The Hannover Messe 2016 had a clear message: integrated industry has well and truly reached the mainstream. To prove its point, the show featured over 400 application examples of fully digitalised processes for the manufacturing and energy industries.

The last Hannover Messe had a clear message: integrated industry has well and truly reached the mainstream. To prove its point, the show featured over 400 application examples of fully digitalised processes for the manufacturing and energy industries. The fourth industrial revolution, it seems, is well underway. However, to ensure that the factories of the future don’t remain castles in the air, it is necessary to shine a stronger spotlight on the benefits for industry, employees and society in general. And that is precisely what Hannover Messe 2017 will do.

"Integrated Industry – Creating Value" is the official lead theme for Hannover Messe 2017. "Widespread uptake of digitalisation in the manufacturing and energy industries will only happen if integrated technology providers make a strong case for the associated benefits," said Deutsche Messe Managing Board member Dr Jochen Köckler. "Manufacturers and energy companies need to fully understand the direct, long-term benefits they stand to gain from digitalisation. They need to recognise that digitalisation adds value – and not just in terms of new and better machines. Value is also created by the ability that digitalisation gives companies to update or completely reinvent their business models and improve the working lives of individual employees."

With Industrie 4.0, integrated energy, digital twins, predictive maintenance, digital energy, and networked and collaborative robots (cobots), companies of all sizes today have a multitude of high-tech solutions to choose from. But often they find it difficult to predict what value these sorts of solutions might add. Many understandably balk at committing to major capital investments without concrete prospects of measurable benefits. Which is where Hannover Messe 2017 comes in. Next year, the world’s biggest industrial technology show will demonstrate how even companies with limited resources can pinpoint and harness the power of digitalisation. Köckler: "Industrie 4.0 is not about replacing all manufacturing plant all at once; it is a gradual process. For example, companies can begin by fitting sophisticated sensors to existing plant to capture and evaluate data that will help them make improvements to their production processes or develop new business models."

Next year’s Hannover Messe will provide much-needed guidance to visitors from the manufacturing industries who are looking to leverage the benefits of digitalisation for their companies and transform their plants into Industrie 4.0 factories, step by step.