New President of Siemens A&D Industrial Automation Systems

His predecessor Dr. Horst J. Kayser took charge at the same time of Siemens Ltd. in Korea. Ralf-Michael Franke was previously responsible for the top+ company program “Innovation” in the context of the Siemens Management System.

Ralf-Michael Franke was born in 1958 in Hildesheim, Germany. After studying electrical engineering in Kassel he joined the development staff of Siemens in Erlangen in 1985. After a number of posts in development and manufacturing he took charge in 1999 of coordinating a cross-Division platform development project. In 2003 Ralf-Michael Franke moved to the Siemens Corporate Office top+ and headed the company program “Innovation“.

The A&D Division Industrial Automation Systems offers an integrated range of products and systems for automation solutions in all sectors of the manufacturing and process industry based on Totally Integrated Automation. The core components include Simatic S7 PLCs, the process control system Simatic PCS7, Simatic HMI systems, and Simatic IT manufacturing execution systems. This unique range of products provides our customers with the key to continuous productivity increases.

The Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D), Nuremberg, Germany, is the leading manufacturer in this field worldwide. Products supplied by A&D include standard products for the manufacturing and process industries and for the electrical installation industry as well as system solutions, for example for machine tools, and solutions for whole industries such as the automation of entire automobile factories or chemical plants. Supplementing this range of products and services, A&D also offers software for linking production and management (horizontal and vertical IT integration) and for optimizing production processes. A&D employs 51,800 people worldwide and in fiscal year 2004 (to September 30) earned a Group profit of €1,007 billion on sales of €8.8 billion and orders of €8.98 billion.