Siemens acquires LMS to enable closed-loop product development

Siemens has announced it is acquiring LMS International NV of Belgium, a leading provider of test and mechatronic simulation software including model-based systems engineering for the automotive, aerospace and other advanced manufacturing industries. With this acquisition, Siemens claims it will become the first product lifecycle management (PLM) software company to provide a closed-loop, systems-driven product development solution extending all the way to integrated test management.

Siemens says that the integrated solution will increase simulation accuracy, which improves decision making and enhances customers’ ability to design the product right the first time, since the decision-making process is underpinned by a deep and accurate virtual analysis linked to the physical world.

The complexity of today’s products demands a systems-driven approach to product development. A key element of this approach is systems engineering, which requires the merging of the virtual and physical domains for product development. With the acquisition of LMS, Siemens can provide a complete suite of virtual design, simulation and physical performance testing applications intelligently integrating all aspects of the product development process.

“With the acquisition of LMS, we are expanding our portfolio of industry software in an area that is critical for many customers. They will now be able to simulate, test, optimise and produce their products in a unified, consistent data environment. This will make them faster, more efficient, more flexible and more cost-effective,” explains Anton S Huber, CEO of the Industry Automation Division.

“By acquiring LMS we continue to deliver on our goal of providing the full breadth of product development solutions, from the virtual to the physical. This will enhance our core competencies by adding model-based simulation, design, test and measurement capabilities to both the virtual design and physical test process. Integrating the full environment gives our customers the ability to bring together information from the logical model, physical model and functional model to refine and optimise designs and measure results, which transforms decision making in product development. It’s something our customers appreciate today and will even more fully appreciate tomorrow. We are committed to investing both organically and through acquisitions to achieve our vision, which includes providing world-class simulation solutions,” said Chuck Grindstaff, CEO and President of Siemens’ PLM Software Business Unit.

“We will continue to focus on our core strength of test and mechatronic simulation,” said Urbain Vandeurzen, Chairman and CEO of LMS. “In combination with the entire Siemens PLM Software portfolio, we plan to further expand our leading position in the automotive, aerospace and other advanced industries. We are confident that the strong market recognition of LMS’s engineering excellence will continue to be visible and to appeal to customers in all industries.”

The manufacturing industry faces a significant challenge of efficiently developing the right products while mastering the growing complexity of next-generation products. One aspect of this growing complexity is the rapid expansion of products integrating mechanical systems, electronics and software, referred to as mechatronic systems. With the acquisition of LMS, Siemens says it is well positioned to deliver PLM solutions where the mechatronic systems in a new design will simultaneously be optimised.

For more information, visit www.plm.automation.siemens.com.