Hannover Messe Roundup
From April 25-29, the city of Hannover, Germany, welcomed the industrial and political leaders from across the globe to the world’s largest annual industry fair – the Hannover Messe.
With its keynote theme of “Integrated Industry – Discover Solutions” and the USA as its official Partner Country, the 2016 edition of the world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology reverberated around the world.
This year’s Hannover Messe attracted over 190,000 visitors (up from 175,000 in 2014 as the last event of comparable scope) intent on future-proofing their operations and investing in state-of-the-art technology. More than 50,000 of them came from abroad – an increase of some 25 percent over 2014.
Of particular interest to automotive suppliers, were comments made by European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther Oettinger and Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska.
Commissioner Oettinger highlighted that “Europe has excellent digital assets. Industry in Europe has market leadership in areas such as electronics for automotive, security and energy, in telecom equipment, business software and in laser and sensor technologies. Europe has also world leadership in robotics and industrial automation.”
The Digital Economy Commissioner also explained, “the plan is therefore to step up and coordinate better the large, but fragmented Research, Development and Innovation efforts in key digital technology fields and in their full integration in all sectors of the economy from automotive to health, construction and agrofood.”
While Commissioner Bieńkowska detailed Commission plans for ‘Industry 4.0’ and highlighted the importance of tapping the potential of “Big Data and platforms” to drive economic growth and create jobs.
For Commissioner Oettinger’s speech, please click here.
For Commissioner Bieńkowska’s speech, please click here.
Commissioner Oettinger also visited Schaeffler’s booth at the event and was especially impressed by their “Drive Train 4.0” and “Machine Tool 4.0” technologies. Based on components equipped with sensors and a cloud-based software platform, the completely-networked machine represents a definitive step towards digitalised manufacturing. Only a few days previously, EU Commissioner Oettinger named the “Machine Tool 4.0” as one of the finalists of the German Business Innovation Award.
“The example of Schaeffler shows how successfully the German and European economy is pushing digitalisation forward and putting it into practice”, said Oettinger. “Schaeffler is sending out a clear message to the market with its software products and cloud-based services.”
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