Ahead of the fair, we also published a new report in collaboration with MIT Technology Review Insights uncovering the current state and ambitions around AI in the manufacturing industry. The report clearly indicates that manufacturers are excited about the potential of AI and plan to make significant investments over the next two to three years to deploy AI at scale to unlock innovation and enhance efficiency.

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Transforming the manufacturing value chain with AI

The Microsoft experience focused on how AI transforms the manufacturing value chain: starting with accelerating product development cycles, improving efficiency in the factory, making operations more sustainable, and finally empowering every employee across business functions with the latest AI tools. These four opportunities manifested as the four distinct neighborhoods in the booth, with demos and customer stories populating each one.

1. Unlock innovation in design and engineering

AI has the potential to unlock a tremendous amount of innovation in design and engineering by allowing manufacturers to simulate and generate new options faster. It can help accelerate development cycles for new products and services as shown by our customers Kuka & Schneider Electric, how manufacturers can accelerate the programming of industrial robots and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, significantly speeding up development times. Siemens, along with customer Harting, showcased how generative AI can be used to speed up the design process of new industrial connectors and revolutionize mass-customization. Additionally, our partners Threedy, PTC, Hexagon, Capgemini, and Ansys showcased how applying technologies from digital twins to mixed reality to the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing accelerates product development cycles.

2. Enable intelligent factories

Making factories smarter is top of mind for manufacturers. In this area of the booth, we showed customers how they can improve quality, resource utilization and accelerate issue resolution in the factory with industrial IoT, data, and AI. Along with our partners Accenture, Avanade, Sight Machine, Rockwell, and AVEVA, we showcased the manufacturing data solutions in Fabric (preview) and the Copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI. These solutions help manufacturers unify their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) data estates in an industry standard data model on Fabric. The Copilot template then uses this unified data to answer questions asked in natural language to help resolve issues on the factory floor. In addition, we showcased solutions from partners such as Tulip, TCS, SymphonyAI, SAP with Syntax, Cognite, Weavix, and Unmanned Life and from customers including Andritz, Chevron, Electrolux, and Ecopetrol that utilize Microsoft Azure IoT Operations, Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), Azure AI, Fabric, and more to enable intelligent factories.

3. Create resilient and sustainable operations

Manufacturing companies are looking to make their supply chain and service operations more resilient and sustainable. In this neighborhood we showed how they can achieve their goals using the power of cloud, AI, and mixed reality. In collaboration with Volvo Penta, we showed how using Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service and Guides improves technician training, service manager workflows, and eventually, delivers better customer outcomes for their marine engines. With Caterpillar, we showcased how their Service Information System built on Azure provides detailed service information for CAT products from 1977 up to today. We also showcased Microsoft Sustainability Manager, which helps organizations to record, report, and reduce their environmental impacts through the power of data and AI. Our partners Blue Yonder, O9, and Tools Group demonstrated the power of cloud and AI to make supply chains more resilient.

4. Enhance employee productivity with AI

AI has the potential to unlock productivity and innovation for employees in all areas of the business. In this area of the booth, we showcased how Microsoft Copilot in products such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Security, Microsoft Power Platform, Fabric, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Windows, and Bing on Surface devices can empower employees across business functions in the manufacturing enterprise to achieve more. We showcased how Microsoft Copilot for Security and Microsoft Defender for IoT empower security teams to protect their OT environments, bringing collaboration to the forefront by reducing knowledge barriers for securing such environments. In the Fabric demo, we showed how manufacturing customers can use the suite of analytics workloads in Fabric, Copilot in Fabric, and direct integration with generative AI models to transform their factory operations.

The BMW Group showcase was the connecting thread between each of the booth neighborhoods. Built in collaboration with Hexagon, NVIDIA, PTC, and Rockwell Automation, business leaders and dignitaries could experience how technology enables cutting-edge transformation through AI-assisted design, connected data, and agile production for organizations like BMW Group. Featured in the exclusive Hannover Messe press tour highlight, which hosted more than 40 international journalists, this demo garnered significant attention for depicting how the integration of technology is changing manufacturing as we know it.

Thought leadership and continued innovation

A space for thought leadership, the Microsoft theater was very busy this year, bringing together C-level leaders, innovators, and business leaders eager to learn about how technology is changing the sector, what their peers are doing, and the importance of diversity within manufacturing. This space connected customers to the experts: creating a unique forum of innovation where solutions to complex industrial problems were revealed, and where ideas were brought to life.

Covering topics from the return on investment (ROI) of 5G factories, to delivering practical insights for how exactly to build your own copilots, the theater sessions delivered valuable insights on the most pressing questions the industry faces today. Here are a few highlights of the theater sessions:

• Celebrating women in manufacturing brought together influential voices of women in manufacturing to explore their career journeys, achievements, challenges, and best leadership practices to inspire the next generation of female talent.
• Industrial transformation with AI: A discussion with Kraft and Schneider Electric shared how cloud, IoT, and mixed reality technologies together with AI are reshaping entire value chains.
• Microsoft partners, including IBM, PwC, Fractal, DXC, Honeywell, and Rescale spoke about how their solutions built with Microsoft technologies can help transform all aspects of manufacturing from design and engineering to the factory floor.
• Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award showcase, in partnership with Roland Berger, celebrated the winners of the fifth annual Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Awards (MIMA), a prestigious award recognizing innovation in digitalizing the manufacturing industry in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The award honors the most promising and innovative digital best practices from the industrial and operations sectors: production, purchasing, supply chain, engineering, and after sales. This year’s MIMA winners were Mercedes Benz, Northvolt, Malvern Paralytical, Wilo, Andritz, and Danfoss.

Learn more about solutions from Microsoft

Finally, we would like to thank our customers and partners who joined us at the booth as exhibitors, along with the thousands of attendees who visited the booth to engage with us and looking forward to Hannover Messe 2025. To learn more about the latest solutions for manufacturing, please visit Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.

The post Microsoft experience at Hannover Messe 2024: Accelerating industrial transformation with AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

To gain top insights on a global scale, Microsoft engaged Economist Impact, the research arm of The Economist Group, to conduct a study, “Scoring Decarbonization Progress.” For Manufacturing, the study focused on the chemical, pharmaceutical, and the semiconductor verticals. This research evaluates the decarbonization trajectories of the verticals and breaks down key decarbonization strategies for firms, including for those beginning their journeys and unsure where to start. Firms that engage in a proactive approach to decarbonization will be able to better align their low-carbon transition plans with their strategic objectives and organizational values and avoid a costly cycle of decarbonization catch-up. In addition, they’ll be able to align early with long-term shifts in policy, tap into regulatory incentives, enjoy positive consumer perception, attract the best and brightest talent, and seize new market opportunities.

As we progress through a critical decade of implementing national and global goals to reach net-zero and mitigate climate change, it is necessary to address the following questions:  

• How is progress toward decarbonization being achieved, and measured? 
• What can be done to accelerate it? 

As part of this study The Economist focused on two manufacturing sectors with both an imperative to transform towards sustainable operations and with a crucial impact on the world economy.  

Scoring Decarbonization Progress

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Advancing sustainability in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries

The chemicals industry is under the spotlight to lead the material transformation the economy needs to achieve its sustainability goals by 2030. The industry needs to maintain this focus while dealing with volatile energy prices, higher costs, and fracturing trading patterns. Chemical companies are looking to technology providers to help them advance their sustainability agenda, and to stabilize their current platforms and capabilities with a focus on near term revenue to fund their portfolio expansion aligned to new materials. 

As the Economist Impact research and pharmaceuticals sub-sectors, emissions are tied largely to the value chain, particularly purchased goods and services. While the figure below demonstrates that there’s a lot of progress to be made, it also means that there’s an enormous upside to implementing solutions that can track complexity across various data sources, and surface insights for action. 

Increasing the uptake of renewable energy and supporting research and development (R&D) of low-carbon feedstocks are key decarbonization levers for chemical manufacturers, collectively among the world’s largest emitters.  

The pharmaceutical sub-sector is currently behind in reducing the emissions from operations, but pilot programs are in progress which indicates that progress is achievable as pilot programs spread more widely. To scale up, pharmaceutical companies also need to scale across their product portfolio which adds to the complexity to manage when scaling. For example, as of right now, green chemistry is being piloted for a small selection of products.   

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are critical players in the healthcare sector, responsible for a small but growing pool of emissions. To address these proactively, manufacturers are piloting green chemistry solutions to decarbonize drug production. They now need to invest in scaling and mainstreaming these solutions to enable operational emissions reductions.  

Learnings from recent sustainability advances made by industry leaders in chemical and pharmaceutical can be used as inspiration by those seeking to achieve sustainability or decarbonization goals. One such example is FLSmidth. FLSmidth wants to be the sustainability leader in the mining and cement industries, and the company is on track to do that with its MissionZero plan for zero emissions and zero waste by 2030. By adopting sophisticated digital sustainability tools, FLSmidth can accelerate its own sustainability journey, deliver innovative solutions to its customers, enable brand new business models, and position the company to dramatically reduce the 10 to 12 percent of global emissions that come from mining and cement.

A second example in this vein is Ingredion. The company’s ambitious All Life 2030 sustainability plan targets emissions, plastics, energy sources, biodiversity, human rights, and more. To help achieve these goals, Ingredion sought a unified solution to replace the varied and highly manual data collection protocols in use at its dozens of global facilities. The company chose to work with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, and initial testing on its United States operations shows that Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability can support Ingredion in making business decisions that help it meet its 2030 targets. 

Decarbonizing supply chain in the semiconductor vertical

The semiconductor vertical is focused on design and mass production of circuit-boards, semiconductors, fiber cables, and other electronics components. The semiconductor industry has been highly susceptible to supply chain disruptions facing both shortages and oversupplies of critical materials at the same time; they are looking at nearshoring and friendshoring strategies coupled with supply chain resilience to mitigate these risks.  

As found in the Economist Impact research, electronics manufacturers, as a sub-sector, are behind the average in developing and implementing decarbonization plans and metrics. This has partly been due to limited emissions reporting from suppliers and lack of regulatory requirements. However this is changing as customer and regulatory expectations increase. Technology solutions that provide visibility throughout the value chain can go a long way to revealing opportunities for electronics firms to meet and exceed the current pace of decarbonization. Microsoft provides technology solutions for this purpose, and for organizations to position themselves as leaders in this space.

One example of leadership is Imec, a Microsoft partner. Their Sustainable Semiconductor Technologies and Systems (SSTS) research program succeeded in bringing together stakeholders of the semiconductor value chain, from large system companies to suppliers. While some companies are already investing in decarbonizing their supply chain and products, committing to be carbon neutral by 2030 or 2040, they typically lack accurate insight into the emissions footprint of chip manufacturing of future technologies as there is limited life cycle analysis data available. To solve this problem, Imec set up the program of which Microsoft is a partner.

A new era of visibility and access to complex industrial data

The research summarized here focuses on one aspect of sustainability: decarbonization. For sustainability all-up, one of the most powerful areas of value we are seeing for manufacturers is in combining Microsoft Sustainability Manager with industrial data. Industrial data is complex, spanning anything from the performance of individual equipment to energy outputs for entire regional systems. This data problem exacerbated by siloed sources and diverse systems. The example of Cognite Data Fusion provides meaningful insights for those planning and implementing sustainability initiatives. The solution makes data consumable by providing a holistic, nuanced view of all existing data, enabling customers to take meaningful action to drive sustainability. The combination of Cognite Data Fusion and Sustainability Manager, enabled by Microsoft Azure, created powerful results.

Get started on your sustainability journey

As the Economist Impact research shows, many manufacturers are just getting started on their sustainability journeys, and those who have are better positioned to experience benefits that can contribute to their bottom-line growth. Microsoft provides solutions for sustainability and is rapidly integrating meticulously engineered offerings that will meet your needs.

With Sustainability Manager, organizations can monitor and manage their environmental impact with unified data that helps enable actionable insights. They can record, report, and reduce their environmental impact more accurately and easily, to better design and improve sustainability solutions that target environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.  

There are two emerging technologies that differentiate Microsoft from our competitors and that will shape the future of the industry, namely: AI, which will further increase automation and new levels of worker productivity, and the industrial metaverse, which will provide a connection between physical (machines), digital (data) resources, and people to reduce costs, increase productivity, drive sustainability, and create resiliency.  

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing is purpose-built to make the most of both these emerging technologies.

Learn more about Microsoft sustainability solutions

• Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability
• Microsoft Sustainability Manager
• Streamline supplier engagement with the new ESG value chain solution  
• Introducing new ESG data and reporting capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability
• Maximize the value of your data with new Microsoft Sustainability Manager Intelligent insights

¹ Economist Impact “Decarbonization Progress Benchmark” research report for Manufacturing Sector, Scoring Decarbonization Progress, also available from economist.com.

The post Accelerate decarbonization in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and semiconductor industries appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

This Ignite, the central topic was AI; how we are creating the most comprehensive cloud infrastructure for AI, how you can fuel solutions with all your data, including the Internet of Things (IoT) data, with Microsoft Fabric, and how Microsoft Copilots are empowering frontline workers with intuitive and conversational prompts to solve for challenges from onboarding to expert technical support.

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Microsoft Ignite product announcements

Data is the key to unlocking the potential of AI for manufacturing. Whether you want to optimize production processes based on data, improve product quality, increase worker safety, or drive new business models, you’ll need a unified data foundation that can feed your AI models and applications. However, building and managing such a data estate can be challenging, especially when your data sources are scattered across different systems, locations, and formats. During Microsoft Ignite we announced key products that will help manufacturers extract and integrate data from operations, leverage it for AI, and feed those AI solutions back to the factory floor to enable frontline workers.

We announced the public preview of Azure IoT Operations. This composable set of Azure Arc-enabled services helps organizations onboard assets, capture insights, and take actions to scale the digital transformation of physical operations. For customers in many industries, this ability to connect the physical world to the digital world is a foundational step in the digital transformation journey, providing access to new, rich sources of data that can help optimize business processes. For more information on the public preview and how organizations like Grupo Bimbo and EcoPetrol are already seeing benefits by using Azure IoT Operations, see the Tech Community post: Accelerating Industrial Transformation with Azure IoT Operations.

We also announced the general availability of Microsoft Fabric, a software as a service (SaaS)-based solution that offers a unified data foundation for analytics and insights, data access and governance, and creative AI experiences with Azure AI Studio integration. With this new solution, manufacturers can unify their data into a single estate, empowering engineering teams and operational leaders with self-service access to data analytics tools to uncover impactful operational insights and leverage data for machine learning and AI-enabled use cases across the value chain, closing the data gap between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT).

For more information on the Microsoft Fabric general availability announcement and how manufacturing organizations like Zeiss are leveraging it, see the post: Prepare your data for AI innovation with Microsoft Fabric—now generally available.

Lastly, we announced the Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, which combines the power of generative AI with mixed reality to help frontline workers complete complex tasks and resolve issues faster with less disruption to the flow of work. The private preview is launching with a limited set of customers and capabilities. Designed to assist workers in industrial settings who deal with complex equipment and processes, mixed reality together with AI presents a human-first interface that promises to transform real-world operations. This copilot can assist industrial workers in real-time with speech and holograms. For more information on the private preview for Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides, its capabilities, and how to prepare for the public preview, see the blog post: Introducing Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, bringing generative AI in mixed reality to frontline workers.

We cover these announcements in our exciting session titled The AI-era of Industrial Transformation, hosted by Kathleen Mitford. This 30-minute session covered how the industrial value chain is being reshaped by AI, cloud, and IoT solutions, and how organizations optimize their operations by extracting insights from information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and engineering technology (ET) data. Manufacturers can use cloud-to-edge technologies to democratize access to this data with copilots and make better decisions, all while empowering frontline workers with mixed-reality applications.

Partner announcements

In Microsoft, we have a rich and robust ecosystem of partners who create products and end-to-end solutions on the leading edge of transformation. I’d like to highlight just a few here who announced offers to advance achieving value throughout the industrial value chain: 

• AVEVA Connect and Microsoft Fabric (announced October 2023). Aveva announced an expansion of its strategic collaboration with Microsoft to further strengthen both companies’ data integration platforms to better prepare customers to incorporate AI in key industries across the world. The agreement will see an even closer synergy between industrial cloud platform AVEVA Connect and data analytics solution Microsoft Fabric, which is currently in public preview. They are designed to streamline the process of collecting, transforming, and unifying data from various sources. 
• Siemens (announced October 25, 2023)—Siemens and Microsoft are deepening their partnership by bringing the benefits of generative AI to industries worldwide. As a first step, the companies are introducing Siemens Industrial Copilot, an AI-powered jointly developed assistant aimed at improving human-machine collaboration in manufacturing. In addition, the launch of the integration between Siemens Teamcenter software for product lifecycle management and Microsoft Teams will further pave the way to enabling the industrial metaverse. It will simplify virtual collaboration of design engineers, frontline workers, and other teams across business functions.
• Rockwell (announced October 26, 2023)—Rockwell and Microsoft announced an extension of their longstanding relationship to accelerate industrial automation design and development through generative AI. The companies are combining technologies to empower the workforce and accelerate time-to-market for customers building industrial automation systems.
• Schneider Electric (announced November 13, 2023) is driving Generative AI productivity and sustainability solutions by integrating Microsoft Azure OpenAI. Building on the foundations of a long-standing collaboration with Microsoft, Schneider Electric is developing solutions that leverage algorithms to generate text, code, and other types of content. This has empowered the company to reimagine its approach to various operational processes, streamlining time-consuming tasks, optimizing resource allocation, and gaining speed and efficiency. At the same time, Schneider Electric continues to apply generative AI to advance innovation in its offer portfolio.
• SymphonyAI’s Industrial LLM (announced November 16, 2023)—Was launched to advance predictive and generative AI capabilities for manufacturers. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, it harnesses the power of Azure services to ensure robust security, data protection, and scalability, addressing essential enterprise needs. Tailored specifically for manufacturing environments, the Industrial LLM from SymphonyAI is built and trained on an extensive, industry-specific dataset that equips the LLM to swiftly generate actionable insights, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and adeptly tackling complex queries.

Advancing your industrial transformation strategy

We are at a unique moment of change and convergence with data and AI becoming more accessible and fundamentally changing our relationship with products, processes, and places. This integration of digital and physical technologies presents a big opportunity to reinvent the entire value chain:

• The vast amount of data and digital feedback loops from both consumers and connected products allows us to use AI-driven product design to deliver on individualized customer needs, enhancing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
• In the factory, continuous monitoring of assets through sensors and data analysis helps workers anticipate maintenance needs to reduce unplanned downtime, enhancing asset reliability.
• AI-optimized supply chains monitor pricing changes from suppliers, dynamically dispatch materials to meet production needs, and prioritize customer shipments based on fulfillment penalties.

Microsoft is collaborating with top manufacturers to help them manage this convergence and optimize their data with our range of AI tools, and we are keen to assist you with your strategy as well. To learn more about these announcements and other key Microsoft Ignite moments review the on-demand sessions.

The post Microsoft Ignite 2023: Innovative technologies to accelerate industrial transformation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Microsoft at Hannover Messe 2023

Our customers and partners joined the Microsoft team of manufacturing experts to showcase co-innovation and demonstrate how we are working together to manufacture a more resilient and sustainable future. During this week-long event, we showcased demos, held customer meetings and innovation workshops, thought leadership panels, social hours, and partnership announcements. Take a look at this brief highlight video.

On this edition, we had 36 demos in our booth, many of them led by our partners and customers, addressing how together we are helping manufacturers achieve their top goals of unlocking innovation, creating resilient supply chains, enabling intelligent factories, and modernizing sales and services.

• Unlock innovation: Engineer new business value using industrial metaverse technologies like AI, mixed reality, digital twins, simulation, and cloud computing, come together to deliver sustainable products and services.
• Create resilient supply chains: Create sustainable, agile, and collaborative supply chains that improve visibility and resilience.
• Enable intelligent factories: Operate the safe, secure, and agile factory of the future today, with information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), industrial Internet of Things (IoT), and AI.
• Modernize digital sales and services: Modernize customer experiences across marketing, sales, and service channels.

From all these demos, there were two overarching topics that captured unprecedented attention from the attendees, AI and the industrial metaverse. We were honored to see several of our partners like Bosch, Siemens, and Sight Machine displaying solution integrations with Azure OpenAI Service, to leverage the power of generative AI for use cases like; programming machines with large language models or analyzing unstructured machine data to generate production reports in seconds. On the supply chain side, we saw how several of our customers like Kraft Heinz leverages AI embedded on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot to proactively mitigate supply chain risk, and how Northvolt could use Dynamics 365 Copilot to perform asset maintenance to ensure all day uptime of their factories to meet their customer demand.

It was also incredible to feel the excitement around the industrial metaverse at the booth, our customers, like e.GO Mobile AG and Kawasaki Heavy Industries demonstrated how they are leveraging Microsoft technologies—like mixed reality and digital twins—to enable frontline workers and optimize factory processes and realize industrial metaverse outcomes.

Accelerate digital transformation with customers and partners

In addition to demos, we met with hundreds of customers during the conference, having discussions on how Microsoft can help them accelerate their digital transformation and achieve business outcomes faster. Microsoft presence at the event garnered an incredible media response, notably several news channel interviews with Marianne Janik, CEO, Microsoft Germany. Microsoft also reinforced at the event its recently announced partnerships with Siemens on Teamcenter and Microsoft Teams integration to leverage AI, and with NVIDIA to connect their Omniverse Platform to Microsoft 365 applications.

In our dedicated gallery space, we hosted several thought leadership sessions covering pressing topics for the industry, like the need to accelerate resiliency in the supply chain, adopting the industrial metaverse as part of your technology roadmap, and opportunities and challenges for women in manufacturing. Session details:

• Supply chain reimagined: Showcased along with Accenture Avanade, practical ways supply chain teams can create co-pilot experiences with AI to improve productivity in partnership with Accenture Avanade.
• Realizing a new era of industrial digitalization: Panel conversation that explored how our customers BMW and WPP are leveraging industrial metaverse technologies today and why they are excited for the possibilities that NVIDIA’s Omniverse on Azure enables.
• Women in manufacturing: Panel conversation formed by executives from Microsoft, SAP, Hexagon, and Avanade, to discuss the opportunities and challenges women in manufacturing face today.

We want to thank all the customers and partners who joined us at the booth as exhibitors, and the thousands of attendees who came by to engage with us.

Learn more

Follow us on social and visit our website to stay informed about Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and learn how you can help manufacture a more resilient and sustainable future. We look forward to seeing you at Hannover Messe 2024 or connecting with you through hybrid or on-demand experiences.

Manufacture a sustainable future

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing delivers capabilities that securely connect people, assets, workflow, and business processes.

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More about Hannover Messe 2023 from the organizers:

Hannover Messe 2023 shows the difference that exhibiting companies can make, the changes they are driving, and the innovations they are developing—on the way to a smart, energy-efficient, and sustainable industry. Hannover Messe 2023’s lead theme, Industrial Transformation—Making the Difference, reflects this. From digitalized manufacturing processes to hydrogen-operated production plants and carbon reduction software, Hannover Messe 2023 paints a complete picture of the technological possibilities for the industry of today and tomorrow.

As the world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology, Hannover Messe picks up on the current trends and provides everyone involved with orientation in times of energy shortages, climate change, and supply chain problems. How do you install intelligent energy management and thus create an environment for CO2-neutral production? What are the latest developments surrounding Industry 4.0 and AI? And how about the mega-topic, hydrogen?

Hannover Messe features all relevant industry topics—at the exhibits, at the forums, and in dialogue with experts from all over the world. From drive and fluid technology to digital platforms and IT security to industrial internet and robotics, the huge variety reflects the manufacturing industry’s broad scope and provides important economic and social impulses every year.

The post Hannover Messe 2023: Microsoft showcases AI and the industrial metaverse in manufacturing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

This year’s conference will take place April 17 to 21, 2023, and feature everything from AI and robotics to batteries and fuel cells. Industry thought leaders will be showcasing their technologies and ideas for the factories and energy systems of the future under the central theme of “Industrial Transformation,” and Microsoft will be showing up in force.

Hannover Messe 2023: Solutions for connectivity and climate neutrality

Taking place April 17 to 21, 2023.

Register here

Engage with Microsoft at Hannover Messe 2023 

Once again, our customers and partners will be joining the Microsoft team of manufacturing experts to showcase co-innovation and demonstrate how we are working together to manufacture a more resilient and sustainable future. While there will be lots of business, process, and technology innovation on display, we’ll be there with lots of pragmatic advice on how to achieve more and optimize your resources with Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.

We invite you to join us, along with our featured customers and partners, to discover how Microsoft can help manufacturers create resilient supply chains, upskill their workforce, modernize sales and service experiences, and operate safe, secure, and intelligent factories—all while delivering more sustainable products and services.

Here are five things to put on your calendar and to-do list: 

1. Register for Hannover Messe 2023 and sign-up to tour the Microsoft booth in Hall 17 Stand G06 where you can book meetings with Microsoft executives and manufacturing experts on hand to discuss how Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing brings together Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform to achieve more and accelerate your manufacturing transformation.
2. Join us at the Microsoft booth in Hall 17 on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, for special speakers from Microsoft, our customers, and partners on topics such as:
   • Microsoft welcome reception on Monday, April 17, 2023, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM CET.
   • Supply Chain Reimagined event in partnership with Accenture and Avanade at the Microsoft Booth on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at 10 AM CET. Learn practical ways supply chain teams can co-pilot with AI to improve productivity.
   • Driving the future of manufacturing with the Industrial Metaverse panel on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, from 1:00 PM to 1:45 PM CET. Join us to hear how customers like BMW and WPP are leveraging industrial metaverse technologies today and why their excited for the possibilities that NVIDIA’s Omniverse on Azure enables.
   • Women in Manufacturing on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM CET. Get inspiration from women making a difference in manufacturing.
3. Learn about the “Oscar for the manufacturing industry,” the Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA), and meet with MIMA 2023 winners at the Microsoft booth.
4. Meet Microsoft co-innovation partners. Addressing the industry’s need for a platform that enables co-innovation and collaboration, our incredible ecosystem of industry partners expands the value of the Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing with additional solutions to address today’s most pressing challenges. Partners showcasing their innovative solutions with us for 2023 include:
   • Avanade | Accenture, AVEVA, Bosch, Cognite, DXC Technology, Ecolab, Honeywell, IBM, PTC, PwC, Rockwell Automation, Sight Machine, Seeq, Siemens, Software AG, Tata Consultancy Services, Threedy, and Tulip.
5. Follow us on social and visit our website to stay informed about Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and learn how you can help manufacture a more resilient and sustainable future.

We look forward to seeing you at the event or connecting with you through hybrid or on-demand experiences.

More about the event from the organizers:

Hannover Messe 2023 focuses on high-tech and innovative solutions for overcoming global industrial challenges. The world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology is the only event where top companies from mechanical and electrical engineering come together with those from the digital and energy sectors to collectively present solutions for a climate-friendly industry.

Hannover Messe 2023 shows the difference that exhibiting companies can make, the changes they are driving, and the innovations they are developing—on the way to a smart, energy-efficient, and sustainable industry. Hannover Messe 2023’s lead theme, Industrial Transformation—Making the Difference, reflects this. From digitalized manufacturing processes to hydrogen-operated production plants and carbon reduction software, Hannover Messe 2023 paints a complete picture of the technological possibilities for the industry of today and tomorrow.

As the world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology, Hannover Messe picks up on the current trends and provides everyone involved with orientation in times of energy shortages, climate change, and supply chain problems. How do you install intelligent energy management and thus create an environment for CO2-neutral production? What are the latest developments surrounding Industry 4.0 and AI? And how about the mega-topic, hydrogen?

Hannover Messe features all relevant industry topics—at the exhibits, at the forums, and in dialogue with experts from all over the world. From drive and fluid technology to digital platforms and IT security to industrial internet and robotics, the huge variety reflects the manufacturing industry’s broad scope and provides important economic and social impulses every year.

The post Hannover Messe 2023: Achieve more with Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Many manufacturers have been on a multi-year transformation journey to a sustainable and responsible operation, which has already yielded energy savings and carbon reduction. To adapt to the current environment, they are looking to their existing technology investments to identify areas where they can quickly optimize costs while maintaining production levels and sustainability commitments, this is where Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing can help.

Navigate disruption with Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing

Build resiliency and sustainability through operational visibility, data integration, and digital collaboration.

Learn more

As a technology provider to the industry and digital transformation partner to manufacturers across the world, Microsoft is committed to supporting the industry navigate this disruption by helping make the most of the manufacturer’s operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) stack to enable faster decisions, empower employees, and optimize costs.

Mainly, we see 3 areas where our capabilities can quickly support manufacturers in this mission:

1. Upskill and onboard the workforce faster 

Quickly onboard employees and help them build skills with effective and easy-to-use communication tools, custom role-based learning paths, and mixed reality capabilities. Leverage Microsoft Teams for frontline workers as a powerful tool to enhance communication and collaborations while increasing operational efficiencies. Microsoft Viva Learning provides a powerful learning platform integrated with Microsoft Teams to quickly train new employees or upskill your current workforce for tasks in other areas. For manufacturers that already have an augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) strategy in place, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist provide an immersive experience to onboard employees and to deploy expert technical skills from anywhere in the world, reducing downtime and associated maintenance costs. In a recent study by Forrester Consulting,¹ Microsoft Teams for frontline workers significantly enhanced supervisory productivity, which in turn returns USD9.1 million worth of working time to time-strapped frontline managers.

Learn how customers are using these capabilities. Read the case study on how Toyota Motor North America is leveraging Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to increase operational efficiency.

2. Gain real-time visibility, optimize operations, and supply chain

With Microsoft Supply Chain Platform which includes, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, manufacturers can accelerate time to market, optimize inventory allocation, improve cost management, increase machine utilization, and reduce downtime. In a study by Forrester Consulting,² manufacturers leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management improved operational efficiency from 2 percent to 3 percent by reducing unplanned machine downtime. To learn more about how to gain value from this solution, read how Coca-Cola Bottling Shqipëria and its partners streamlined daily operations and brought people closer together.

3. Migrate applications to the Cloud and save

Many business applications are still in on-premises environments requiring a heavy focus on your IT department and incurring direct energy consumption costs. By quickly migrating some of these applications to Microsoft Azure, manufacturers can achieve agility, save costs, and increase resilience in the supply chain. Microsoft Azure is an enterprise-ready cloud that is built to power complex industrial operations at a global scale. For example, you can save up to 85 percent compared to pay-as-you-go rates with Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit when migrating Window Server and Microsoft SQL Server to Microsoft Azure.³ To see how your peers are gaining flexibility and agility by moving their workloads to Microsoft Azure, review the Kennametal case study.

A rich ecosystem of specialized partners with optimization solutions

Microsoft understands the daunting challenges the industry is facing and is already helping hundreds of customers navigate these industry disruptions to make the most of their current technology investments. Microsoft has a vast partner ecosystem that leverages our cloud infrastructure and security to unlock more ways to optimize your current resources through assessments, consultations, and quick time-to-value offerings.

Learn more

Sign up to receive updates about Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and reach out to your Microsoft sales representative for expert support.

¹The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Teams For Frontline Worker, Forrester, July 2022 

²The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, August 2021

³Based on Azure pricing as of October 2022. Prices are subject to change. Actual savings may vary based on location, instance type, or usage.

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