Digitalisation and the greatest industrial show on Earth

Hannover Messe is probably the largest and most important industrial technology show on Earth. 

The venue for the event spans an area the size of a small town and it takes several days to visit all of the most important areas you might be interested in.

Covering an event of that magnitude from a journalistic point of view can be difficult if you’re interested in too many things. 

We may be about robotics and automation but when we think of all the related fields it can be somewhat overwhelming.

The key thing that seems to have emerged about industrial technology over the past couple of years is that everything is becoming software-oriented, with a process the industry calls “digitalisation”.

The process of connecting the machines or hardware to computer networks, using sensors and chips, is still ongoing, but enough has been done to provide huge platforms for software development.

Siemens’ MindSphere and GE Digital’s Predix are good examples of industrial internet platforms which provide developers with great new opportunities to create applications that can make a big difference to an industrial company in many ways.

These include efficiencies in operations as well as new ways to research and develop products.

We usually like to provide extensive coverage which goes from the research and development phase through manufacturing and logistics to the end user experience.

In this regard, our interview with the Bosch IIoT boss, Stefan Hartung, was typical of the style we want to maintain – simple yet thorough explanations of complex subjects.

One of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, Bosch’s activities range from competing in the consumer market to innovating in the industrial market.

But they have more than 380,000 staff, so it’s okay for them. We don’t even have 1,000th of that number, which is why we ask you to subscribe and support us because we need extra staff if we are to make sense of the increasingly complex landscape for our readers.

Having said that, even with our limited number of staff, the impact Robotics and Automation News has had on the coverage of the sector in the wider media is incalculable but massive.