Introduction

Discover insight from our team of highly experienced specialists as they share what you can expect from Hannover Messe 2022 and the key topics to watch for at the show.

Hannover Messe 2022 is finally a real tradeshow again! It’s been a long wait, but the industrial automation and manufacturing community can finally get back together in person, although it is difficult to assess how the 2022 event will compare to 2019.

In this report, Omdia’s Manufacturing Technology team discusses key topics that we expect to feature strongly at the show.

The shift to greener messaging will be significant, with vendors emphasizing the capabilities of their solutions and technologies in aiding manufacturing companies to minimize their environmental footprint. Alongside the dedicated halls focused on Energy, “green data” will also be a key theme. This outlines how manufacturers can collect, measure and report their sustainability improvements. There will be numerous new and recent releases to look out for, including AWS’ Customer Carbon Footprint tool, and Siemens’ SiGreen supporting the reduction of products’ carbon footprints.

5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominated last the virtual Hannover Messe in 2021 and will continue to do so in 2022. Industrial 5G is still in the early stage of adoption and promises the implementation of the new, and enhancement of existing, applications. To highlight the technology potential there are numerous 5G dedicated sessions in the program, multiple demonstrations, and product and platform presentations hosted by ACIA, Qualcomm, Fraunhofer, Siemens, Ericsson and many others.

Omdia expects a big presence from AWS, Microsoft and Google, as the webscalers reshape traditional business models, and from the likes of Amdocs, which is positioning as a partner for cloudification. Co-opetition will be the name of the game.

Pre-COVID at 2019 Hannover Messe, Edge computing was trending, and this will continue, buoyed by industry partnerships especially between hardware and software companies (e.g. Google and Litmus Automation). The focus on the distribution of compute power throughout the technology stack will see everything from smarter sensors to ruggedized micro data centers exhibited as the ideal location for varying analytics.

With the hiatus in live events for the last couple of years, Omdia expects to see some big announcements around verticalized “clouds for manufacturing” along with the launch of additional applications specifically for manufacturing customers. This will also include developments to support “cloud for sustainability”.

Hannover Messe 2022 – Key Themes

Artificial Intelligence

Equipment and hardware are becoming more connected, and evolving into heterogeneous environments

Industrial Software

Industrial software and digital platforms will feature strongly at this year’s event.

Sustainability

Moving from linear to circular economy requires restructuring of industrial value chains, innovative business models, & significant investment in research/development.

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain and logistic management continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers.