The FINANCIAL — Now that its realignment is complete, Siemens is driving its transformation into a digital industrial company and setting the course for innovation and further growth.
As a result of the previously announced increase of more than €1 billion in investment in research and development, productivity and global sales, Siemens will keep the number of new hires at a continuously high level in the years ahead. In particular, the company expects to hire at least 25,000 new employees worldwide in each of the coming years – around 3,000 of them in Germany.
At the same time, Siemens is continuing to respond vigorously and responsibly to structural and technological changes in individual businesses and markets. For example, as already announced, increasing competitive intensity in the oil and gas, metals and mining sectors has made a realignment of capacities at Siemens’ Process Industries and Drives (PD) Division necessary. A total of about 2,500 jobs worldwide – of which 2,000 are in Germany, primarily in Bavaria – will be affected by the realignment of the Division’s two Business Units Large Drives and Process Solutions. However, current locations will be retained, according to Siemens.
The main goal of the planned measures is to consolidate the activities and optimize the size of manufacturing locations in Europe in order to improve competitiveness in a market environment that continues to be difficult. For this reason, about 1,000 of the above-mentioned jobs in Germany will be affected by the bundling of specific product lines at individual locations. Plans also call for improving the efficiency of all project work at the Process Solutions Business Unit. The related workforce reductions are to be made in a socially responsible way.
“Plunging demand in raw materials markets has led to a significant intensification of competition, particularly in Asia. To guarantee our competitiveness, we’ve got to adapt to these conditions,” said Jürgen Brandes, CEO of Siemens’ Process Industries and Drives Division. “That’s why we’ve got to optimize our manufacturing network worldwide and reduce the number of facilities producing similar or identical products. We’ve also got to increase the global competitiveness of engineering at our Process Solutions Business Unit.”
