Siemens’ Strategic Playbook: Shaping a Sustainable, Software-Defined Industrial Future

 

By: Kathryn Gerardino-Elagio

 

At this year’s Siemens Realize LIVE, International Metalworking News for Asia sat down with Suzanne Kopcha, Vice President of Strategy at Siemens Digital Industries Software, for an exclusive conversation on the future of manufacturing. With sustainability, open ecosystems, and digital transformation dominating the industrial agenda, Kopcha offered a deep strategic lens into how Siemens is not only empowering manufacturers to meet global environmental goals but also redefining what’s possible in the era of Industry 4.0.

From leveraging AI and lifecycle intelligence to driving co-innovation through open partnerships, Kopcha’s insights reveal how Siemens is preparing for 2030 and beyond—where everything from automation to innovation will be software-defined, sustainable, and interconnected.

IMNA:  Siemens emphasises designing sustainability into every phase of a product’s lifecycle. From your strategic perspective, how are customers using Siemens solutions to meet global sustainability goals while still maintaining competitiveness?

Absolutely—this is a timely conversation. Just today, Siemens announced the next phase of our sustainability strategy under the DEGREE framework, led by Judith Wiese, our Managing Board Member for Sustainability.

While sustainability is now a top priority for many, Siemens has embedded it in our digital enterprise and digital twin solutions for over 20 years—enabling efficiency through lightweighting, better manufacturability, and optimised performance.

Customers use tools like NX, generative AI, and our simulation and SaaS platforms to reduce material waste and energy use. Solutions like Tecnomatix support the design of energy-efficient processes, and we’re now even optimising entire manufacturing facilities.

We’ve also partnered with Salesforce to extend these capabilities into service, and our integrated material management helps customers source local materials, reducing emissions. In the process industry, our Enterprise Recipe Management helps make supply chains more sustainable.

Beyond tools, we’re investing in people. Our partnership with ABET helps certify future-ready curricula. One major aerospace company now only hires CAD engineers with the NX credential—a testament to its impact.

Looking ahead, we’ll launch an (Life Cycle Assessment) LCA solution with Makersite in late 2025 through Teamcenter, giving customers visibility into the carbon footprint across a product’s lifecycle—helping them design with sustainability in mind from the start.

IMNA:  How is Siemens shaping its strategic priorities to support manufacturers across diverse sectors in transitioning toward Industry 4.0, especially in markets that are still early in digital transformation?

I’ll speak broadly from a Siemens-level perspective. As a company, we’ve made very public commitments to sustainability—including aggressive targets to become carbon neutral across all our manufacturing facilities globally. We've built in-house capabilities and partnered with industry to define standards for measuring carbon footprints within our operations.

On the software side, we were one of the founding members of the Green Software Foundation, alongside Accenture, Microsoft, and other major tech players. This group works to define sustainability standards for software, which is increasingly important as SaaS and AI workloads grow and data centers consume more energy. We’re now designing our software to minimise compute resource demands—a key consideration as AI use scales up.

So we’re embedding sustainability not only in products we provide to customers, but in our internal operations and technology strategy.

IMNA:  With ecosystems becoming more interconnected, how is Siemens supporting strategic partnerships or open ecosystems to help customers co-innovate and drive faster product development?

To be honest, open ecosystems are at the core of everything we do. In the past, we talked about the three pillars of our strategy: comprehensive digital twin, open ecosystem, and modern/adaptable solutions. Eventually, we stopped labeling “open ecosystem” as a differentiator—because it’s no longer optional. It's a must.

We collaborate with a broad range of partners: IBM, Microsoft, AWS, NVIDIA—you name it. Whether it’s industrial metaverse initiatives or Teamcenter integrations, we work hand-in-hand with our partners. For instance, we’ve recently deepened collaboration with Accenture, who created a dedicated Siemens business unit because of the strength of our partnership.

This co-innovation model is key. With many customers, we form a three-way collaboration: Siemens, the customer, and a partner—all working together to drive innovation. Different industries require different strategic partners, and we structure these relationships accordingly.

Unfortunately, not all players share this mindset. Some of our competitors still maintain closed ecosystems and refuse to provide API access—even when major joint customers are requesting it. That’s not sustainable in today’s world. Customers expect openness and integration, and we fully embrace that.

Within my corporate strategy role, I oversee our portfolio planning, including decisions on what we build, buy, or partner for. We've mapped out domains where we consciously avoid acquisitions—not because we can’t invest, but because our partners are already world-class in those areas. That frees us to focus on building uniquely differentiated capabilities for Siemens.

Open collaboration is baked into our DNA—it’s not just a strategy; it’s how we work every day.

IMNA:  Looking ahead, what strategic trends or disruptions do you believe will redefine industrial digitalisation by 2030—and how is Siemens preparing to lead through those changes?

Two major trends are set to reshape the future: software-defined everything and lifecycle intelligence.

The shift to software-defined systems is transforming automation—moving from rigid black-box hardware to flexible, software-driven solutions. This evolution blurs the lines between PLM, EDA, and software engineering, demanding new approaches to systems design, updates, and lifecycle validation.

I prefer the term “lifecycle intelligence” over simply “AI” because it encompasses data quality, AI, and the industrial metaverse. It’s not just about visuals—it’s about deeply integrated, contextual data enabling smarter, more sustainable decisions across the product lifecycle.

AI won't replace humans, but it will amplify human intelligence. Combined with unified data and automated workflows, it will unlock new levels of productivity and innovation—potentially even solving global challenges.

Siemens has long anticipated this shift. Our acquisition of Mentor Graphics years ago positioned us well, and we’re now doubling down with focused investment strategies in these areas. Expect to hear more soon—what’s coming could be industry-defining.