2006年3月1日，西门子“整合无间 协同制造”SIMATIC IT产品与应用介绍会在北京丽都假日酒店举行。据悉，这是西门子“整合无间 协同制造”SIMATIC IT全国巡回推广会继2005年12月22日杭州介绍会之后的第二站活动。会后，西门子Simatic IT亚太区业务经理Armin Kratzer先生接受了国际工业自动化网记者的专访。
据Armin Kratzer先生介绍，作为西门子SIMATIC IT全球推广计划的一部分，SIMATIC IT在中国的推广活动是从2005年底正式启动的。西门子在全球选定了20个国家作为重点，而中国市场无疑是重中之重。早在2004年中，西门子就已经开始着手筹备SIMATIC IT在中国的推广。“现在我们已经基本完成了所有的准备工作，所以，今年我们要做的事情，就是大举进军中国市场”。
在谈及西门子如何选择产品推广的时机时，Kratzer先生表示，西门子颇富远见地看到了MES在中国以及全球市场的无限商机。制造执行系统（MES）并不完全是一个新的概念，“事实上，当使用纸和笔来制定生产计划并跟踪记录执行情况时，所有参与这些活动的人都在扮演制造执行系统的角色”。在过去的10年中，随着自动化生产的发展，自动化生产线和各种应用程序承担了MES的职能，ERP系统也在某种程度上发展了部分MES的功能。但在各种系统之间依然存在着鸿沟。自二十世纪九十年代美国AMR（先进制造研究机构，Advanced Manufacturing Research）提出MES概念以来，MES在全球迅猛发展，正在被越来越多的来自各个行业的制造业企业采用。据统计，2003年全球MES市场的销售收入已达到60亿美元，而且持续保持着两位数的增长。
“采用MES系统至少有两点显而易见的好处，一是节约了劳动力成本，减少了投入于非增值活动中的人力资本，人们可以有更多的时间来考虑如何改进产品和生产流程；二是提高了执行的准确性和数据的可靠性。这是一个巨大的转变，将使企业的生产效率大幅度提高”。不仅如此，MES在提升质量管理、降低物料管理等其他成本与费用方面也发挥着很大作用。因此，虽然在中国劳动力的成本相对较低，但中国的制造业企业依然需要制造执行系统。调查显示，截至2005年，中国主要制造行业都有企业在不同程度上实施了MES。Kratzer先生指出，随着制造业在全球范围转移，将有越来越多的跨国企业把生产部门转移到中国，中国的MES市场潜力巨大。全球资深分析机构ARC制造业专业咨询公司的调查表明，明年中国市场对MES的需求将不断增加，特别是汽车制造和烟草等行业。“正是在这样的背景下，西门子敏锐地抓住时机，并且行动迅速”。
面对记者提出的SIMATIC IT优势何在的问题，Kratzer先生的回答有条不紊，表现出德意志民族特有的严谨。“首先，西门子是唯一能够提供端到端全套解决方案的MES系统供应商，不仅如此，西门子还能够很好地解决各种系统冲突”，Kratzer先生不无自豪地说，并随即作了一个绝妙的比喻，“这就好像是一场古典音乐会，不仅需要音乐家们来演奏小提琴、钢琴等等不同的乐器，还需要一位富于经验的指挥家，这样才能令各种乐器在适当的时候演奏出动听的旋律，从而形成美妙的交响曲。SIMATIC IT就是这样，它能够提供举办一场成功的音乐会所需要的所有东西”。此外，SIMATIC IT的设计基于ISA95标准，可以通过对库（library）的配置来满足不同行业、不同生产流程的需要，并且由于采取Framework加组件的方式而具有良好的灵活性、兼容性和可扩展性。基于以上特点，“我坚信SIMATIC IT是到目前为止市场上出现的最好的产品”。
Kratzer先生还表示，他对SIMATIC IT产品推广活动到目前为止所取得的成果感到满意。西门子中国自动化与驱动集团SIMATIC IT中国区经理张军强先生说，在中国已经有越来越多的人了解和关注MES，MES已经成为时下自动化领域业内人士讨论的一个热门话题。
对于西门子SIMATI IT产品在中国市场的前景，Kratzer先生满怀信心。“在中国，西门子已经树立了很好的品牌形象”。他特别提到了西门子近期所作的一份市场调查。有520人参与了这次调查。当被问及“你认为谁是最专业的MES系统供应商”时，有68%的被调查者选择了西门子。Kratzer先生微笑着告诉记者：“正因为如此，西门子相信自己在中国市场一定能够取得成功”。
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"We present the total concert"
--about Siemens, MES and SIMATIC IT
An open day was held by Siemens Ltd., China Automation & Drives Group in Beijing Lidu Hotel on March 1st, 2006. The Open Day is the second activity of the SIMATIC IT promotion activites. Indeed the first open day was held in Hangzhou on Dec 12th, 2005. Mr. Armin Kratzer, who is the Asia Pacific SIMATIC IT Manager, accepted the interview from CA after the Open Day.
Mr. Armin Kratzer said, as a part of the Siemens SIMATIC IT global marketing program, the promotion activities in China were launched in the end of 2005 with the first open day. Today Siemens is actively promoting SIMATIC IT in 20 focus countries. The Chinese market is absolutely one of the countries with the most importance for Siemens. Siemens started to prepare activities for SIMATIC IT since June 2004. "This year we really want to focus on going to the market, because we have done our homework and prepared ourselves."
When talking about why Siemens choose such a time to promote the product, Mr. Armin said, with a foresight, Siemens had found the market opportunity in China. MES is not completely a new concept, "in fact, when people execute a production plan and trace the execution of the plan manually with pen and paper, more or less they are playing the role of a Manufacturing Execution System." In the past 10 years more and more automated or computer based systems were developed and used in order to cope with the requirements of MES. ERP is one element that partly touches functions defined at the MES level. However, there are still gaps between different systems. Since the concept of MES was explicitly presented by different companies in the late 1990s, MES has been applied by more and more manufacturing enterprises in different industry in the world. According to statistics, the revenue of MES in global market reached 6 billion US dollars in 2003, with an almost double digit annual growth.
"Customers will benefit from MES at least in two aspects. First of all, you save a lot of labour based activities which do not add any value to your operation at all. People now have time to consider about how to improve their production, product and workflow. Furthermore, the information recorded is accurate and reliable. So it's a big shift." What is creating more impact, MES can also reduce the cost in material management and other sectors. Therefore, like foreign companies, Chinese manufacturing enterprises have the desire to set up MES as well. Although labor cost is low in China, quality improvement and scrap reduction is a vital topic. Mr. Kratzer pointed out that more and more multinational enterprises will transfer production facilities to China, which will extremely motivate the market demands. According to an investigation report from ARC, the market demands of MES in China will be continuously increasing next year especially in some specific industries such as car and tobacco manufacturing. In this context, "We have acted in the very first place, because coming in late never is good."
Mr. Kratzer introduced the advantages of Siemens SIMATIC IT. "Siemens is the only supplier who can provide a product covering the whole MES functional requirements, and further handle the interactions between functional components", Mr. Kratzer said proudly. " Just like in a concert, besides musicians who play the instruments, we have a conductor who can perfectly drive the workflow to ensure the whole performance. SIMATIC IT can provide all the necessities that a successful concert needs." Based on the ISA95, SIMATIC IT is capable to satisfy different requirements of different industries by adjusting the setup of libraries. The "framework+component" structure enables SIMATIC IT high flexibility and compatibility, and makes it easy to be enlarged. "If you look in the market and look for a similar approach, I think you won't find another supplier with a similar offering."
Mr. Kratzer was content with the outcome of the promotion activities in China. "In China, people never really talked about MES before. But more and more people have known this concept. MES has become a hot topic now", said Dragon Zhang, the MES Product Manager from Automation & Drives Group of Siemens Ltd., China.
"If you see Siemens as a brand, I think in China it is quite well established." Mr. Kratzer expressed his confidence with the future of SIMATIC IT in Chinese market. He mentioned a recent investigation made by Siemens with around 520 people from different manufacturing industries. When asked "which company do you think has the biggest know-how for MES solutions", 68% of them chose Siemens. "This is another building block to make us feel comfortable to be successful with SIMATIC IT in China," said Mr. Kratzer.
（转载）
