Mercedes-Benz, one of the leading global suppliers of premium and luxury cars and vans work in partnership with Microsoft Corp. a leading developer of personal-computer software systems and applications to make vehicle production more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. With the new MO360 Data Platform, Mercedes-Benz is associating its over 30 passenger car plants globally to the Microsoft Cloud, increasing transparency and predictability throughout its supply chain and digital production.
The MO360 Data Platform is the expansion of Mercedes-Benz’s digital production environment MO360 and facilitates teams to distinguish potential supply chain bottlenecks faster and allow a dynamic prioritization of production resources toward top-end and electric vehicles.
This cohesive data platform is regulated on Microsoft Azure, offering Mercedes-Benz suppleness and cloud computing power to operate artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics internationally while focusing on cybersecurity and compliance standards throughout regions. The platform is already accessible to teams in EMEA and will be positioned in the United States and China.
Joerg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Production and Supply Chain Management stated that this new partnership between Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz would make their global production network more intelligent, sustainable, and resilient in an era of increased macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. The ability to predict and prevent problems in production and logistics will become a key competitive advantage as we go all-electric.
Mercedes Benz’s collaboration with Microsoft is a testimony to the power of the industrial metaverse said Microsoft’s Judson Althoff, EVP, and Chief Commercial Officer. Collectively the company is combining the physical and digital realms to fast-track value creation.
Althoff added that Mercedes-Benz can simulate and refine manufacturing processes infinitely in the Microsoft Cloud before bringing them to the retail space to enhance effectiveness and minimize its ecological influence amid continuous transformation and ambiguity.
With the MO360 data platform, the company democratizes technology and data in manufacturing. As the company is moving toward a one-hundred percent digital enterprise, data is turning out to be everyone’s business at Mercedes-Benz, said Jan Brecht, Chief Information Officer, Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
Brecht added that their co-workers in the retail space have access to production and management-associated real-time information. They can work with drill-down dashboards and make data-based decisions.
Redefine production brilliance with an integrated data platform
With the MO360 Data Platform, the Stuttgart-based carmaker can build a virtual replica of its vehicle manufacturing process, combining insights from production planning, assembly, supply chain, quality management, and shop floor logistics.
The virtual simulation and optimization of procedures before operating them on the shop floor help step up operational effectiveness and unlock energy reserves. For example, administrators can optimize operational arrangements to reduce CO2 emissions in production.
The newly opened Mercedes-Benz Digital Factory Campus in Berlin is the home base for the MO360 Data Platform engineering teams and will develop into the MO360 training and qualification center for executing digital methodologies worldwide.
Enhance supply chain resilience and efficiency
With the novel centralized data platform, teams can instantaneously analyze and visualize production data, to optimize production procedures and identify probable supply chain bottlenecks more rapidly.
This facilitates a dynamic allocation of operational resources in the interior and through factories to prioritize manufacturing top-end luxury and low-emission vehicles.
Accelerate toward an all-electric future
The MO360 Data Platform will make it simpler to retain production of both combustion-engine and electric vehicles on a single production line as the market demand steadily moves toward an all-electric future.
This is anticipated to result in productivity advances of 20% in passenger car production by 2025 and assist avert unforeseen downtimes and scheduling maintenance work in a judicious and CO2- friendly approach.
The lower environmental trajectory from water and energy usage to waste management
As part of the MO360 Data platform, Mercedes-Benz has applied an analytics tool to examine and lessen its ecological footprint during vehicle production, a critical breakthrough toward the business’s ambition 2039 initiative to become carbon neutral by 2039.
With the data analytics tool, teams can track and estimate carbon emissions, waste management, energy, and water usage, and initiate best practices throughout the production system. Mercedes-Benz intends to cover over 70% of its energy requirements out of renewable sources by 2030 by increasing solar and wind power at its sites and through Power Purchase Agreements and plans to cut its use of water by 35% through the recycling of water in production.
About Microsoft
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Mercedes-Benz Group
Mercedes-Benz Group AG is one of the globe’s most successful automotive companies. Mercedes is one of the leading global suppliers of premium and luxury cars and vans. Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG offers financing, leasing, car subscription and car rental, fleet management, insurance brokerage, and digital services for charging and payment including innovative mobility services. The founders, Gottlieb Daimler, and Carl Benz made a record by creating the automobile in 1886.
The company’s efforts are also centered on the intelligent connectivity of its automobiles, autonomous driving, and novel mobility concepts as Mercedes-Benz considers it as its objective and commitment to live up to its responsibility to society and the ecosystem. Mercedes-Benz offers its vehicles and services in almost every country of the globe and has production facilities in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and Latin America. Mercedes is listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges. In 2021, the Group had a workforce of about 172,000 and sold 2.3 million vehicles. Group revenues represent EUR 168.0 billion and Group EBIT EUR 29.1 billion.