Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft collaborate to boost efficiency, resilience and sustainability in car production

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Oct 12, 2022, 03:30 ET

Mercedes-Benz introduces MO360 Data Platform, connecting passenger car plants to Microsoft Cloud
Vehicle production efficiency expected to improve by 20% by 2025
Logistic teams to solve supply chain bottlenecks much faster
Dynamic allocation of resources to prioritize low-emission and Top-End Luxury vehicles
Production teams can access self-service portal with Microsoft Power BI dashboard from any device
Data analytics tool to monitor and forecast carbon emissions, energy and water usage, waste management

STUTTGART, Germany, and REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft Corp. collaborate to make vehicle production more efficient, resilient and sustainable. With the new MO360 Data Platform, Mercedes-Benz is connecting its around 30 passenger car plants worldwide to the Microsoft Cloud, enhancing transparency and predictability across its digital production and supply chain. The MO360 Data Platform is the evolution of Mercedes-Benz' digital production ecosystem MO360 and allows teams to identify potential supply chain bottlenecks faster and enable a dynamic prioritization of production resources toward electric and Top-End vehicles. This unified data platform is standardized on Microsoft Azure, providing Mercedes-Benz with flexibility and cloud computing power to run artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics at global scale while addressing cybersecurity and compliance standards across regions. The platform is already available to teams in EMEA and will be deployed in the United States and China.

Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft: New MO360 Data Platform makes car production more efficient, resilient and sustainable - (f.l.t.r.) Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Microsoft, Jan Brecht, Chief Information Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, responsible for Production & Supply Chain Management

"This new partnership between Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz will make our global production network more intelligent, sustainable and resilient in an era of increased geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges. The ability to predict and prevent problems in production and logistics will become a key competitive advantage as we go all electric," said Joerg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Production & Supply Chain Management.

"Mercedes-Benz' partnership with Microsoft is a testament to the power of the industrial metaverse," said Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft. "Together, we are merging the physical and digital worlds to accelerate value creation. Mercedes-Benz can simulate and refine manufacturing processes infinitely in the Microsoft Cloud before bringing them to the shop floor to enhance efficiency and minimize its environmental impact amid constant change and uncertainty."

"With the MO360 data platform, we democratize technology and data in manufacturing. As we are moving toward a 100% digital enterprise, data is becoming everyone's business at Mercedes-Benz. Our colleagues on the shop floor have access to production and management-related real-time data. They are able to work with drill-down dashboards and make data-based decisions," said Jan Brecht, Chief Information Officer, Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

Redefine production excellence with a unified data platform

With the MO360 Data Platform, the Stuttgart-based carmaker can create a virtual replica of its vehicle manufacturing process, combining insights from assembly, production planning, shop floor logistics, supply chain and quality management. The virtual simulation and optimization of processes before running them on the shop floor helps accelerate operational efficiency and unlock energy savings. For example, managers can optimize operational patterns to reduce CO2 emissions in production.

Mercedes-Benz is also exploring the integration of the MO360 Data Platform with data sources from other departments to enable a digital feedback loop that will spur continuous learning and innovation across the Group.

The recently opened Mercedes-Benz Digital Factory Campus Berlin is the home base for the MO360 Data Platform engineering teams and will become the MO360 training and qualification center for implementing digital approaches globally.

Increase supply chain resilience and efficiency

With the new centralized data platform, teams can instantly analyze and visualize production data, to faster optimize production processes and identify potential supply chain bottlenecks. This enables a dynamic allocation of operational resources within and across plants to prioritize the manufacturing of low-emission and Top-End Luxury vehicles.

The Mercedes-Benz Operations Logistics team will be able to solve supply chain bottlenecks much faster. They can compare the availability of components, including semiconductors, with production orders and position this data against production parameters including operational running plans. As a result, plant managers can keep the production running and prioritize relevant vehicles even if supply chain challenges occur.

Move at full speed toward an all-electric future

The MO360 Data Platform will make it easier to maintain production of both electric and combustion-engine vehicles on a single production line as the market demand gradually shifts toward an all-electric future.

To tackle shortages in components and prevent delivery delays, the MO360 Data Platform will enable teams to explore a variety of production scenarios depending on the availability of components like semiconductors, based on real-time data about the quality of parts and equipment. This is expected to result in productivity gains of 20% in passenger car production by 2025 and help avoid unplanned downtimes and schedule maintenance work in a timely and CO2-friendly fashion.

Reduce ecological footprint from water and energy use to waste management

As part of the MO360 Data Platform, Mercedes-Benz has implemented an analytics tool to monitor and reduce its ecological footprint during vehicle production, a crucial milestone toward the company's Ambition 2039 initiative to become carbon neutral by 2039. With the data analytics tool, teams can track and forecast carbon emissions, energy and water usage as well as waste management and roll out best practices across the production network. Mercedes-Benz plans to cover more than 70% of its energy needs through renewable sources by 2030 by expanding solar and wind power at its own sites and through Power Purchase Agreements and plans to cut its use of water by 35%¹ through the reuse of water in production.

Democratize data to enhance workforce productivity and distributed teamwork

Mercedes-Benz production staff gets access to the MO360 Data Platform via a self-service portal available on any company device including tablets, smartphones and laptops. Its visualization with Microsoft Power BI provides a what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience, allowing employees to become data workers with the ability to model and correlate data. The Teams Walkie Talkie app provides workers with an instant push-to-talk (PTT) communication on their business phones — no extra device needed.

With the MO360 Data Platform, teams at Factory 56 have shortened their daily shop floor meeting by 30%. In addition, they identify priority tasks to optimize production workflows within two minutes, which took up to four hours prior to the introduction of the platform. From team leads and process engineers to shop and plant managers, employees are encouraged to contribute new use cases to drive process innovation with Microsoft Power Platform.

Working with a global community of internal and external developers, Mercedes-Benz' process software engineers are committed to open collaboration. They use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) including GitHub to improve the quality of the software and the speed of delivery. They benefit from Azure Data Lake, Azure Databricks and Azure Purview to process and govern huge amounts of data and run AI and analytics using their preferred development frameworks. For software deployment and operations, they work with Azure DevOps.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Mercedes-Benz Group at a glance

Mercedes-Benz Group AG is one of the world's most successful automotive companies. With Mercedes-Benz AG, the Group 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, digital services for charging and payment, insurance brokerage, as well as innovative mobility services. The company founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history by inventing the automobile in 1886. As a pioneer of automotive engineering, Mercedes-Benz sees shaping the future of mobility in a safe and sustainable way as both a motivation and obligation. The company's focus therefore remains on innovative and green technologies as well as on safe and superior vehicles that both captivate and inspire. Mercedes-Benz continues to invest systematically in the development of efficient powertrains and sets the course for an all-electric future: The brand with the three-pointed star pursues the goal to go all-electric, where market conditions allow. Shifting from electric-first to electric-only, the world's pre-eminent luxury car company is accelerating toward an emissions-free and software-driven future. The company's efforts are also focused on the intelligent connectivity of its vehicles, autonomous driving and new mobility concepts as Mercedes-Benz regards it as its aspiration and obligation to live up to its responsibility to society and the environment. Mercedes-Benz sells its vehicles and services in nearly every country of the world and has production facilities in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Africa. In addition to Mercedes-Benz, the world's most valuable luxury automotive brand (source: Interbrand study, 20 Oct. 2021), Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-EQ and Mercedes me as well as the brands of Mercedes-Benz Mobility: Mercedes-Benz Bank, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Athlon. The company is listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges (ticker symbol MBG). In 2021, the Group had a workforce of around 172,000 and sold 2.3 million vehicles. Group revenues amounted to €168.0 billion and Group EBIT to €29.1 billion.

Further information on Mercedes-Benz Group is available at group-media.mercedes-benz.com and group.mercedes-benz.com.

¹ In production compared to average 2013/14

Forward-looking statements:

This document contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current views about future events. The words "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "can," "could," "plan," "project," "should" and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties, including an adverse development of global economic conditions, in particular a decline of demand in our most important markets; a deterioration of our refinancing possibilities on the credit and financial markets; events of force majeure including natural disasters, pandemics, acts of terrorism, political unrest, armed conflicts, industrial accidents and their effects on our sales, purchasing, production or financial services activities; changes in currency exchange rates, customs and foreign trade provisions; a shift in consumer preferences towards smaller, lower-margin vehicles; a possible lack of acceptance of our products or services which limits our ability to achieve prices and adequately utilize our production capacities; price increases for fuel, raw materials or energy; disruption of production due to shortages of materials or energy, labour strikes or supplier insolvencies; a decline in resale prices of used vehicles; the effective implementation of cost-reduction and efficiency-optimization measures; the business outlook for companies in which we hold a significant equity interest; the successful implementation of strategic cooperations and joint ventures; changes in laws, regulations and government policies, particularly those relating to vehicle emissions, fuel economy and safety; the resolution of pending governmental investigations or of investigations requested by governments and the outcome of pending or threatened future legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties, some of which are described under the heading "Risk and Opportunity Report" in the current Annual Report or in the current Interim Report. If any of these risks and uncertainties materializes or if the assumptions underlying any of our forward-looking statements prove to be incorrect, the actual results may be materially different from those we express or imply by such statements. We do not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements since they are based solely on the circumstances at the date of publication.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.