CeMAT Update: In a further sign of the accelerating convergence of manufacturing and logistics sectors, the world’s two leading industry events are to be merged
CeMAT, the world-leading trade fair for intralogistics and supply chain management, is to be co-located with Hannover Messe every two years, starting in 2018.
Featuring about 1,000 exhibitors from around the world, CeMAT is the international market flagship of a fast-growing industry which in 2015 produced €20 billion worth of equipment in Germany alone.
The main drivers of this growth are eCommerce and integrated production – two trends that are placing enormous pressure on intralogistics systems, forcing them to become more intelligent, networked, flexible, transparent, fast and efficient.
In eCommerce, product orders tend to be small and highly individualized. In manufacturing, this is matched by growing demand for individualization in the form of one-off production. In both cases, customers want rapid turnaround and lower prices.
Meeting these expectations calls for new Industry 4.0-style solutions and the close, intelligent integration of production and logistics.
Dr Andreas Gruchow, the Deutsche Messe managing board member in charge of CeMAT, says: “Intelligent intralogistics is the backbone and enabler of Industry 4.0.
“It therefore ties in very closely with the Industrial Automation and Digital Factory themes covered by Hannover Messe. And that is why we will be running CeMAT alongside Hannover Messe, starting in 2018.
“This will create a truly unique platform for Industry 4.0. The synergies are obvious. Staged conveniently at the same time and place, the two shows will cover Industry 4.0 themes in greater depth and with greater breadth than any other event worldwide.”
Hannover Messe is the world’s foremost trade fair for industrial technology. Boasting some 190,000 attendees – about a third of whom come from outside of Germany – it offers CeMAT exhibitors access to the movers and shakers of the industrial and political world.
CeMAT’s visitors come mainly from manufacturing, retail and logistics-services backgrounds, and its exhibitors are instrumental in the push toward integrated production.
Dr Christoph Beumer, chairman of the CeMAT executive committee and managing director of Beumer Group, says: “Intralogistics has a relevance that extends far beyond warehousing and distribution and into manufacturing and assembly.
“Intralogistics systems very often control value-added services; they stock and unload assembly lines; and they enable manufacturers to pre-sell products before they even make it off the line and into the warehouse.
“Intralogistics makes it possible to process short production runs and one-off production jobs cost-effectively and is therefore integral to Industry 4.0. For these reasons, it makes eminent sense to further expand CeMAT’s sharply defined profile and leverage synergies with Hannover Messe.”
In 2018, CeMAT will be held from 23 to 27 April in Pavilions 32 to 35 and adjacent exhibition halls at the Hannover Exhibition Center.
Sascha Schmel, president of the Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), says: “As a partner and co-promoter of CeMAT, we welcome this development. It is an investment in the future, a move that offers an holistic and systematic focus on Industry 4.0 as a point of convergence between multiple technologies. As such, it positions intralogistics themes within the wider context of the themes covered by Hannover Messe.”
