3 Key Takeaways From Hannover Messe 2024

Hannover Messe 2024 has officially come to a close, and in many ways this year’s show was the most exciting one yet for the Tulip team.

This year, our team presented interactive demos at our own booth, as well as at the AWS, Microsoft, Litmus, and SDA booths. Our first-ever Tulip booth at Hannover Messe also marked the international debut of our crowd-favorite Pop-Up Factory.

At this Pop-Up Factory Powered by Microsoft Azure, visitors were able to step into the shoes of a frontline worker to assemble their very own word clock (which they got to take home with them). This interactive experience highlighted the power of the Tulip ecosystem of partners — featuring workstations built with Vention, as well as integrations with Banner’s pick-to-light system and LandingAI’s LandingLens.

Another major highlight for us this year was an AWS Theatre session on the value of an open ecosystem presented by Roey Mechrez, Head of Ecosystem and EMEA at Tulip. It was a great opportunity to connect with fellow attendees on how the manufacturing tech landscape is changing, and the ways in which new and legacy players can work together to provide best-in-class solutions.

Hannover Messe week also marked some super exciting announcements for Tulip, from the launch of our new Composable MES App Suite, to the signing of our new Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS, to the debut of our new integration with Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk® Optix™ software.

Overall, our time at Hannover Messe was filled with valuable connections and insights into the latest industry trends and technological innovations. Here are three key takeaways from various team members who were on the ground at the event:

At last year’s Hannover Messe, Tulip was one of the few companies that brought an AI-focused demo. But in 2024, AI was a prevalent theme, with every booth, platform, and product offering some sort of AI story.

This widespread shift reflects the general maturity of LLMs with chat interfaces that are penetrating every aspect of our interaction with enterprise software. The main use case highlighted across the show was around using AI to talk to data.

But for some manufacturers, certain demos didn’t resonate well with their current operational reality. After all, in order for generative AI to be valuable in this use case, the data in question has to be structured. Many organizations are currently working with a lot of disparate, non-structured data. For these manufacturers, reaching the state highlighted in certain demos felt a long way off.

The most successful demos were those that pulled in the necessary context to highlight how workers can leverage real-time insights to save time they may have previously wasted searching for information.

As mentioned above, the Tulip team was represented in five different booths this year. But we weren’t the only ones that took this sort of partner approach. A lot of companies provided demos in each other’s booths across the show floor, including some combinations of organizations that may have previously been seen as competitors.

This level of interconnectedness, particularly when it came to the integrated solutions highlighted in the digital halls at the event, demonstrated that there’s been a clear evolution in how companies are working together. Last year, there was widespread discussion about how an ecosystem of partner solutions needs to happen. Now, we’re seeing a sort of “meta” ecosystem — or an ecosystem of ecosystems across the show floor.

Open, connected ecosystems are something manufacturers will keep talking about, as these types of architectures are foundational to supporting the real evolution of the industry.

As a whole, Hannover Messe has transformed to further emphasize software. Over the years, more and more software vendors have been exhibiting. And this year, there were a lot less automation solutions on display.

In many ways, this change in the show as a whole highlights that industry shift toward augmentation, and the idea of leveraging technology to help the human worker save time — which is ultimately the biggest waste in the manufacturing space.

Attendees had to look no further than the Pop-Up Factory at the Tulip booth to see this trend in action. The interactive experience was met with huge crowds throughout the entire show, and part of its widespread success was that it gave industry leaders the unique opportunity to actually experience what it’s like to be an operator on the frontline. Through leveraging apps to build their own word clock, these attendees were able to see first-hand how technology can empower workers to streamline and improve various processes.

Overall, Hannover Messe 2024 provided valuable insights into the current and future state of the manufacturing industry. As organizations continue to embrace the latest AI innovations and other tech offerings, it’s crucial to remember that no two shop floors are the same, and therefore no one software vendor can solve all operational challenges.

It’s time to build a human-centric tech stack that meets your organization’s unique needs. And Tulip is here to help you do so.