Siemens here to stay
Technology Dr. instrumentation plant holds open house after $10M in upgrades over several years
Siemens’ unprecedented investment of $7 million in its Peterborough location in 2014 and 2015 and $3 million more in 2016 is significant when it comes to the company’s future in the city, says the factory’s top administrator.
“That means this location is here to stay,” managing director Ian Almond those gathered for a presentation as part of an open house held Thursday afternoon.
That message was echoed by two executives, Dr. Juergen Spitzer – the manufacturer’s Karlsruhe, Germany-based general manager of process instrumentation and Joris Myny, its Oakville-based senior vice-president of process industries and drives division.
“This plant is top of the line. We are really proud,” said Myny, who told those gathered that the 637,331-square-foot facility is “well-armed” to face the challenges of the future. “We are absolutely looking forward to a bright future for this operation.”
“I think Peterborough is doing a good job here and I can only encourage you to carry on,” Spitzer later added. “We’re here to stay here.”
The Germany-headquartered company designs and manufactures sophisticated measurement instruments for process industries including oil and gas, environmental, chemical, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and mining, aggregates and cement.
About 90 per cent of its products are exported – mostly to the United States and secondly to China, Myny said.
The investments have helped the company change its time to market from 11 days to a half day, but the global competition is making the same changes, he said, pointing out the importance of continuing to invest in education for tomorrow’s workers.
The company employs about 2,000 globally, Spitzer said, explaining how Peterborough – which employs about 280 – is integral to Siemens’ worldwide operations. It also has factories in China, France and Germany.
Siemens is growing, having doubled its market share since 2000 in a $9 billion industry. Its market share in 2016 was fourth among process instrumentation vendors, including Emerson, Endress and Yokogawa, he explained.
Further revenue growth will be important to the company’s success, Spitzer added, adding that competitive products and services as key drivers.
During his formal remarks, Mayor Daryl Bennett – who said he is “in awe” of the Technology Drive facility – thanked Siemens for its commitment and the nice things the executives had to say about the city.
About half of the $3 million invested last year went into the building and the other went into manufacturing, Almond said after leading a tour of the factory built in 1954 in which he pointed out where the money was spent.
One is the factory’s new North American distribution centre, which sees some 22,000 unique raw materials coming through the doors each month.
Three times the size of the old centre on the opposite side of the building, the new one is a “game changer,” manager Craig Ferguson told visitors.
It houses about $12 million in inventory in raw materials and finished products, filling massive wooden storage crates that tower from shelving units.
The new centre was needed, Almond added, because the company decided last year to in-source several products, so they would be of greater value. That meant it had to change how it managed materials so that its costs didn’t skyrocket.
While 2017 was about increasing the volume of product movement, 2018 will be about stabilizing that same volume, Ferguson said.
Continuing the tour, Almond pointed to a giant pipe snaking overhead before explaining another investment example – new, modernized air exchange systems that replace the air four to five times per hour in the building.
They allow better monitoring of air quality in the building, where toxic vapours from manufacturing processes must be removed.
On the floor of the sprawling manufacturing floor – the factory has 180,995 feet in net floor space – employees wear different colours, depending on their role. Petrol, burgundy and black represents manufacturing, manufacturing support and technicians, Almond explained.
Encased in glass are new openconcept office areas for manufacturing support workers, who work in combinations of seated and standing work stations. The walls provide splashes of orange and green, to make the environment less stark and factory-centric, Almond said.
The company has provided the same kind of facelift to offices that house its administrative, marketing and management team upstairs, as well as its research and development staff in another part of the building, he said.
In an electronics assembly area, engineer Steve Skinner talked about some of the machines used to create products like the LR560, a radar device use to measure the level of solids. Behind him, the arm of a machine zigs and zags inside a device the size of a smart car.
The production line switches products every five minutes, on average, he said before explaining how investments in technology and training have allows the company to become a single-shift operation, instead of three.
A vast but neatly organized network of wires and tubes extend from above as employees work away at work stations or monitor equipment.
As the tour continued, Almond explained how the epoxy floor is bonded to steel so that static electricity can be discharged right into the floor – even the smallest amount of electricity can be catastrophic to components made here, he said. Even visitors must wear a strip that slips over their sock, attaching to the heel of their shoes, grounding them.
The plant manager also points out where a building inside the building once stood, before it was taken out in late 2016 and early 2017 without interrupting operations – quite the accomplishment, he noted, given how sensitive factory components are to dust.
On the controller flow line, manufacturing project manager Waqas Abullah told visitors about some of the state of the art equipment used by employees – such as a unique soldering machine that can work on several products at the same time.
Manufacturing engineer Mike Messenger told visitors about efforts to make the production lines as lean as possible, as he displayed some of the field instrumentation products from Siemens’ 32 product technology types.
Holding up a product catalogue, he said the company supported about a third of it a year ago – but now supports nearly all of it. The company makes about 40 units a day – or 10,000 year – but hopes, within two months, to get that number up to 50, he said.
Manager John Thomas explained ultrasonic radar level measurement production – including how devices are custom made for different environments, such as being able to see through dust, and are “plug and play” out of the box.
During his remarks, Almond those those gathered that the company’s rapid move towards automation is one of the most exciting parts of the business right now. Implementing the technology is not about eliminating jobs, he stressed. “It’s a way of changing the way we work.”
The company has more ideas than money to spend on them, he joked, adding how it aims to leverage opportunities for government funding and how officials hope hosting the open house will help facilitate that possibility. “We don’t want to stand still.”
Visitors to the open house included representatives from the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce and Fleming College.
NOTES: Siemens Canada is headquarted in Oakville .... The company’s website is at www.siemens.com/ca/en/home.html.