At this year’s Hannover Messe, SAP and its partners showed how they are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in their products to help companies achieve new levels of excellence in manufacturing and other sectors.
The glass bottles on the high-speed filling line made soft tinkling sounds as they sped around the bend in the track. Visitors to the SAP stand at the internationally renowned industrial show waited for the moment when an optical sensor, using AI, spotted the bottle that was only three-quarters full and kicked it off the line and in a fault zone. “This system has a capacity of 6,400 bottles per hour,” said a smiling Ben Hughes of SAP’s Solution & Innovation Experience team. “In comparison, our partner’s original system Crowns can fill 50,000 bottles, but that would be way too noisy here at the trade show stand.
The presentation demonstrated how the cloud-based SAP Digital Manufacturing solution could serve as a process order management system for SAP customers, whether they typically work with a single-part batch or with continuous manufacturing at high speeds. higher. The purchase order could have originated in an SAP S/4HANA system, for example, and ended up here with execution in production. “We can see the hardware integration with our own eyes,” Hughes said.
AI was also involved: a camera captured the filling level of each bottle. If it fell outside the defined tolerance, the bottle was rejected and this information was sent to the SAP system. A manufacturer could use this data to calculate system production costs and the profitability of each work center, all with the support of AI. Data from all systems would give experts and management insight into how the production process works. This in turn would help improve planning.
Comprehensive portfolio from an industry perspective
The Hannover Messe 2024 took place from April 22 to 26. Muhammad Alam made a visit for the first time as head of the SAP Product Engineering Board sector. At the SAP stand, which had the motto “Empowering new manufacturing excellence”, he highlighted the importance of AI as an integral part of SAP solutions: “AI has the potential to fundamentally create significant value for our customers, particularly in the industrial sector. , with an ability to create resilience from a supply chain perspective that simply would not be possible without the application of AI.
SAP presented almost its entire portfolio in an industrial context in Hannover. “SAP uses what we call ‘end-to-end scenarios’ to do this,” said Georg Kube, head of industrial data ecosystems. To reflect this, the stand was designed according to this logic. The “design to operation” graphic, which maps all stages of the manufacturing process, showed the corresponding stage in the value chain at each station of the stand. “We integrate our solutions with the specific processes that manufacturers have,” Kube said. “They design a product, then it is manufactured, then it is purchased by a customer and finally it is used and maintained. We offer integrated solutions for every step of this process.
Working together to succeed
Darcy MacClaren, Global CRO for Digital Supply Chain, recognized the challenges SAP, its customers and partners face: “We face environmental and geopolitical disruption and we want to be sustainable. » She said collaboration is key to achieving these ambitious goals, a message that was echoed in many of the presentations and discussions at the booth.
For example, experts from BMW, Witte Automotiveand SAP explained how the automotive industry network Catena-X creates a standard that enables collaboration, data exchange and transparency to support decarbonization throughout the value chain. Catena-X serves as a model for other industrial networks under the Manufacturing-X umbrella, like Factory-X for factory equipment suppliers and operators.
The presentations at the trade fair stand would not be possible without the partners, who also play a decisive role in the competitiveness and future viability of SAP. “The partner ecosystem is a key success factor for SAP,” said Andreas Markus Thon, Head of MEE Digital Supply Chain. “They enrich our suite with their applications and solutions and are essential to the high quality and successful adoption and use of our solutions. »
A fleet of robots delivers materials
SAP’s “Modular Manufacturing” showcase allowed visitors to see for themselves examples of successful collaboration between partners. It showcased a fleet of autonomous transport robots that delivered various parts for a valve from storage to assembly stations. Thanks to fleet control software with embedded AI from partner SAP Kinexon, robots from different manufacturers worked together seamlessly, making autonomous, situational decisions about which station should assemble or disassemble parts. The scenario demonstrated that SAP systems can also implement modular production, typically used in manufacturing scenarios involving many variants and low to medium product volumes. SAP S/4HANA, SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Digital Manufacturing have been deployed here.
The “Industrial Metaverse” showcase was another big draw. It allowed visitors to the SAP booth to put themselves in the shoes of a system operator, using VR (virtual reality) glasses to virtually inspect a system, even if manufacturing was taking place on the other side of the world. The “Injection Molding Machine” scenario clearly demonstrated how planning and manufacturing come together in integrated, agile, made-to-order production, as the machine produced colorful recycled plastic cups for guests at the end of the process .
Other topics covered at the show included potential uses of digital twin solutions, such as virtual models and real-time simulations, as well as collaboration between people and machines. A summary description of all the scenarios presented is available here.
The largest industrial exhibition in the world
The guiding theme of Hannover Messe 2024 was “Dynamicizing a Sustainable Industry”. Nearly 4,000 exhibitors from 60 countries presented solutions for an efficient and sustainable industry. As part of an industrial ecosystem, they showed how carbon neutrality can be achieved through electrification, digitalization and automation.
Companies from Germany, China, Turkey, the USA, Italy and France have reserved the largest exhibition spaces. Around 1,600 speakers took part on the venue’s 11 conference stages. This year’s partner country was Norway.
Under its motto “Emerging New Manufacturing Excellence,” SAP demonstrated how it uses AI to advance manufacturing processes, among other solutions, at its more than 1,000 square meter booth in Hall 15. Visitors at the SAP stand had the opportunity to view 27 product demonstrations and nine interactive showcases. More than 25 SAP partners demonstrated the collaboration and variety of potential uses of their solutions, and 35 presentations from experts and customers were presented on the stand.
Photo ©nottebrock.
