Global Supply Chain Management Organization at Siemens in the Advent of Industry 4.0

Introduction

The new version of The Internet of Things is promoted to generate new business models. One of these business models is Industry 4.0, the concept of the digital enterprise, which is promoted by The European Union Horizon 2020 innovation program (CREMA, 2015), by the German government (Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Energie, 2011), by companies such as Siemens (Siemens, 2013) and Bosch (Mc Kinsey, 2013), by consultants such as Mc Kinsey (2013). Key to this approach is supplier integration over all stages of product lifecycle: concept, product design, production development, production execution (Siemens, 2016; Oracle, 2012). The proponents of the Industry 4.0 model, among whom Siemens, tie the emerging industrial paradigm to Product Lifecycle Management software sold by a market Boston Consulting Group claims is formed of Dassault Systems, Siemens, PTC, SAP and Oracle (as cited by Bergsjo, 2009). The Industry 4.0 model uses the Internet of Things and is promoted as disruptive and evolutionary. The emerging business model for manufacturing has implications on supply chain management that we aim to analyze. These implications stem from integrating suppliers across the product lifecycle (Siemens, 2016; Oracle, 2012). It is in this context and on this ground that we analyze the latest trends in supply chain management and the practice of the Product Lifecycle Management software market leader, Siemens, in terms of global supply chain management organization.