Digital Factory in Hall 7 was again the ICT hub at HANNOVER MESSE. The huge importance of IT as a driver of industrial innovations was reflected in the broad range of solutions on display, including PLM, ERP, MES and CAx. The key themes of the event were fully canvassed both in trade meetings and in the debates on strategy issues on all aspects of Industry 4.0. The industry associations VDMA (German Engineering Federation), ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers'’ Association) and BITKOM (German Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommuni- cations and New Media) have created an agency specifically for this purpose, which they launched at the fair. Exhibitor firms provided impressive examples of the integration of real and digital business environments across every facet of the "Integrated Industry" keynote theme and debated the specific challenges involved in maintaining the data flow from product design, production scheduling and production through to the service phase.
A special highlight of Digital Factory was the first CAE forum dedicated to the topic of numerical simulation. Presentations by representatives of industry and academia addressed topics like "IT Services" and "Quality Assurance in Virtual Product Design".
Profile of Digital Factory