The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges around the globe, the likes of which we have never experienced. Our employees, partners and customers are all adjusting to working in new ways, and though this is an incredibly difficult time, it has also brought out the humanity in all of us. We have been amazed by some of the innovative things the Siemens Software community has done in response to this global health crisis.

 

We’ve seen the expedited design and manufacturing of entirely new products.

 

We’ve seen the development of apps that capture and share critical health information in new ways.

 

Companies in our ecosystem have forged partnerships and offered expertise in new industries and applied technologies differently than ever before.

 

It has been nothing short of inspiring to witness and play even a small part in the worldwide effort to adapt and fight against this global threat.

 

In response to the urgent need for ventilators, we’ve seen automotive and aviation leaders including GM, Ford, Virgin Orbit, Israel Aerospace Industries and Vinfast Groupstart to produce them, as well as Dyson, whose teams have started to manufacture ventilators in the United Kingdom. Also in the UK, teams from across Siemens have joined other manufacturers – including Airbus and Rolls Royce – in a consortium torapidly scale-up production of ventilators for the NHS. Seven Formula One racing teams have also come together as part of Project Pitlane to scale production of existing ventilator designs, as well as reverse engineer existing medical devices. Volkswagen and Faurecia have launched a joint effort to manufacture personal protective equipment.

 

Many companies have turned to additive manufacturing to meet demand for new products. Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Boeing are now 3D printing face shields. Siemens opened our Additive Manufacturing Network to medical providers and 3D printing suppliers and 40 different health-care entities, 20 engineering companies and 120 new suppliers have joined the network to help design and print needed parts and supplies. In addition, following the publication of the Medtronic PB560 ventilator bill of materials, the Siemens Digital Industries Software team has converted, analyzed and created the first assembly planning work instructions to help everybody working to create their own ventilator. Some companies are now developing tests and medical devices in weeks instead of months. 

 

Siemens Heathineers has developed a fast track diagnostic that can identify COVID-19 in 3 hours and Bosch developed a COVID-19 rapid test in 6 weeks. Abbott Labs developed and quickly brought to market a molecular point-of-care test for novel coronavirus and Cyient has partnered with Molbio Diagnostics to manufacture COVID-19 testing devices and chips that will help diagnose the disease and enable faster prognosis. And in the Netherlands, the Municipality of Rotterdam used our Mendix low-code application platform to build two COVID-19 apps; one to track the course of the pandemic and another to help the newly unemployed apply for government aid. 

 

It has been heartening to see the community stepping forward to offer expertise, resources and technology to help fight this battle. NVIDIA is bringing GPU, HPC and AI Expertise to the COVID-19 high performance computing consortium which also includes IBM, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, AMD, Google Cloud, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Microsoft. This also includes many in our academic community, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that is developing a $100 open source ventilator.  

 

There are far too many companies who have donated money and medical supplies to list, but we would like to make a special thanks to the government of Longquang (Chengdu, China), our partner in the Chengdu AVEV Engineering Center project, who have donated 100,000 face masks to Siemens for our employees on the front-lines. 

 

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our employees, customers and partners who are playing a role in the fight against this pandemic, especially those who are on the front lines of the crisis. As a reminder, we are offering free access to some of our platforms and online learning memberships – and so far thousands of you have taken advantage of these resources. We also know many of us are working outside of our normal environments, so we are working to expand access to our portfolio to our community. For more information, visit this special website on our response to COVID-19 with up-to-date ideas, offers and details from across Siemens Digital Industries Software. 

 

Stay well – we will get through this – together.

 

Bob Jones,  Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Customer Success 

and Mike Ellow,  Executive Vice President, Mentor EDA, Go-to-Market and Sales, Services & Customer Success