Siemens to build new automation factory in China

Posted on 17 Oct 2011 by The Manufacturer

Engineering group Siemens is expanding its presence in Asia with plans to build a new factory in Chengdu in Sichuan province, China, that will manufacture Simatic controllers from 2013.

Siemens Industrial Automation Systems will develop and manufacture the high spec Simatic controllers and automation components in the new factory from the middle of 2013.

The corresponding agreements were signed with local authorities in China on Monday (Oct 17). A ceremony for the new factory is scheduled to take place in February 2012.

The German engineering giant is making energy-efficient automation solutions a top priority. “The rapidly increasing number of manufacturing companies in Asia tightens the competition between each other, thus making technical solutions necessary to produce more quickly, at the highest quality standards and also cost-effectively,” said Eckard Eberle, head of the Industrial Automation Systems business unit.

From 2013 mainly Simatic S7 programmable logic controllers (PLC) will be manufactured in Chengdu. During the first expansion phase, the new factory in Chengdu will comprise approximately 3,000m2. Depending on future demand, the factory can be expanded to a total of 10,000m2 and a workforce of more than 1,000.

The new factory in Chengdu will be an affiliated factory of the Electronics Manufacturing Plant in Amberg, Germany, where Siemens has developed and manufactured a large proportion of its controllers for several decades. As in Amberg, the Chengdu plant will also be organised as a “digital factory” where the development and manufacturing departments are completely interlinked.

The consistent flow of information provides the basis for both high product quality and optimised transportation and delivery processes, says the company.