In early April, more than 200,000 visitors from around the world will come together for Hannover Messe (HM) in Hannover, Germany. This year, Microsoft at Hannover Messe 2019 showcases how customers and partners are leveraging Microsoft technology to deliver an intelligent manufacturing future, today. Intelligent manufacturing needs to encompass the full range of business management decisions that reimagine manufacturing—from production to products-as-a service.
Manufacturers must offer flexible products and services to support a diverse customer base. They must bridge the ongoing skills gap between digitally savvy workers and workers who have valuable long-term production experience. And they must empower their workforce by optimizing digital manufacturing technology, whether it’s on the shop floor or across the supply chain.
At Hannover Messe, attendees can learn how Microsoft customers and partners are innovating by using Microsoft solutions to re-imagine manufacturing, deliver new services, empower their workforce, and optimize digital operations.
Re-imagine manufacturing
Intelligent manufacturing supports organizations involved in everything from smart cities, buildings, homes, and cars to smart agriculture that feeds the world. It’s a fourth industrial revolution. Microsoft’s commitment to invest $5 billion in IoT, is a key enabler of the new wave of innovation among manufacturers and the responsible and sustainable value chains that they influence.
At Hannover Messe 2019, attendees can learn how manufacturers are leveraging Microsoft AI for Good, to deliver responsible and sustainable products and services, and to amplify human capability in the workplace. Microsoft has also recently launched AI Business School as a place to share insights and practical guidance from top executives on how to strategically apply AI in your organization.
Re-imaging manufacturing is more than new technology. It’s the transition from focusing on best products to creating the best customer and social outcomes.
Deliver innovative services
In today’s market full of feature-saturated products and super-competitive prices, manufacturers are exploring ways to generate new business value using digital services to build stronger relationships with customers. At Hannover Messe, Microsoft explores ways for manufacturers to add services to their portfolios, which allows the companies to differentiate their offerings and gain a competitive edge.
For example, by using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Connected Field Service, along with solutions from our partners such as Hitachi Solutions, manufacturers tap into virtual representations of their products to analyze usage and performance. They leverage this information to build digital services—such as predictive maintenance—to expand value to clients.
Empower your workforce
With a growing skills gap in manufacturing, manufacturers must attract the next generation of employees while retaining the experience of people who have been working in factories for decades. Any company’s workforce has to have the skills required to keep up with the ever-changing world of digital manufacturing.
To help equip Firstline Workers to operate, maintain, and succeed in a digitally enabled manufacturing environment, Microsoft Teams provides a single hub for teamwork to communicate in real time, coordinate production, improve operational efficiencies, and transform business processes in the intelligent workplace.
As another example of workforce empowerment, employees benefit from intuitive, immersive, and empowering experiences as they learn to work with digital solutions. Microsoft is in a unique position to help companies tap into employees’ potential by using mixed reality solutions. Devices such as HoloLens 2 along with Dynamics 365 Guides and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist offer virtual ways to help reduce the industry-wide skills gap.
Microsoft partner PTC will also be at the Microsoft booth at Hannover Messe showing how scalable mixed reality solutions from Microsoft and PTC allow Howden customers to prevent the challenges and costs associated with unplanned downtime and better-align overall maintenance strategies—which were previously based only on conjecture and after-the-fact analysis.
Optimize digital operations
The growing need to customize products and services for customers, means agile and responsive end-to-end operations is more essential than ever. And getting the right products and services to the right customer at the right time requires integration of digital factories and intelligent supply chains.
Many complex processes with highly configured products do not lend themselves to automated, high-volume physical production. Manufacturers need to augment operational technology (OT) in their factories of the future with information technologies (IT), which now include, AI, mixed reality, and cloud-based manufacturing solutions as well as training for frontline workers.
Beyond their improvements behind factory walls, manufacturers today can stay connected to every SKU or container truck around the globe—and dynamically manage their operations across the entire supply chain. At Hannover Messe, Microsoft showcases how optimizing the supply chain has unleashed hundreds of millions of dollars of working capital and savings on inventory.
Also, JDA, a leading supply chain partner, showcases their cognitive SaaS solution that senses unexpected events across the entire supply chain, identifies the potential impact of those disruptions, and orchestrates corrective actions.
The opportunity to experience intelligent manufacturing is already a compelling reason to attend Hannover Messe, but there’s more: check out the Microsoft at Hannover Messe 2019 page to consider all the ways you can engage with Microsoft as well as see highlights from the event.
Repost from Microsoft, March 21, 2019
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