In an era of rapid technological advancement and increasing complexity, the manufacturing industry faces unprecedented challenges. Companies worldwide must adapt to market changes while maintaining highly cost-efficient and productive supply chains. To thrive in this dynamic landscape, businesses need innovative strategies and technologies that go beyond isolated efficiency gains.
At SAP, we believe in empowering manufacturers to bring out their best. By connecting processes beyond the silos of individual functions and by converging and contextualizing critical data, we are laying the foundation to leverage cutting-edge technologies like generative and agentic AI. This strategy helps businesses build more sustainable, resilient networks that are adaptive to overcome unforeseen risks and seize bold new opportunities.
This vision will be on full display at Hannover Messe 2025, the world’s leading trade fair for industry, where we will showcase how SAP is revolutionizing manufacturing through the following key areas.
New paths with SAP Business Suite
SAP Business Suite offers a comprehensive solution that transcends traditional ERP systems. By leveraging seamlessly integrated, end-to-end supply chain processes in the cloud, supported by context-rich business data and real-time analysis, artificial intelligence and predictive algorithms, we help companies manage their supply chains efficiently while responding to new requirements with agility.
In an era of mass customization, this agility is crucial for maintaining competitiveness. Transparent access to manufacturing data allows companies to manage their production capacities more flexibly and recover from short-term supply disruptions better. We empower companies to meet new customer requirements promptly and efficiently, reducing costs and shortening time-to-market for new products.
One example is Siemens Energy digitalizing service operations with SAP Field Service Management. This optimization of the entire service order process — from customer demand to spare parts planning and finally technician and tool planning, dispatching, and execution — allows manufacturers to streamline their operations and enhance overall efficiency in a single, unified experience.
Applications that drive excellence
In manufacturing, downtime is costly. That’s why our digital applications play a key role in vertically connecting machines and devices through critical manufacturing data with enterprise processes. By optimizing production processes, reducing downtime, and increasing transparency, we’re turning reactive maintenance into a predictive strategy.
SAP Digital Manufacturing provides manufacturers with the ability to coordinate complex and short-term changes to customer orders on the shop floor across multiple functions, ensuring smooth operations. Our new embedded IoT technology based on our partnership with Cumulocity AG in SAP Asset Performance Management allows operators to monitor asset health with plug-and-play simplicity. Meanwhile, the integration of SAP S/4HANA for product design and sourcing and SAP Integrated Product Development for collaborative product data management is enhancing collaboration with direct material suppliers, orchestrated through the SAP business network.
Real-world success stories, like SMA Solar Technology AG, demonstrate the tangible benefits of our solutions. SMA Solar achieved a 15 percent increase in supply chain workforce productivity, 10 percent improvement in overall supply chain planning costs, and 10 percent lower inventory carrying costs and stock turnover rate using SAP Digital Manufacturing for electronics manufacturing.
The power of data
To enable automation in mass production with individualized requests, companies need real-time integration of operational, sustainability, and business data. SAP provides real-time access to data-driven insights, eliminating delays and silos with instant access to unified data across SAP and non-SAP systems. This enterprise-wide operational alignment connects supply chain data with finance, human resources, and other business areas, streamlining processes and reducing costs.
SAP Business Data Cloud further enhances this capability by providing a comprehensive platform for data management and analytics. Moreover, our AI-powered predictions and insights help improve sustainability by optimizing energy consumption, eliminating waste, and minimizing environmental impact.
Integrating AI for greater efficiency
Companies today need to redefine their business management by integrating automation and AI-driven decision intelligence into their business processes. SAP solutions enhance productivity and efficiency across all business processes, from product development to execution and continuous process improvement.
SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) offers planning analytics, what-if simulations, and real-time information for sustainable and risk-resilient decision-making. The new AI-assisted planning capabilities with SAP’s co-pilot Joule in SAP IBP allow supply chain planners to customize Excel add-in planning views using natural language commands, streamlining daily tasks and strategic decisions.
Joule revolutionizes SAP IBP by introducing intuitive conversational search, navigation, and transactional capabilities. By harnessing natural language processing, it effortlessly interprets user queries and instantly retrieves relevant information, significantly enhancing overall user productivity. This ability allows even highly experienced planners to understand the outcome of complex optimization and machine learning-based planning algorithms revolutionizing their user experience and ultimately increasing user adoption of these advanced AI-based technologies.
In SAP Digital Manufacturing and SAP Asset Performance Management, machine learning-guided visual inspection enables the execution of multiple inspection tasks such as for production and maintenance quality or even automates the process entirely, reducing human errors, improving product quality, and lowering operational costs.
Joule in SAP Integrated Product Development facilitates help-content discovery with conversational access to development documentation, covering idea-to-market processes such as collaboration, formulation, and handover. Users can inquire naturally, access relevant documentation, and receive concise summaries, enhancing efficiency and decision-making.
For the manufacturing industry, SAP Field Service Management with AI provides technicians quick access to equipment service history and key job details, improving diagnostics and first-time fix rates. This increases operational efficiency, reduces downtime, and enhances customer satisfaction.
Lastly, the integration of Joule with SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration allows transportation planners to use simple natural language searches to find order details and reduce manual errors by autonomously cross-referencing multiple data sources.
Join SAP at Hannover Messe 2025
Visit SAP in Hall 15, booth C19 at Hannover Messe 2025 to discover how our modern manufacturing, supply chain, and cloud ERP solutions can help your business, regardless of its size. Experience firsthand how we’re maximizing the impact of technology, running resilient and sustainable supply chains, and unlocking the power of business networks.
Meet our experts and industry-leading partners to learn how manufacturing and supply chain processes in the cloud can help you succeed in an AI-enabled world. Together, let’s bring out your best and shape the future of intelligent, sustainable manufacturing.
Dominik Metzger is president and chief product officer for SAP Supply Chain Management at SAP.
