Siemens KWU

Summary

Siemens KWU has transformed itself from a company primarily building nuclear power plants to one building fossil-based plants. In doing so it has had to learn to work in an open, global market-place rather than a closed German market, and to build employee awareness of the importance of price issues and continuous improvement within a competitive market-place.

Introduction

Headquartered in Erlangem, Germany, Siemens Power Generation Group (KWU) employs about 27,500 people and reported a turnover of DM 10.6 billion in 1998. KWU is part of the 400,000 employee-strong German headquartered Siemens group of companies, which is present in nearly all the world's countries and operates in fields that include energy, communications, healthcare, transport and lighting.

KWU's major operations are in the design, manufacture and servicing of power generation plants and components. About 80 per cent of the company's work is for fossil-based and hydro plants, with the remaining 20 per cent focused on nuclear plants. This signals a complete percentage turnaround from the end of the 1980s, when the company was primarily concerned with the nuclear market.

This transformation of business priorities was one of the two major catalysts for the company's change programme. The other was that KWU was also having to operate in an open market-place, where German companies could purchase power generation supplies from anywhere in the globe, rather than just from within Germany, and therefore Siemens.

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