Siemens Moves to Acquire Camstar

Camstar's website announcing the pending acquisition by Siemens PLM Software.

With a large portfolio of CAD/CAM/CAE software titles, Siemens PLM Software is well-positioned to address manufacturing activities from concept to production. This week, Siemens moves to add a few more titles to its existing offerings by acquiring Camstar, which specializes in manufacturing execution systems (MES).

The private company Camstar is based in North Carolina. It keeps overseas operations in the Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia, and Shanghai.

MES software gives better insight into plant and shop floor activities; therefore, it complements -- and sometimes overlaps with -- PLM (product lifecycle management) or ERP (enterprise resource management). In his article for Industry Week, author Dave Blanchard listed the five benefits of MES as follows:

• Reduce scrap and waste.
• Capture costs more precisely.
• Increase uptime.
• Reduce inventory.
• Reduce fire-drill costs.

The acquisition activities of the big three PLM software vendors in the recent years offer clues to their visions. PTC, one of Siemens' competitors, is betting heavily on Internet of Things (IoT) with the purchases of ThingWorx in December 2013 and Axeda this July. Both are preceded by PTC's 2011 acquisition of MKS, a milestone that gave PTC the ability to offer software lifecycle management solutions to the budding IoT market. Dassault Systemes, another competitor of Siemens, reaches out to the MES market with its recent acquisition of Apriso.

In its announcement of the Camstar acquisition, Chuck Grindstaff, president and CEO of Siemens PLM Software, says, “The addition of the Camstar team and products represents the latest step in Siemens’ focus on delivering industry leading, comprehensive functionality and the deep expertise needed to support our customers’ digital enterprises."

Siemens is an established brand in industrial machinery, medical device, automotive, and aerospace. Camstar serves the medical devices, semiconductor, electronics, industrial, and metal industries. The acquisition of Camstar gives Siemens a way into semiconductor and electronics, where Siemens's product presence is not as widespread.

Siemens's current software offerings include, among others, titles that allow you to simulate manufacturing activities -- for example, Tecnomatix Jack, for simulating and testing human tasks. If MES functions and 3D simulation activities can be successfully integrated, it takes manufacturing simulation to a new level.