Peter Körte, head of technology and strategy at Siemens, about the 100 million euro investment in the Munich area.
Garching - Siemens is investing 100 million euros in Garching (Munich district). The largest of the group's twelve research locations is to be built here. Technology and strategy boss Peter Körte explains the idea behind it.
Garching is intended to become the most important research location in the Siemens Group. Why did you choose Bavaria and not Silicon Valley in California or Bangalore in India?
It's not about an "or", but rather an "and". In addition to Garching, we have research locations all over the world, including in India and California. 2,000 people work in Siemens research worldwide. But it's true: Garching will become our most important research location.
But why this location of all places?
This is because of the 2,000 Siemens researchers worldwide, around 1,000 are already based in Munich-Neuperlach - and they are now moving to Garching. And you can't simply replace researchers, so we stay in the region. But Neuperlach is a location that is somewhat remote.
And Garching?
In Garching, Siemens opens up to the world. In Garching we are building something that is unique and never seen before in the world. In 2027, over 1,000 Siemens researchers will be working in Garching, and 150 people from the Technical University of Munich will be moving into the building with us. In Garching we are moving away from a spatial concept like in Neuperlach, where you could still do some research undisturbed. We're going into an environment where people work together in a network. This is a novelty in research.
What are the benefits of networking with the TU Munich?
The TU Munich is the best technical university in Germany and one of the best in Europe. A number of start-ups have emerged around the TU, and established companies have already settled on the campus in Garching. For example, the SAP building is right next to us. Collaboration is extremely important, especially in the area of digital research.
What exactly is Siemens currently researching?
At a commercial company like Siemens, research must always result in a concrete product. In Neuperlach, our research focus has been microelectronics since the 1970s, now comes the next step: the industrial metaverse.
Terms like “industrial metaverse” sound very abstract. What does that mean specifically?
An example: If we build a factory for a customer today, this factory will exist twice. On the one hand, in the real world, this is where the machines are, this is where all the processes take place, this is where the material moves back and forth. At the same time, there is a digital image of this factory, where all the processes that take place in reality are mirrored in real time.
What's the point?
The advantage is that we can run through if-then scenarios at any time in the digital factory. We can simulate what happens if, for example, a machine breaks down. Or two years ago we had a situation where there were delivery bottlenecks worldwide. In the digital world, we can immediately check what happens if the factory runs out of parts and adapt our production to this shortage scenario in reality.
It seems almost ironic that personal contact seems to be so important in digital research. Apparently a video conference can hardly replace coffee with neighbors on the Garching campus.
Research, especially digital research, is about trust. You have to know who you are willing to share data with. Therefore the personal component is extremely important. You have to know each other, you have to know that you can rely on each other. Technological development is happening so quickly that it is not possible to contractually secure every small detail in advance.
What are you particularly looking forward to in Garching?
We have a room here called the technical center. For example, there are driverless transport systems that can communicate and interact with each other. We will see such systems more and more often in factories in the future. These systems are already in operation in Garching today.