company in the world. Also with a former Rockwell now Siemens sales manager that was asked to leave Rockwell, that is neurotic, ADD type individual with little respect for anyone. That recently passed out business cards (And mentioned he was currently hiring.) at a funeral at his former company that he was escorted out of. Currently Siemens divisions are all up in arms with the turnover with little they can do. Its a shame that a few individuals have no clue what they have done. The region will take a min of 5yrs to rebound. Friday, August 10, 2007 The inhalation of the previous Siemens Management is almost complete. The infusion of Rockwell castoffs has been implemented and the plan has come full circle. It seems that “Little Caesar” has buffooned the Germans once again. He now has his "boys club” and is focusing on complete control of HR. It is utterly amazing how Siemens AG has taken the bait “hook, line & sinker". The sad part is that employees with years of knowledge, experience and tenure are being forced out. The tactics that are being used are a disgrace to ethics and employee morale. Individuals with no automation experience, business savvy and customer relationship are being hired. Furthermore, the STC distribution channel that took years to establish is being threatened by a vast majority of ill fated programs that continue to fail. To date, automation competitors are swallowing up the talent pool that have left or been displaced. All of them are aware what continues to transpire internally within SE&A. They are effectively capitalizing on the weaknesses of a vindictive management regime. Many hope that the new leader of SE&A will stop the bleeding and start listening to individuals that have not yet been terminated. Monday, August 6, 2007 Siemens SEA continues to GROW year in year out, despite the upper sales management, that continues to suck the money out with golf outings and expensive trips for their families. People continue to leave, especially good people with 8+ years of tenure. When is the dam going to stop leaking? With the most recent scare tactics that come from sales management, everyone needs to have something else in the pipe line, life is to short. They continue to hire people that do not know the automation business. Saturday, May 26, 2007 Siemens management is too far bought into the Simatic IT concept to pull out now. That will never happen. While they are not doing well in the Americas, in Europe they are getting deals. Saturday, May 19, 2007 Siemens has approximately $450 million invested to date in MES, with little return on that investment. When will they pull the plug, particularly in light of the latest goings on in the executive suite? Thursday, April 26, 2007 Potentially costly legal problems mounted Thursday at Siemens, plagued by a string of bribery scandals and resignations of senior management. A day after the company's chief executive suddenly announced he was stepping down, Siemens warned that it was expecting to report a "significant increase" in the number of possible bribes identified by its own continuing internal investigation. Potentially costly legal woes mount at Siemens: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/26/business/siemens.php Siemens insiders - any comments? Friday, April 20, 2007 - from Bob McIntyre [mhouhuabob@aol.com]: Re:Shape of Things to Come or Blast from the Past? Just completed a six month project working with some Outstanding people from Siemens VAI. The project was a State of the Art upgrade of Automation, Drives, Controls, etc.. to a 30+ year old Hot Dip Galvanizing Line for Steelscape in Shreveport, LA. The line was gathering dust in Richmond, Ca. after Steelscape's acquisition of Pinole Point Steel. After cannabalizing half the old Reliance Electric Automax equipment to upgrade their ailing Paint Line, Steelscape moved the entire plant's equipment to Shreveport. Siemens VAI Steel Group from Pittsburg, PA. quoted and won a multi-million dollar order to restore the old Galv Line to health. Steelscape asked for and got what they wanted. WonderWare HMI's, Rockwell ControlLogix PLC's, I/O, PowerFlex AC Drives and the 1756 DMD modules which let them keep their Automax DC drives for web transport. Clecim Tension Leveller, Skin Pass Mill, Air Knives, Welder. Siemens MCC with profibus Simocode controllers. EFCO Furnace. Truly a Best of the Rest scenario and from Start to Finish the job was done completely Old School. Here's the Delta: Everyone involved was experienced and highly professional. None of this "I'm a Drives Guy, I'm an HMI guy",etc.. The Engineers were all multi-discipline and worked on EVERY subsystem when the need took them there. The Siemens VAI people always performed above and beyond tackling problems on equipment regardless of the Supplier. Even when most of the job was complete they spent virtually no time "Babysitting" They continually went the Extra Mile adding enhancements and functionality to most subsystems. They even outvendored some of the vendors by fixing problems then teaching the vendor how his Own Equipment is supposed to work!!! On the minus side the average age of everyone was about 45+. Some people had even come "Out of Retirement" for this project which does not bode well for the future of Automation. I've known for some time that the "Road Warrior" is getting older and I keep running into the same people that I have worked with for years all over the World. Maybe a category for System Integrators could be added to the WebLog because I'm not sure this belongs under Siemens but I just wanted to let everyone know that there are still some providers out there who will sell a customer what he wants instead of insisting on the nonsense concept of a "Total Solution" meaning only stuff he makes. Tuesday, March 13, 2007 The industry should be watching Siemens in the Automation and MES areas. Customers, and I mean BIG customers, are paying attention and following along.
Saturday, February 24, 2007 - Siemens to move to Mexico
Siemens Energy and Automation announced Friday it will close its plants in Urbana and Bellefontaine — a loss of more than 700 jobs to the area. The company said the plants, which manufacture circuit breakers, are no longer competitive in their markets, and the products will be outsourced to plants in Mexico and to other third-party suppliers. The decision will be felt this fall as the company begins to move some of the product lines to Mexico. Employee job loss will begin in January 2008 with final shutdowns scheduled for the Bellefontaine plant in late 2008 and the Urbana plant in the summer of 2010. Friday, February 23, 2007 - More of a question: Can anyone out there say what there is to expect when your company has been acquired by Siemens? The management spin here is becoming old, and I really don't believe a word they say. How does Siemens manage their back-office support (A/P, A/R, etc). I find it very hard to believe that a $100B+ company has dozens of divisions operating as independent entities without some level of control from corporate. Monday, January 29, 2007 - Commenting on the Siemens Sales Management Changes: As a Siemens Automation Distributor I'm pretty happy with all the changes that have been made within the Siemens sales organization and Sales Managment. My purchases from Siemens have doubled each year the last three years and I expect healthy gains again this year. I had to deal with the "old" Siemens sales management and our business was flat at best for the three years prior, not to mention frustrating. Maybe the good old days weren't so good (niether were those Siemens Salespeople) and change was just what was needed? I like increasing sales and profits at the expense of my competitors, what's the problem if the new guys all come from the same competitor? Last time I checked Rockwell has the most market share and the most resources to draw from, seems reasonable that's where the talent would come from too. I wish more of my manufacturers were as agressive as Siemens is on growing business and hiring people away from the number one competitor. Seems like a good plan to me. Saturday, December 9, 2006 Both of the Ohio plants (Bellefontaine and Urbana) made subtantial profits for Siemens. They were recognized over and over within the company and used as examples for other plants to follow concerning "best practices" etc. Friday, December 8, 2006 News and views, here and there (editor doesn't like the work "rumors") about Schneider/Square D buying Siemens Industrial Services Division. Anyone have any more information? Friday, December 8, 2006 Siemens Energy to Close Two Ohio Plants (extracts from AP article Dec 08 2006 Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. said Friday it plans to close two plants in western Ohio, a move that will result in the loss of about 700 jobs. The Atlanta-based company, which makes industrial circuit breakers at the plants, intends to close plants in Bellefontaine and nearby Urbana. About 500 workers are employed at the Bellefontaine facility and 220 in Urbana. Siemens said it intends to move production of the products to existing facilities operated by Siemens Mexico or other third-party suppliers. The company said it will begin closing the Ohio plants in phases, with the first phase not beginning before August. The plants make circuit breakers and related parts for commercial and industrial use. The plants have been operating since the 1950s and were purchased by Siemens in 1983. The Bellefontaine operation is one of the largest employers in Logan County. Siemens said it will offer separation pay, extended health care benefits and career help to the employees. Friday, December 8, 2006 Bellefontaine and Urbana Ohio plants closed today. These plants have profited for a long time and no matter all the concession given by the employees it was not enough. Another one bites the dust. Thursday, November 30, 2006 - from concerned watchdog: Thank you for being so accurate with the description of the VP-Industrial Sales. As for the previous articles about "animal house like" and "big spender"... Animal house: He literally burned chairs and furniture at national sales meetings. Big spender: He has totally abused company T&E policies with thirty-thousand-dollar jaunts to Las Vegas with spouses, entertaining the same distributor person at Siemens corp. events, expensive limo rides, exotic trips with distributors spending tens of thousands of dollars. How is this allowed to happen? Is this what Rockwell people were allowed to do? Siemens is a great company - honest, decent and high caliber employees. I feel bad for those people. Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Per the article "Siemens from a managers point of view" (Click on link) http://jimpinto.com/commentary/siemens.html I can only add that the comments and assessments were quite accurate. The Vice President of Industrial Sales for Siemens Energy and Automation represents a "big talker" and "big spender" with no tangible results. Ironically, he has no technology expertise which unfortunately sets the model for the rest of his sales organization which is completely built on layer after layer of technology specialists. Siemens is a company that is built on product innovation and technology advantage, which provids a powerful monopolisitic position when leveraged correctly. The VP of Industrial Sales has done an excellent job convincing the Siemens Germany groups (GG's) to infuse cash for half-baked unsuccessful strategies that show tremendous growth and market share returns via excel spreadsheets. Regretfully, the Siemens-Germany (GG) colleagues are very trusting, loyal and decent individuals who really have a passion to drive aggressive growth and most likely will NEVER realize the returns of market share growth from their investments. The Vice President-Industrial Sales is now pummeling cash into building a distribution network that replicates Rockwell Automation. This further reinforces the opinion on this site: the sad reality is that Siemens is trying to replicate an excessively priced distribution business model with totally different market conditions. Knowing Rockwell well, they would never let their top talent migrate to Siemens, I think that Rockwell Automation built a marvelous "Trojan Horse" and wheeled-in the third string substandard players. Saturday, November 4, 2006 So now we have a complete bypass for the overpriced Texas Instruments line from Siemens. The 2500-C400 CPU from CTi has 3MB of RAM - enough for the most demanding APT application. The S7 is overpriced and can be difficult to use. The S5 is obsolete and very difficult to use unless you use it on a regular basis. The 500 series isn't difficult to use and isn't obsolete. The 505 software from FasTrak is a bit clunky, but it does the job. HMIs are easy - lots of OPC drivers and the like. Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - from a former Siemen Employee: I can attest there are too many ex-Rockwell sales people in the E&A sales team. The market share is not moving up, but rides the market. The behavior at sales meeting of the industrial sales VP is close to Animal-House like. Sunday, October 22, 2006 In the past 4 years the energy and automation division has moved factories from Miami and Atlanta to the Juarez, Mexico area. Now I am hearing more closures are on the horizon. Can anyone comment on the rumored closure/down sizing of the circuit protection plants in Bellefontaine and Urbana Ohio? Or, the recent purchase of a facility in Monterrey Mexico? Thursday, September 14, 2006 As Siemens continues to pick up Rockwell's employees, the former Rockwell people are trying to coexist in a Siemens world that has less than one third the support Rockwell has in the field. Many of these new ex-Rockwell employees are acting as though the Siemens personnel are useless - which they are not; they are putting out fires, with internal and external issues beyond just the sales organization, which no one can fix overnight. When, oh when, will Siemens hire a Rockwell person who's real IQ is close to their weight, not their shoe size? If these former Rockwell personnel were so successful at Rockwell, why would Rockwell let them go? Many of these former Rockwell people were pushed out of Rockwell due to the restructure of regions. If they were so good, then why get rid of them, or push them into lacky positions? Now they are management material at Siemens. Go figure.... Good luck to all former Rockwell personnel who are managers in Siemens. When the new president arrives their sponsor will more than likely not be arround to cover them. Let the GAMES begin ! Sunday, September 10, 2006 - from Siemens Power Generation Employee: As a middle manager at Siemens I see one major company-wide problem; there seems to be an extraordinary amount of time & energy being spent by Quality & IT types developing new "Programs & Initiatives". These programs are then forced upon already over-worked managers to "Implement & Oversee"; most US employees look at these programs as a waste of time and money and rarely see any positive results. This does not seem to affect the decision to send yet another email praising the next great new program! All it means to middle management is another new PASSWORD and another reason not to be home in time for dinner! Monday, September 04, 2006 I have seen reports on this weblog about this subject before. The upper mangment of Siemens (the ex-Rockwell people) continues on a very aggressive dissection of the orginial Siemens sales people. It's reaching down to the salesman level now, slowly but surely, they are replacing all with ex-AB people. The Executive VP of industrial sales rules; the Germans like him so much that he seems to get away with anthing. He thinks the answer to Siemens success is the termination of all orginal Siemens people (who, by they way, are the core and strength of the company.) The internal company is in complete disarray. The morale is at it's lowest, and anybody you talk to who is not ex-AB is looking for a job. We all believe that this ex-AB management is pushing the company down the path of failure. The goal for next year are rumored to be so big, with the lack of resources and salesmen, and the constant cut on the budgets, there is no way to make goal. It's a very sad time, if your are one of the orginial Siemens sales people. Wednesday, August 30, 2006 Siemens supports EDDL with Emerson, and are anti-FDT. They also sit on the FDT board and wish to involved in all FDT decisions. So you try and work it out.... Friday, August 18, 2006 Can anyone elaborate on Siemens' committment to FTD/DTM? Thursday, August 10, 2006 - From Jeff Mason [masotek@earthlink.net]: To answer the question of 2-1-06 regarding marketing assets of SAG &SEA I would say during my time there 1985-2000 there was very little "marketing" personel. Germans call their app. engineers marketing so there is a disconnect as compared to the US concept. I once stood up in a high level meeting and made that statement, a few years later I became a marketing manager in systems. At A&D in Erlangen, there was no marketing staff as we know it in the US market. For the Euro market it was not needed as others have pointed out, when you have 70-80% market share you can see their point. Conversely, trying to establish a position in the US market the marketing part was overlooked. Early in 2000 SE&A scraped their corporate marketing dept. which was doing some good strategic work. I guess all those Rockwell castoffs would fill that gap - not. I used Rockwell as my benchmark when I developed the MV drive product line. Coming from Reliance I always was impressed how AB had their customers convienced they invented drives; we know different. But that was good marketing on their part and I give them that. Since our industrial base is sinking into the sunset I will enjoy my retirement in Florida, playing golf and hope my pension from Rockwell & Siemens holds out! Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - Re: rumor Emerson selling the process systems division to Siemens: The process systems division is not the most profitable division within Emerson. Field instrumentation and valves are still the money makers. It would greatly amaze me if such a step is taken - the process systems division is seen as a (very)important part of the Emerson overall PlantWeb strategy. Think that this rumor is wishfull thinking from Siemens people. Saturday, August 5, 2006 Any insiders care to share what is in store for the Ohio Operations of Siemens Energy & Automation? It's starting to look like the cheerleaders for the outsource team are about to start cheering. Thursday, July 27, 2006 In regards to the entry PDF &FF agreement below,I have heard rummors(from SE&A employees) that Emerson is planing on selling the entire process div to Siemens. I can not see this happening. Isn't the process group the most profitable of all the Emerson divisons? Friday, July 21, 2006 Siemens and Emerson announced last week that both companies will have some kind of technology exchange. Siemens will support FF in their PCS7 system and Emerson will support Profibus/Profinet in their DeltaV system. What is the real message behind this collaboration? Thursday, July 20, 2006 Being a Siemens employee, and working in the HVAC field, I have heard more than once about the possibility of Siemens purchasing Trane. Does anyone know if there is any validity to this? Tuesday, June 13, 2006 The final change in Siemens SEA has been accomplished. Now all the Regional Managers have had Rockwell experience, and about 80% of the current sales managers have been once employed by Rockwell. Is there not one SEA person qualified to be a sales or regional manager, without having to move some where else in country, to get the job? Siemens E&A has become an employment office for Rockwell people. We keep hiring people to figure out what the competition is doing, only to figure out we are not sure what we are doing..... When is Germany going to get involved? Monday, June 12, 2006 Just to let people know that Siemens just listed a bunch of Apacs modules on eBay with no reserve for Moore. You may want them for customer service or stock. Monday, May 1, 2006 I read in the German newspaper Handelsblatt that Philips are stepping up competition against Siemens in Europe and Germany in particular. How are Siemens likely to react? Is there any indication from past behaviour as to what strategy they would adopt? How do they react to competitors in Europe threatening their market share? Friday, March 31, 2006 Are Siemens really interested in Invensys? Monday, March 27, 2006 The Simatic IT "MESS" is just that. A mishmash of products, very service intensive, not very easy to implement. I have heard that hundreds of millions of dollars invested to date - and by best estimates, license sales are minimal. In the USA, I heard they were recently booted from a major customer in the food industry and are in jeopardy at other key accounts. The senior management in A&D has been duped into believing some ridiculous market opportunity numbers that simply don't exist. This is a house of cards ready to collapse under its own weight unless sweeping changes are made. Problem is, the senior management that could make the changes are the same ones that bought into the story... Monday, March 13, 2006 While under the sales leadership of former Rockwell personel, Siemens SEA sales force has undergone a 180 degree turn for the worse. They mention the sales force needs more face time. While being bogged down with reports and processes that basically have cut down customer face time, everyone is doing internal reports to statisfy managers, instead of being in front of customers. People make sales not CRM programs and mundane reports that local or higher management don't even read. Apparently the former Rockwell personel in charge are only interested in good news and do not want to hear the truth (good or bad) what is going on in the market or with customers. SEA sales management has become the home of Rockwell misfits. The door continues to open for more to enter the SEA world. Apparently the Rockwell personel coming over to SEA were business maintainers, not brick-and-morter sales engineers. The Rockwell personnel continue to stay at Rockwell and SEA continues to let the Rockwell mifits in. Customers apparently no longer come first in the current Napoleonic regime, ruled by threats of being fired. Positions in sales management on the local levels are no longer meant for very qualified Siemens personel, but for Rockwell personel. Rockwell sales engineers and managers know that if they need a place after Rockwell, SEA will hire them in a heart beat, sight unseen. We know is this will change also; it normally takes 4 yrs for it happen in SEA for a management change. The winds of change is in the air again, and then the former Rockwell misfits will jump ship again. Monday, February 27, 2006 I have worked for Siemens E&A and feel that it's a stupid company, out of control. The management people are the most ill-informed that I have ever been around, with no leadership skills and even less knowledge of their jobs than those who are supposed to follow them. The VP of Manufacturing is a MARKETING guy. Everything is considered a "commodity" and bought on price. That means engineering program management is no longer in the hands of engineers, but in the hands of a commodity purchasing person who gets incentive-pay based on hitting his target-savings number that is provided by some German VP with no manufacturing experience at all. Their system is extremely self-serving. There is no loyalty at all within Siemens US because of the management style of the Germans. US managers are nothing more than sock puppets to the German group, and individual performance is not rewarded or appreciated unless it is based on mangement "orders". For such a large company that is so respected in Europe, and based on what I know about their internal processes, I can honestly say that I would think twice before buying many of their products. Monday, February 13, 2006 - from Stuart Mitchell [stuart.mitchell@cal-tech.co.uk]: Can anyone recommend a good OPC server to APACS. I will use the Siemens IEM's (Industrial Ethernet Modules) to go from Module Bus to Ethernet. I am undecided about going Intouch or WinnCC but its my understanding now that the new I/O driver bundled with 4-mation V6.1 won't be validated for XP.I will therefore need OPC. I've checked Matikon and Siemens but both are plus £2K GBP. Any help appreciated. Wednesday, February 1, 2006 Can anyone estimate the number of "marketing" people Siemens Automation & Drives has globally? I know their technology sells itself in Europe, however I would appreciate any insight a former A&D or SEA manager can provide on the size of their product marketing team back in Germany as well as commercial marketing resources here in the U.S. Sunday, January 29, 2006 - from Ex-TI and Siemens employee: CTI - the previous supplier to TI, then Siemens, for several components of the 505 Product family is announcing the release of new 505 compatible CPUs that will counteract Siemens desire to obsolete and kill that product. The 505 controller family is relied upon by a number of large companies. The controller family really shines when used in batching systems. As a result of this, Siemens has put pressure on their automation distributors to drop the CTI line of products since Siemens now considers CTI to be a competitor since they are marketing a product line that Siemens wishes to kill, while their customer base desires otherwise. (This is the "it was not developed in Germany - hence it must be crap" philosophy that is pervasive within Siemens) and accompanies the other pervasime Siemens philosphy "why listen to the customer when we can talk amongst ourselves". I personally think that the 505 product family may be long from dead if CTI can supply CPUs (they already supply everything else but programming software - supplied by Fastrak). Any comments? P> Sunday, November 27, 2005 The RVSI and Robicon purchases were the big buys for Siemens this year, and they have already provide huge benefits to Siemens Energy and Automation. The SICK rumors are just that - rumors. But they are on the list to buy. That would be a big deal in the safety world. Stay tuned for more Siemens buys in 2006. Tuesday, November 22, 2005 News going around about an acquisition of ifm (also a German company) by Siemens. Thursday, November 3, 2005 SICK with sales around $55 million would make sense, considering that Siemens just acquired RVSI in order to complement the product line. SICK & Wengelor compete for business in Europe and recently Wengelor made a push into North America. Much of the sensor market is low-tech, on/off photo-eye, and the distribution channels are confused after Cognex acquired DVT in attempts to displace Banner and IFM Efector. Quick - Rockwell, GE Fanuc, Square D, Keyence, Omron bring in the Forensic accountants. Monday, October 3, 2005 I have heard discussions that Siemens is in talks to buy Sick (of Germany). Has anyone heard anything, or care to comment? I know that Siemens has been looking for a sensor company for a while, and even made offers to buy Turck, but with no luck. Monday, October 3, 2005 The only Siemens products moving to China are from the Definite Purpose Contactor business. Tuesday, September 27, 2005 Circuit Protection Division moving to China ?? Tuesday, May 10, 2005 Does anyone have any commentary from the Siemens Users Conference just held in Tampa, Florida? Thursday, April 7, 2005 With Siemens buying Flender, they truly are on their way to becoming a design/build company for automation... It will be interesting to see what happens. Monday, March 21, 2005 - Re Siemens support - from the person who complained: Whoever sent the link to the support page, Thanks! Once there, I found a familiar and intuitive "Explorer-type" interface that allowed me to drill down to the information I was looking for. My mistake was I considered "support" something associated with AFTER the sale; consequently I was looking in the wrong place for product descriptions. Monday, March 21, 2005 - Re: Siemens support: Siemens is structured like most companies in their sales and support. You go to the store (A&D Mall) to buy a product. And you go to the support web site to find documents on the product. You will not find any support information in the A&D Mall. Siemens Support web site is: http://support.automation.siemens.com Saturday, March 19, 2005 - Forced to use Siemens: Have any of you Siemens employees used the Siemens web site to find product information? As part of a contract I'm working on, I am required to include some siemens PLCs as part of the package. Trying to find product information has been extremely difficult. Do a search for "S7 HMI" and it takes you to a promising page. But the pages that follow are useless and take you no closer to a succint description of the products. I have yet to really find out the capabilities of your 670 panel pc. One link took me to what appeared to be internal marketing information. Really, why would a customer need to see all of the different photo poses of a product when he can't find any substantive technical description? Another link took me to a page in German with no way to click on "English." And what's with this A&D Mall? I'm really disappointed. I have spent over three hours over the past two days trying to get information on HMIs and PLCs with only limited success on the PLC side. Perhaps you who sit on this blog and fuss about the company could better serve siemens by taking steps to make information more readily available to your customers. Tuesday, March 15, 2005 - Re: Siemens business practices: The best part of the Siemens picture is when we sit in the high level meetings and hear, "For the first time in 5 years SE&A has made a profit". For anyone who has taken a spin through product marketing, this just means the transfer cost structure changed to make us look good. Next year it will change back. The only TRUE rating is Marketshare but those numbers don't regularly show up these days. Someone also once mentioned that we compensate our NEMA numbers with European imports, which honestly I can’t verify but it does raise the question- How does Siemens know which OEM’s/VAR’s/System integrators are shipping to the states? I also couldn’t help to notice that when SE&A went through it’s re-organization years, meaning 4 years of lay-offs, the German Automation & Drives division had fantastic years and as far as I know, didn’t have any workforce cuts. Monday, March 07, 2005 - regarding Siemens international business practices: The comments on Siemens are very interesting and mostly true, I should know I spent 15 years with them. I was one of the first along with some of my other colleagues from Reliance and GE to join Siemens in 1985. That is when nobody had heard of them, I spent the next 15 years working my way up from field sales to upper management. Yes, Siemens is a powerhouse of technology but the dark side of its business dealings is even more interesting. I was one of the very few Americans "embedded" with the Germans and Indian engineers on projects around the world even living for a short time in Erlangen (home to Drives). It's right, about all products coming from Germany, but the interesting thing is how they avoid taxes on these imports. The prices are are termed "transfer cost" and do not fall under the same tax and import duties as most other products. Through a complex chain of creative accounting, the business units move products around the world. I cannot believe the government does not know this is going on. I did not know of this until I worked at the SE&A systems business unit located in Alpharetta, Ga. It was only by accident when I questioned one of the accounting people on a price issue for a project, that it became known. The way it works is - the business unit pays inflated prices back to Germany and keeps track on two sets of books; that way the profits are laundered back and the US unit shows lower profit, and thus less tax. The systems group takes the hit for the product groups, but is compensated by exporting to countries where they receive higher margins. The same is true of the work force, which is shuffled around the globe too. To keep cost down Indian engineers are brought into the US under the visa H1B program. When the request goes out to the business units for personnel, they put on the paperwork: "must speak German", which for the most part eliminates US engineers. Very few of the Indian engineers I worked with spoke German, even though they had worked at SAG in Germany. What is further troubling is the local infrastructure, paid for by taxpayers to Siemens - they receive the standard enticements to locate and hire locals. But that is not all. The Junior College in the area spent money to set up departments for Siemens exclusively to train workers. This all sounds well and good for the community, but after a few years these jobs disappear and are replaced by foreign labor - under the radar screen once market recognition is achieved. A consultant who seemed to know about Siemens practices in the US said, thaqt the US is nothing but a channel to market. He had spent considerable time with many high level Germans and attended meetings where they discussed money transfers from Belgian slush funds, computer systems for Libyaa, and Iraq nuclear projects. This was only the tip of the iceberg. I am sure it not the only multi-national that conducts business this way in the US. Monday, January 31, 2005 There appears to be additional changes now and in the future at SEA, particularly in business segment sales. Does anyone care to comment about the Oil & Gas segment which is losing some experienced people, who are leaving by choice? Tuesday, January 18, 2005 505 is now mature. It lasted 13 years under Siemens. Start looking to replace. You have 10 years or less. Monday, January 26, 2004 - regarding previous weblog - Dennis Morin "wisely ran away!": Not quite as fanciful as that. Dennis Morin was chased out. He fought with the Board, the Management, and the investors. Morin did not stop the gross waste of investors' money on useless activities, so the investors put in their own man. Emphasizing a key market while watching spending proved to be the ticket. What a surprise! Thursday, January 22, 2004 - on IndX: Pure greed. I hope those responsible for fleecing the employees get some type of comeuppance. That said, the company was in bad financial straits for years. WonderWare's Dennis Morin got involved for a while and wisely ran away. Should not have been a surprise to anyone that it ended badly. And make no mistake, it is ending, not beginning. Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - on the acquisition of IndX by Siemens: Very few IndX employees are happy with the Siemens deal! Some of them are so very unhappy they have met with lawyers. I am sure the CEO is very happy; he personally gets a very big check (relative to what he did). And the investment company that he represents gets an even bigger check. (Some would say this is a conflict of interest). A lot of the people who put money in at the begining get nothing, while the management walks away with handsome rewards. But, the employees who are most unhappy are those who were forced to leave the company when the management could not pay them. They had no choice - they were not wealthy enough to stay; they had mortgages to pay and kids to feed. Some of these were the core developers. They were cheated, because in the end the management and the Board of Directors, by making the common stock worthless, told them their sweat and toil did not matter. Monday, January 5, 2004 Siemens was previously committed ONLY to Profibus; now the company has also joined Fieldbus Foundation. The first Siemens FF device registered by Fieldbus Foundation: Positioner SIPART PS2 FF The following Siemens organizations have joined as FF members:
Monday, December 29, 2003 - about the general feelings at INDX: Of course, any thing to keep the company afloat is a "good thing". But, it will dramatically change the culture, direction, and structure of the company in the coming weeks and months. Expect a few of the senior staff to leave for "warmer climates" with more money making potential soon. Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Everyone always hacks on the culture of Siemens and the Germans for screwing things up. I feel, from a inside point of view, they are doing the best they can. Siemens gains a lot of these employees by acquisitions (Moore, Milltronics, TI etc.) which creates the internal resistance. The strongest will survive, maybe we should not forgot this. Maybe the Germans are not screwing things up. Maybe it is the inept managers that they put in place after an acquisition who run around spending Siemens' money until they get canned. No accountability in the Siemens organization is making the biggest mess, not the Germans! Monday, December 8, 2003 After Indx, Siemens is said to be talking with AspenTech. By the way, not all Indx employees are as happy as the last poster. He/she must have cut a side deal. Common shares are worthless. Saturday, December 6, 2003 The last few posts on this forum about the Siemens IndX buyout are NOT representative of IndX employees. The general feeling at IndX is the buyout is a very good thing. This is my third buyout experience and it significantly more lucrative than the previous two. Granted it was not as good as a few of the IPOs in the '90, but it can easily be argued that very few payouts for employees in the last 3 years have been as good as this one! Wednesday, December 3, 2003 Indx buyout by Siemens is a done deal. Employees were very screwed, founders were mostly screwed, and (some) early VC's screwed as well. Not that it wasn't inevitable after going back to the well for money so many times. Seems like one that the lawyers will have to get involved in someday soon. Click to read:Siemens to buy IndX Software: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 We hear that Siemens/Indx may announce this buyout at their User's Group. I'm sure that will make for lots of happy faces. NOT! Friday, November 14, 2003 History has not been kind to North American companies acquired by Siemens. Witness the Moore debacle. Maybe there will be good deals on office space in Orange County, CA. soon.... Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - from Mike Brooks: Much as I would like to claim credit for the last post, I can honestly say it was not mine. As for Siemens acquiring INDX - who knows if there's any value left there. Surprise, surprise - Siemens did not ask me. As the founder's getting screwed - sometimes you get exactly what you deserve (shame on me). MBA homework assignments are not like the real thing; and even if you follow the recipe in the cookbook, it might still taste bad. Wednesday, October 29, 2003 Heard that Siemens is about to "officially" absorb Indx. Seems like the venture investment was really a time-delayed acquisition "on the cheap", screwing the Indx employees/founders. Any Siemens folks care to comment? Friday, May 30, 2003 - regarding previous weblog: Both could be true. During the last UTX takeover attempt of HON, I think there was a back door deal for Siemens to buy some portion of the automation business. Friday, May 30, 2003 Interesting - on the Siemens/Honeywell rumour. I had heard that Honeywell and United Technologies had also renewed discussions, and that it was almost a done deal. Perhaps both rumours are true? Thursday, May 29, 2003 Siemens & Honeywell - extract from JimPinto.com eNewsOnce again, rumors are running hot that Siemens is buying Honeywell Industry Solutions. This makes good sense - the acquisition would be in the best interests of both companies.Click to read:JimPinto.com eNews - May 29 2003 Sunday, May 18, 2003 Well its interesting reading the comments that Jim Pinto has placed after the "Siemens US managers View". I work for Siemens in SES (Siemens Electronic Security) in Australia. And yes, I share the same view as the Siemens managers in Jim's article on Siemens. In Australia, we think with a mix of US and UK flavours. We can't see how the Germans can possibly use their "mind set" to run a Corporate machine globally, as they currently are. Their Buliding technologies business is losing money like there's no tomorrow! In Australie, which is part of the Zone Asia/Pacific region which is being De-regionalised in the Siemens corporate world, they are moving major functions back to Germany and Switzerland. The philosophy is that the "Siemens world is One Zone" . Tuesday, May 6, 2003 - 2nd comment to 3/25 weblog: It's not surprising that Wonderware has a solid migration plan. Siemens isn't known for having painless migrations to US purchased companies. There was nothing offered for the TI305/405 (or for that case the current 505 Tisoft or APT) that assisted us in getting to the S7. I'm guessing the competition knows this and sees opportunities. Friday, April 25, 2003 Regardingthe post on 3/25. . . from an end-user, regarding Siemens acquisition of Moore Products. Check out Wonderware's strategy to convert APACs users back to Wonderware part numbers. Pretty interesting. Sunday, April 13, 2003 - from an Invensys Rail Group Employee: With the possibility of disposals from Invensys on the horizon at the trading update on 15th April 2003, I wonder if Siemens will be making a pitch for the Rail Group? Invensys have just got a foot in the Siemens Rail home market with future opportunities on the horizon, while Siemens have been struggling to get into the UK Rail market, with no real hope of major access. One to ponder - for a quick fire sale. Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - from an end-user, regarding Siemens acquisition of Moore Products. Our facility has had a twenty three year relationship with Moore Products. We were fiercely loyal to them and they served us well that entire time. It has been with considerable dismay that we have watched the blunders Siemens has made since its takeover of Moore Products. Their acquisition is a textbook study of (a) what shouldn't be done to your newly acquired customer base, and (b) how to alienate your customers in 10 easy steps. I received this announcement recently (extract below, the sections that cause me particular heartburn). It certainly seems to fit into the overall plan (if it can be called that) that Siemens is taking with regard to the product lines they acquired from Moore Products. They don't seem to be able to figure out what they want to do with them. Most of the product lines they have acquired have been obsoleted, and in every case where this has directly impacted our operation they have bungled the transition to a Siemens alternate component. Looking back on the relationship we had, and comparing it to what we have today, I feel like my spouse has just died and I have to go find a new partner.
APACS+ is still to be supported (guaranteed through to 2016) but, as part of the second development announced in January, will now only be offered to existing customers. New projects will instead be the prime targets for the newly announced Version 6 of PCS7, which will also provide a migration path for APACS. Although PCS7 is designed to operate with a variety of communication protocols - Profibus, Ethernet, OPC - Siemens Process Automation has no plans to include Foundation fieldbus. Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Siemens is going to announce that the 505 is obsolete and start charging for telephone support. And, Siemens is forcing Rapistan to use S7. Monday, February 17, 2003 Siemens Sales force no longer gets a commision on 505. Monday, February 3, 2003 Siemens may be in trouble with their analytical group Applied Automation. Two weeks ago they had a large layoff, where they let some senior people go. Included in this group of around 10% of the work force were long-term people in several key positions. It is also understood that AAI has cut its order forecast by a large amount after their FY03 1st Quarter results were bad.
Extract JimPinto.com eNews Dec. 30 2002
Still the largest industrial automation company. German-based with
good central management and a good financial position. To increase
market share, primarily in the US, they are still looking to make
acquisitions. They really don't know how to change their acquisition
strategy, inevitably forcing new companies to meet the German mold.
But, they are still looking at anyone who is available, which (in a
declining market) is almost everyone.
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