Looking beyond - reflections from Hannover Messe 2019

Walking along the streets of Hannover last week it was clear that Spring was very much in the air. Flowers were blooming and the blossom on the trees was bursting through. There was a real sense of things coming back to life after the long, cold Winter months.

There was a similar sense of awakening at the Hannover Messe event. Over 200,000 people gathered to consider the latest technology for the manufacturing industry. It was a real festival of innovation as what we would view as traditional businesses looked to adopt new ideas.

I had the opportunity to spend time with many clients and vendors during the week at Hannover and I noticed 3 recurring themes I wanted to share with you.  

Industrie 4.0 - No longer a question

What is Industry 4.0? What’s it all about? Should I commit my company to a major program of transformation? Why do I need to do this? These were frequent questions in previous years as companies struggled to separate hype from reality, theories from fact. Companies were struggling with things they felt were largely conceptual and were difficult to measure in terms of impact and ROI.   

But not so this year. These questions were rarely asked. It’s no longer a case of “why should I do this”, it’s now “when can I do it”. The fundamental need to address the issues of digitization and transformation are generally accepted and most companies know they need to do it. They also recognize they need to do it sooner rather than later.

There were many examples of the positive impact AI (Augmented Intelligence) can have on manufacturing – from predictive maintenance to improving process quality and even ways to optimize product design and development.

Broadening horizons

The manufacturing industry is a very pragmatic one. The strong engineering background of the industry makes sure of that. Not surprisingly there is little appetite for things that are unproven. Clients want to know where you’ve implemented solutions. They want to know if what you’re proposing is tried, tested and robust.   

Sure, this is nothing new but what I sensed as different this year was a willingness to look beyond the immediate boundaries of the manufacturing industry to find inspiration and ideas. Manufacturing companies realise there is a huge benefit to be gained from the experiences of different industries, to look at how organisations in disparate industries have addressed their business challenges and then think about how to apply that experience to their own situation. It is amazing to see those lightbulb moments where companies who believed they had nothing in common come to realise that they can learn from each other and do so in a non-threatening way.

One very specific example that IBM featured at Hannover was the work of Sandvik. Their transformation of the mining industry through the use of IoT technology and the application of AI was compelling. Sandvik has used the new capabilities made possible by IoT and AI to develop new services for their clients. The same fundamental approach could be applied to other industries, other examples.

Think like a start-up, scale like an enterprise

So, a realization they need to do something and a willingness to consider different approaches and ideas from beyond their immediate industry. And then what? The third theme is a natural extension of the first 2 and comes down to one simple question – “how do I get started?” Again, I observed a change in approach from previous years.

Organisations are impatient to get started but many have learned from the experiences of the past where local decisions led to islands of automation and unconnected projects, unable to deliver a joined-up solution. These attempts to find a solution ended up contributing to the problem they sought to fix.

Today there is a realization that any project, any innovation needs to exist within a larger, broader, enterprise-wide effort. Smaller projects need to operate within the broader strategy and structure of the organization rather than being stand-alone.

The question remains where to start. It need not be the most pressing problem area. It may be the area where you can try out an approach and prove that it works before expanding it to other parts of the business.

Let’s face it, major digital reinvention projects will not be the kind of thing a company will implement across an enterprise over a holiday weekend. There is too much at stake to take this route – delivery timescales can become compromised, supply chains disrupted or profit margins can be impacted. The ecosystem for many companies is too fragile to even contemplate such as move. The approach in Manufacturing will always be much more cautious and much more measured – and so projects will be piloted, proven and then rolled out to other parts of the business. 

So, in a nutshell, there is a clear shift in the manufacturing industry. The need to act is widely accepted. There is a willingness to look beyond industry boundaries for ideas and inspirations. There is a desire, almost an impatience, to get started. 

Hannover Messe continues to be a great meeting place for anyone involved in manufacturing and production. It provides inspiration and innovation in equal measure. After this year’s event there was  no doubt that the manufacturing industry is emerging into a new season of growth.

You can find out more about how Sandvik is changing the mining industry at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW0mL0QaMBQ

You can read other stories of industry transformation at https://www.ibm.com/blogs/industries/