Siemens Exiderdome meets Boston harbor — Brrr

I spent much of the last two days with Siemens Energy and Automation — part of the
Siemens division that now houses Siemens PLM. Siemens brought its exiderdome to
Boston for the week, inviting customers, prospects and analysts to tour what is, in essence,
a barge full of displays of Siemens products. It was interesting, and I have to give credit to
the demo people who tried to interest a bunch of software analysts in gears, motion control
systems and other factory automation products. A couple of quick thoughts as I thaw out:

– It’s got to be good to be part of a EU40 billion company. Lavish would be a good word for
how the exiderdome felt and how we were treated back on dry land.

– Siemens PLM sometimes feels (to me, at least) like a very tiny tail on a very large dog. It’s
clearly a good idea to integrate product design with production design, but the company has
yet to discuss customer examples or provide proof points.

– Siemens (the corporation) is in its quiet period ahead of announcing full-(fiscal) year results
next month, but Helmuth Ludwig (President, Siemens PLM) did provide a few nuggets to
show how that the division is making good progress: revenue in this little bucket is up 13%,
another up 28%, etc. But until the company elects to provide more concrete, comprehensive
revenue information, competitors will keep taking shots and claiming superior performance.

– The Thursday afternoon track included a presentation by an early adopter of Solid Edge
with Synchronous Technology. Ken Tardif of Hardigg Industries described how his users
(many used to 2D) are learning 3D modeling and a new product all at once. Hardigg has had
SE for about six weeks and Ken reports that users are slowly moving from resistance to
grudging agreement that this change may be a good thing — but Ken himself seems
convinced that the only change his team has of managing their workload is to model in 3D,
use ST to deal with customer designs coming from a variety of CAD packages, and
eventually provide some input to the company’s production group.

– The PLM track on Thursday afternoon covered SE/ST; the partnership announced a while
back with Invention Machine; the extension of Tecnomatix’ Unicam products into the
Siemens product line for manufacturing planning and monitoring for printed circuit boards and
electronics boxes; and the emergence of mechatronics as a critical design and service
element (think software upgrades for all the chips in your car). Notably missing was any
discussion of high-end products: NX, TeamCenter, Tecnomatix. Interesting but incomplete.

– The exiderdome itself is very (forgive me) cool. It’s basically 55 containers (each 40 ft long
and 12 ft high) that sit atop a barge — maybe four containers wide by three high. We entered
straight from the pier, up a gangway, across a bit of deck and into the structure atop the
barge. The exhibits are arranged in what appeared to be double-wide containers. It was a bit
like seeing a series of displays on buses. [Remember the old days, when SGI and
Computervision, among others, had touring Greyhound-sized buses? Same idea. Bigger.] If
you get the chance, GO. Dress warmly, though.