• Consolidation of group-wide digital and automation activities
• Group Head Hubert Lienhard: “We are systematically developing Voith to be a company that will play a decisive role in shaping the digital transformation in our sectors and markets.”
• The objective is to achieve growth, both with existing customers as well as with new customers and in new markets.

Heidenheim. The Voith Group is picking up speed as it taps into new opportunities for growth in the realm of “Industrie 4.0”. At its meeting yesterday, the Shareholders’ Committee approved the Corporate Management Board’s digital agenda. This agenda includes the establishment of a new Group Division, Voith Digital Solutions. The new unit will consolidate all of the group’s know-how in the field of the digital transformation known as Industrie 4.0. The new unit’s focus will be on the development of new digital business models for sectors that already exist today as well as for completely new sectors which are not yet being served. Dr. Roland Münch, who has been CEO of the Voith Hydro Group Division up until now, will become CEO of the new Group Division. Dr. Münch’s successor as Head of Voith’s hydropower division will be Uwe Wehnhardt.

Expertise related to automation, software, IT, digitization and sensor technology that is currently covered by the Group Divisions Voith Hydro, Paper and Turbo will now be consolidated and refined in the new Group Division, Voith Digital Solutions. In addition, all the Group’s venture and start-up activities in the digital realm will be relocated to Voith Digital Solutions. With its establishment, the division starts with roughly 600 employees and about 250 million euros from existing business. Measures to address the market are set to begin on April 1, 2016.

“With Voith Digital Solutions, we are consolidating our skills in the area of Industrie 4.0 and are thus taking a key step on the path to achieving our objective: We are systematically developing Voith to be a company that will play a decisive role in shaping the digital transformation in our sectors and markets,” says Voith Head Dr. Hubert Lienhard. Voith already provides its customers with digital products and services, Lienhard continues, in order to organize automation and control processes more efficiently, and these will be pooled in the new Group Division: “For example, we are the first provider to be able to achieve complete digital control of paper production; with the help of data analysis, our DIWA SmartNet telemetric systems make it possible for many public transportation operators worldwide to optimize the management of their bus fleets; and our asset management software solutions increase the availability of capital goods, regardless of whether the plants in question are from Voith. Appropriate sensor technology, data collection in real time as well as our data analysis know-how is the key. We will now be expanding these services on a large scale. With the help of our new structure, we will also be in a position to provide our customers in mechanical and plant engineering with entirely new system solutions.”

The establishment of Voith Digital Solutions is the next step in Voith’s digital agenda, developed as part of the group-wide program for success, Voith 150+. The group already set the course for the digital transformation known as Industrie 4.0 in the last fiscal year with its decisions to acquire a share in the robot manufacturer Kuka as well as to sell the Voith Industrial Services division. Further key points in the agenda include planned venture activities in Software, Platforms, Cyber Physics and Industrie 4.0, which could then be integrated into the new unit in the medium term.

“As a leader in technology, we enjoy unique, worldwide industry knowledge in many of our markets, which we will use extensively to harness new digital offerings for our customers. The right application and evaluation of this knowledge, combined with appropriate cyber-physical business models, provides great potential for growth; we are addressing this specifically with Voith Digital Solutions,” explains Dr. Roland Münch, designated CEO of the new Group Division’s Management Board. “With Voith Digital Solutions, we aim to achieve growth with existing customers as well as with new customers in new markets,” Dr. Münch adds.

Voith sets standards in the markets for energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials, transport & automotive. Founded in 1867, Voith employs more than 20,000 people, generates €4.3 billion in sales, operates in over 60 countries around the world and is one of the biggest family owned companies in Europe.*
_{* Excluding the discontinued Group Division Voith Industrial Services.}