Siemens is to set up an industrial automation manufacturing and R&D base in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

The base will be the German company’s largest digital plant in China and its third R&D centre for its industrial automation business, following ones in Germany and the US. It is scheduled to begin operations in the first half of 2012.

Siemens said the aim of the digital factory is to cover all elements of the production chain − from design and manufacturing to logistics and sales − and integrate the use of IT systems throughout, and thereby halving the time it takes products to reach the market.

The factory will produce high-end PLC (programmable logic controller) serial products, of which 30 per cent will be exported. No investment total was announced.