Siemens 2010 Annual Report Download - page 128

6 To our shareholders 21 Corporate Governance 49 Combined management’s discussion and analysis
50 Business and operating environment
78 Fiscal  – Financial summary
81 Results of operations
98 Financial position
110 Net assets position
113 Overall assessment of the economic position
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and are characterized by their simplicity, ease of maintenance,
and reliability. SMART solutions, such as those developed in
the fields of healthcare and decentralized power generation,
are under development at CT and at the Sectors. In fact, a num-
ber of them are already being used successfully today.
R&D priorities of the Industry Sector include the IT-based inte-
gration of product planning and production processes into
product lifecycle management. The objective is to accelerate
processes at each point of the value-added chain with the aim
of reducing the time to market by as much as %. The further
development of automation technology, including, in particu-
lar software, is of crucial importance in this respect. In addi-
tion, the Industry Sector is striving to achieve greater energy
efficiency, lower consumption of raw materials, and lower
emissions. The same goals are pursued in connection with the
development of high-performance lighting solutions – for ex-
ample with light-emitting diodes – building control systems or
transportation systems featuring energy-saving drives and of
our “complete mobility” approach which aims to integrate
various transportation systems in order to bring people and
goods to their destination more efficiently, more rapidly, and
more comfortably.
Our R&D activities in the Energy Sector are focused on devel-
oping methods for the efficient generation, transmission, and
distribution of electrical energy. In this regard, the conversion
of existing power grids to smart grids, in particular, is expected
to play a major role. Intelligent grids are not only the prerequi-
site for sustainable energy systems but also for achieving an
optimal integration of increasingly large amounts of renewable
energies and future electric vehicles into the energy mix. An-
other area of research addressed by the Energy Sector involves
optimized solutions for solar thermal power plants. Other focal
points include floating wind power turbines on high seas, in-
novative technologies for the low-loss transmission of electric-
ity, the use of new materials for turbine blades to enhance
power plant efficiency, and technologies for separating carbon
dioxide – a greenhouse gas – from the fuel gas produced at
fossil fuel-fired power plants.
The reversal of the age pyramid, together with growing popu-
lation figures, is leading to increasing demand for efficient
healthcare, which offers people the best possible care at an
affordable price. Accordingly, the R&D activities of the Health-
care Sector focus particularly on innovations that assist cus-
tomers in meeting this challenge. This primarily involves the
combination of various imaging methods – which provide in-
creasingly detailed and faster three-dimensional insights into
the body of a patient, while subjecting him or her to less dis-
comfort – with modern therapeutic measures, diagnostics, and
information technology to create vastly improved, coordinated
workflows. In response to market demands, product innova-
tions that automate clinical work processes and optimize labo-
ratory diagnostics are also a priority for the Healthcare Sector.
As a result of the information provided by the various diagnos-
tic methods, doctors are in a position to better identify diseases
earlier. They are also able to tailor therapies more closely to a
patient’s needs by monitoring the effect of medication more
accurately and exploiting the evaluation and analytical capa-
bilities of modern computer technology. The Sector is also in-
volved in the targeted development of products that meet the
specific requirements of healthcare systems of emerging coun-
tries, which enables us to assist in developing primary medical
care in these countries.
Supply chain management
In fiscal , we had launched a Supply Chain Management
Initiative with the objective of working with our suppliers to
establish a leading global procurement network, promote the
development of technologies, and accelerate innovation cy-
cles. In fiscal , this initiative was transferred into a new
and permanent organization for supply chain management
within Siemens, having already generated substantial and
sustainable savings for Siemens. Supply chain management at
Siemens aims to ensure the availability and quality of the ma-
terials we require to serve our customers. This can only be
achieved by means of a globally balanced, localized and close-
knit network with our supply base and a very close link and
strategic alignment with the Siemens businesses.
A cornerstone of our new organization for supply chain man-
agement is the global and centralized responsibility for all in-
direct materials, as well as all Siemens-wide managed direct
materials. This approach constitutes a major step towards one
of the key objectives of the former initiative, to significantly
increase the share of Siemens-wide managed materials, in or-
der to leverage bundling effects across Siemens more effec-
tively.
The second central component of our Supply Chain Manage-
ment Initiative was global value sourcing, which entails the
development of a competitive global supply network and joint
product development and innovations with our key suppliers
as well as an increased share of sourcing in developing mar-
kets (global value sourcing countries), in order to achieve a