Siemens 2010 Annual Report Download - page 39

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We manufacture the SOMATOM
Spirit – a successful entry-
level CT system – in China, and
about a third of the units never
leave the country. One scanner
is in operation at Jiang County
People’s Hospital in central
China.
Two years ago, Jiang County People’s Hospital,
under the direction of Li Ze Hai, acquired the first
SOMATOM Spirit in its region.
LEADING-EDGE CT TECHNOLOGY DOUBLES
PROFITS
Hospital director Li hasn’t regretted his decision for
a moment: “The SOMATOM Spirit is our pride and
joy. Not only does our hospital have the most ad-
vanced CT scanner in our region; we’ve also dou-
bled our profits.”
Located more than 1,000 kilometers from Shanghai,
Jiang County People’s Hospital serves roughly
300,000 people. Every day, patients arrive for
scans – no appointment necessary. Head radiologist
Dr. Zheng Jie Hua recalls, “Brain scans used to take
ten minutes. Thanks to the SOMATOM Spirit, the
whole process – including patient positioning and
removal – now lasts no more than five minutes.”
, SCANS – AND NOT A SINGLE FAILURE
Dr. Zheng’s colleague and fellow radiologist
Dr. Zhang Yi Qun stresses the CT scanner’s reliabil-
ity, noting, “In the past two years, we haven’t had
a single failure, and we’ve performed some 10,000
scans.” To ensure such outstanding reliability in the
future, Siemens technicians regularly service the
system.
As head of manufacturing at our Shanghai facility,
Yan Xiao Hua is responsible for the efficient produc-
tion of the SOMATOM Spirit. The supply chain man-
agement department has introduced lean produc-
tion at the plant – cutting the time it takes to build
a CT system by 20 percent. A SOMATOM Spirit can
now be manufactured and fully assembled within
two days. Each of the several hundred units pro-
duced each year then undergoes thorough testing
for two more days before being shipped. On site, we
go beyond merely installing the SOMATOM Spirit;
our customer relationship management expert,
Shi Yong Zhen, also provides training to familiarize
customers with the system’s basic operation and
various applications.
SMART STRATEGY FOR THE DIVERSE CHINESE
MARKET
Dr. Kong Jun, now general manager of our CT busi-
ness in China, was appointed head of R&D in 2005,
just as the SOMATOM Spirit was being rolled out.
“The time was right for a product like the SOMATOM
Spirit, a multi-slice scanner for the entry-level mar-
ket segment,” explains Dr. Kong. To meet customer
requirements as fully as possible, the system’s en-
tire value chain – from R&D and production to logis-
tics – was situated in Shanghai.
Today, some 600 SOMATOM Spirits have been in-
stalled in China, primarily in rural areas. In many
respects, including the provision of healthcare, the
contrast between the Chinese countryside and the
modern megacity of Shanghai couldn’t be greater.
“The market in China is very diverse,” explains
Florian Belohlavek, product manager for the
SOMATOM Spirit. “While most hospitals in Beijing
are equipped with high-end systems, the focus in
rural areas is on basic care.” And that’s exactly the
kind of market we’re aiming to serve with our
SMART strategy (see page 43-44).
www.siemens.com/healthcare
Our SMART strategy
in China