For the last general session at Realize LIVE Americas for 2025, two customers took to the stage to tell the story of how they are using Siemens’ comprehensive digital twin technology to not only change how their organizations work, but to also introduce adaptability and flexibility into their very different organizations.
First to the stage was Frank Helmke, Head of Product Lifecycle Management at BSH Home Appliances Group (“BSH”), who told the audience about BSH's implementation of Siemens’ digital twin technology across their product development and manufacturing processes.
Global standardization vs regional flexibility
BSH’s significant challenges were the growing complexity of its home appliance manufacturing process and being able to compete effectively in a global market, while respecting local and regional requirements. Helmke explained that with over 1,000 product variants and constant market variations, the company struggled to maintain efficiency across multiple product lines and global factories. The horizontal complexity of their global manufacturing ecosystem also made it difficult to standardize processes while maintaining local manufacturing flexibility. This challenge was compounded by intense competitive pressure from at least 10 global brands, which demanded faster time-to-market and continuous improvement in product development. To resolve these challenges, BSH has moved to a single solution, based on Siemens Xcelerator.
Frank Helmke, Head of Product Lifecycle Management at BSH Home Appliances Group, tells the audience of the challenge of a global company that desires standardization while needing to maintain regional flexibility.
To address these issues, BSH implemented a digital twin strategy using Siemens technologies to avoid data silos and ensure consistent information flow. This approach has helped NSH to standardize processes across 9,000 users, reduce customization and create a more agile product development ecosystem. By leveraging tools like Teamcenter, Designcenter, Xpedition and Mendix, BSH has transformed its traditional manufacturing model into a more data-driven, efficient operation that can quickly adapt to market changes and technological advances. BSH is also using Mendix low-code platform to add capabilities it needs to Teamcenter without mass customization, and to provide a bridge to greater use of AI agents.
Bringing flexibility and adaptability to defense acquisition and sustainment
Next to the stage was Robert Stukes, Chief Logistician at Naval Sea Systems Command, who took the audience through the challenges that his organization faces and its work to overcome them with the help of Siemens Xcelerator. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is the U.S. Navy's largest systems engineering and acquisition command, responsible for the design, development, delivery, and sustainment of the Navy's fleet of ships, submarines and marine systems. Stukes described how NAVSEA manages a complex portfolio that spans from initial concept development to decades-long system sustainment.
Robert Stukes, Chief Logistician at Naval Sea Systems Command, who took the audience through the challenges that his organization faces and its work to overcome them.
As he explained, “Our focus is on acquisition and lifecycle management, which encompasses not just the products, but the entire ecosystem - including training, operations and long-term sustainment. This means we're managing complex programs that can take 15 years to develop and then sustain for 30 to 50 years afterward. Our challenge is to collaborate across multiple acquisition streams, ensuring we can integrate weapon systems and platform capabilities while maintaining flexibility and technological adaptability.”
The push to bring greater adaptability into its processes is founded on a cutting-edge model-based acquisition approach based on Siemens’ Designcenter and Teamcenter software. This allows NAVSEA to foster greater collaboration and efficiency and to reimagine how defense technologies are created, focusing on increasing operational readiness, reducing development time and maintaining technological superiority.
As Stukes explained, “There are times when we have an urgent operational need where we might want to take some risk, insert some technology, much sooner. That's our challenge, to get to speed without sacrificing capability, user experience, safety, pieces, and data, while we give people flexibility to go fast.”
An unsurpassed learning opportunity
One of the most valuable resources available at Realize LIVE are the 450+ sessions and 50 hands-on training workshops. The range of these sessions is as wide as it is deep, from customers sharing knowledge and best practices with their peers, to roadmap sessions that give customers insight into what’s coming in their toolsets of choice and elsewhere.
Realize LIVE events present a huge range of learning and certification opportunities.
Realize LIVE also offers a wide spectrum of hands-on training sessions and certification opportunities – whether users want to formalize their knowledge of Designcenter NX or Solid Edge, gain an understanding of advanced technologies for lifecycle management or to dip a toe into tools they may have not explored before.
The Design Hack winners are crowned
Siemens’ Future Workforce team brought its Sustainability Design Hack to a close. After an outstanding effort by the five teams over the past 48 hours, the participants from Wayne State were chosen as the winners both for their different approach to the challenge and for the unique final design that set them apart from their competitors.
After an outstanding effort by the five teams taking part in the Sustainability Design Hack over the past 48 hours, the Wayne State team won out for their different approach to the challenge and a final design that set them apart from their competitors.
Where next for Realize LIVE?
The next stop for our community events is Realize LIVE Europe, held next month, June 30th to July 2nd in Amsterdam; then for the first time, we are bringing Realize LIVE Asia Pacific to India, to be held August 5th to 6th in Bengaluru.
For attendees at this week’s event, the content will be available to watch on demand in the coming weeks, enabling them to catch up on any of the 400+ sessions they might have missed. Siemens is incredibly proud of the work that goes into its Realize LIVE event and much of that is driven by the amazing group of customers, experts, partners, sponsors, leaders and pioneers that show up, share their knowledge, best practice and expertise to help build our thriving community.
Realize LIVE Americas for 2025 promised to be the place “Where digital transformation gets real. Fast” and a record 2,500+ attendees experienced this firsthand. They visited the show-floor that brought more customer stories, direct access to subject matter experts and partners, got to deep dive into the product roadmaps and learned best practices from the Siemens’ team and their peers. Realize LIVE Americas has demonstrated Siemens’ vision of how digital transformation is enabling our customers to adapt to using the world’s growing complexity as a competitive advantage.
