The five-year agreement is designed to explore and develop a strategic blueprint for engineering of the future and factory of the future capabilities across design and manufacturing disciplines within BAE Systems. This builds on and exploits the recent deployment of Siemens’ NX software for product engineering and Teamcenter software for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software. Edge computing solutions and technology validation have also been successfully used across multiple catapult and technology centres.

Through the agreement, Siemens Digital Industries and BAE Systems commit to working together regionally and internationally in the fields of Sustainability, Industrial Digitalisation, and Supply Chain Modernisation, to develop a framework to accelerate the commercial application benefits to BAE Systems within technology exploitation and adaptation.

The framework for collaboration follows decades of successful partnership between the two companies. This has included the development and delivery of a range of Siemens’ technology, knowledge sharing between engineers and joint showcases of solutions at industry forums.

Siemens and BAE Systems will also continue previous initiatives to innovate and develop new approaches to digital manufacturing supporting the Factory of the Future initiative within BAE systems.

Brian Holliday, managing director at Siemens Digital Industries in the UK and Ireland, said: “This agreement builds on a well-established, successful collaboration between BAE Systems and Siemens, companies which share ambitions to promote manufacturing careers and innovation. Technology is transforming manufacturing at an accelerated pace and we are proud to work with BAE Systems at the leading edge of Industry 4.0 in the UK.

“The partnership is a good example of Siemens’ broader vision for how we want to work with customers via Siemens Xcelerator. which is built on digital portfolio, eco-system thinking and a digital marketplace. The principle is that by working together in a focused way, we can accelerate the time to business and sustainability benefits through technology.”

Iain Minton, technology capability delivery director at BAE Systems, said: “Collaborations like this help us develop and invest in digital thread enabling technologies in a much more integrated and seamless way. Siemens understand the complexities of our operating environment, so we can very quickly mature an idea to the point where it is put into practice, for example when we are looking to implement/optimise new engineering, support or manufacturing capabilities. That’s the real value of this collaboration – the trust and understanding we have built together creates a really powerful force in driving results for the aerospace sector.”

Ben Sheath, vice president and managing director, UK & Ireland, Siemens Digital Industries Software, said: “We are pleased to extend Siemens’ two-decade long relationship with BAE Systems as it continues to deliver on strategic plans to build the factory of the future. We look forward to working alongside the team at BAE Systems as they leverage the power of Industry 4.0 to help achieve the company’s digital transformation goals. This is another great example of how leaders in aerospace are choosing to partner with Siemens and adopt the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio as the foundation of their digital transformation.”

Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organisations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens' software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimise their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today's ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries.