Video Interview with Barbara Humpton, President and CEO of Siemens USA, About the Power of Digital Manufacturing
We caught up with Barbara Humpton, President and CEO of Siemens USA at IMTS 2022 where we discussed unique industry insights from glocalization to unlocking the power of the digital thread. We discussed how the real use case featured at the Siemens booth demonstrates the massive potential of digital manufacturing to transform companies – from startups to multinationals.
Watch or read the full interview here:
Kelly Gallagher:
Hi everyone. I’m Kelly Gallagher and I’m here with Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA. Barbara, it’s so great having you here at IMTS, the largest manufacturing technology show in North America today. You delivered a session and had many conversations with industry leaders. Can you please share a few of the key takeaways of the current state of the manufacturing industry?
Barbara Humpton:
Well, what’s exciting about this moment in history is that we actually are seeing huge investments. And at IMTS, we have investors here for the first time and we also see the government getting behind really building manufacturing in the US. And you can see it all around us here at IMTS, the people who are here to learn about the technology, but also here to learn about how they progress things like digitalization sustainability solutions and how to be more localized than their manufacturing.
Kelly Gallagher:
That is great. Thank you. Thank you.
And so, from startups to large enterprises, what is Siemens doing to help companies, manufacturers, access and take advantage of the digital technologies that you mentioned?
Barbara Humpton:
Yeah, well, you know, we’re working with hundreds of thousands of customers all around the world and a lot of the innovation happens right here in the US. And what we’re doing is helping customers. We’re meeting them where they are. We have some customers who are working on green fields and they’re saying help us retool and actually bring us the digital tools to build new facilities. That’s exciting. But what may be even more exciting is what’s happening in small and medium manufacturing where people are beginning to adopt digital tools and they can start small but ramp up over time.
Kelly Gallagher:
That’s great. Thank you. Very insightful.
And so the broader question, how do you envision the future of manufacturing and really it’s broader impact?
Barbara Humpton
Yes, well, I think we’ve come to appreciate the fact that the virtual world is fantastic, but we need real things and broken supply chains aren’t helping anybody. So what we recognize is it’s a moment for glocalization taking advantage of global innovation, but manufacturing more locally. What I’m looking forward to is seeing how the digital thread, the design tools Siemens can bring to the table, the way we can simulate actual operations before we ever even begin to build new manufacturing capability. But then we bring those digital tools all the way through to the production and then the operation of the items being created, that digital thread, the full circle, all of that connects within these next few years and we’re going to see a real revolution in the way manufacturing is done.
Kelly Gallagher
Well, Barbara, so great having you here at IMTS. And thank you to everyone here watching as well.
Barbara Humpton:
Thank you.
