New manager for Siemens’ Motion Control business

Siemens has announced the appointment of Sarah Black-Smith as general manager of its Motion Control business in the UK.

She takes on the role following a successful stint as head of factory operations at the company’s Congleton factory, where she was responsible for all production, lean operations and the Engineering teams.

Sarah’s career with Siemens spans almost 20 years; in 2004 she joined the company as a young graduate in Lincoln and by 2010 had progressed to manufacturing manager. When a new opportunity was presented to her, she moved to the north west to work as a production manager in Congleton, subsequently becoming head of manufacturing in 2014 and head of factory operations in 2016.

“We are proud to announce Sarah as head of Motion Control, a key business in our holistic offering to industry and manufacturing. She brings immense experience to this role and a manufacturer’s knowledge that will hold her in good stead to work with our customers,” commented Siemens Digital Industries UK & Ireland managing director Brian Holliday.

“Women are certainly making a mark in engineering and we at Siemens are continuously working toward employing females in this sector,” he added. While there are many challenges including gender parity, our strong foundations to mitigate these hurdles will in the long term show the results.”

Sarah holds a BEng in Manufacturing Engineering & Management from Loughborough University and an MSc in Operations Excellence from Cranfield University. In September, she was made Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

Commenting on her appointment, Sarah Black-Smith said: “In my new role as general manager of the Motion Control division I will be responsible for growing the business and increasing our strategic positioning in the UK industry.

“While I’ll be focussed on order intake and revenue, I’m hard wired into manufacturing where safety, sustainability, quality, cost and delivery are top priority,” she added. “These metrics will take me a long way in understanding customers’ requirements.”

Having been responsible for producing more than one million drives and controls per year at the Siemens Congleton factory, Sarah brings understanding of the challenges manufacturers face, including labour shortages and supply chain disruptions, making her well equipped to deal with Siemens’ manufacturing customers.