Siemens invests $20 million in new Perth service centre

Siemens has officially opened its new state-of-the-art Perth Service Centre with a special visit from the global head of customer service for Siemens’ industrial businesses, Dr Thomas Moser, who says this heralds a new era for high-tech service.

“Industries such as mining and oil and gas that have made significant capital investments are now challenged with falling resource prices. At the same time the world is entering a new industrial era enabled by digitalisation. Now, more than ever, it’s critical for companies to embrace high-tech service to produce more at lower costs and avoid downtime that can cause losses and negatively impact company share prices. That’s why Siemens is pleased to be making this $20 million investment in WA,” said Dr Moser.

“It’s about being competitive to secure your place in the global supply chain. Through modern technology and services, companies can achieve operational efficiencies, extend the life of their assets, optimise performance, reduce energy consumption and protect investments. Remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, simulation and cloud-based asset management are just some of the new technologies and practices that operators can utilise.”

The Perth Service Centre is the third new Siemens Service Centre in Australia in less than two years — after Tonsley (South Australia) and Rockhampton (Queensland). Cutting-edge technology and equipment, along with specialist engineering support, will ensure key WA industries increase productivity and operational efficiencies, and significantly minimise downtimes.

“Operational phases represent about 95% of the lifecycle costs — compared to just 5% or less in the capital investment phase, so high-tech service becomes critical to drive increased overall equipment effectiveness while reducing these operational costs. For example, in Turkey’s state-run Tüpras refinery, Siemens succeeded in reducing the downtime of 1500 motors by a staggering 83%,” said Dr Moser.

The WA Department of Mines and Petroleum notes the value of resource projects under construction or in the committed stage is estimated at $171 billion and a further $110 billion is planned for the coming years. According to Jeff Connolly, CEO of Siemens in Australia, the timing of the opening perfectly supports critical projects as they transition into operations such as Chevron’s Gorgon where the first LNG production is expected within the next few weeks.

“As the main motors and drives contractor for important infrastructure projects including some of WA’s biggest LNG projects, we take a long-term view of the market and understand the importance of being there to support our customers over the operational life of the project as well,” said Connolly. “Rapid developments in digitalisation mean that the future of service equates to the future of competition. Almost every modern piece of equipment now has the ability to capture data — it’s what you do with that data that matters!”