Siemens PLM and Volkswagen AG host Start-up Challenge 2017
Siemens and Volkswagen inspire innovation and share expertise at Start-up Challenge 2017
Siemens PLM Software and Volkswagen AG are hosting Volkswagen Start-up Challenge 2017, which is taking place this week in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany. Over the three-day event, fledgling businesses have the opportunity to work with system experts from Siemens PLM Software and users at Volkswagen Group on current projects, with a view to developing innovative solutions for digitalizing production.
The Volkswagen AG Start-up Challenge is part of the company group’s Digital Factory Conference held on June 27-28th. The Start-up Challenge offers young entrepreneurs the opportunity to spend 24 hours working in cooperation each with Siemens PLM Software system users and Volkswagen users to develop solutions for their respective applications and present them in front of a panel of judges. The experts from Siemens and Volkswagen will then decide whether the solutions presented will be integrated into the Siemens system landscape and subsequently implemented at Volkswagen.
Shared solutions for the future
“Digitalization is a fundamental building block for our factories of the future,” explains Frank Jelich, Head of VW’s “Digital Factory” working group and co-initiator of the Start-up Challenge. “This is why we decided to bring young, creative businesses together with experts from Siemens and Volkswagen. In this way, we aim to jointly develop innovative solutions for digitalizing production.” Volkswagen AG is expecting that the innovative drive brought to the table by young start-up businesses combined with the technological expertise of Siemens PLM Software will provide some very promising approaches and concrete results: “This collaboration will help us develop ways of integrating solutions devised by small companies into an international concern,” says an enthusiastic Jelich.
A win-win for all
For the system experts at Siemens PLM Software, the partnership between Siemens and Volkswagen is definitely a good thing: “We’re delighted at this opportunity to carry out the Start-Up Challenge together with a high-caliber partner like the Volkswagen Group,” says Zvi Feuer, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing Engineering Software at Siemens PLM Software. “Within the scope of our joint project work, the start-ups will be offered an insight into the production challenges at Volkswagen – and at the same time they’ll experience the benefits of PLM solutions for the Digital Factory.”
The article was originally published by Siemens’ Ursula Lang on the Siemens AG blog.
Participants enjoying today’s event
