Weilerbach, February 19, 2025 – Proalpha, a leading provider of business applications for mid-sized manufacturing companies, will once again be present at Hannover Messe (March 31 – April 4, 2025). Visitors can find Proalpha at the SmartFactory-KL partner stand in Hall 8 (Booth D18) and the Trovarit stand in Hall 14/15 (Booth A18). This year, Proalpha will showcase practical and innovative use cases of business applications and ERP systems for the industrial mid-market—including artificial intelligence (AI), digital data spaces, digital product passports, and carbon footprint measurement.
The mid-market is undergoing profound transformations: increasing digitalization pressure, growing competition, rising energy costs, and stricter sustainability regulations are pushing companies to adapt. New technologies offer significant potential, but their successful integration requires well-planned implementation strategies and flexible solutions.
“The digitalization of the manufacturing industry starts within the company, extends across upstream and downstream supply chains, and reaches its full potential in efficient production, digital value creation, and new business models—ultimately materializing in federated data spaces such as Manufacturing-X,” says Michael Finkler, Managing Director of Business Development at Proalpha Group.
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"That’s why we are excited to showcase two hands-on, innovative use cases in collaboration with SmartFactory-KL at Hannover Messe, demonstrating the potential of digital data spaces for increasingly autonomous and data-driven production and value creation." Michael Finkler, Managing Director of Business Development, Proalpha Group |
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Factory-X: Practical Insights into Autonomous Manufacturing in Digital Data Spaces
At the SmartFactory-KL stand (Hall 8, Booth D18), Proalpha, in collaboration with research, IT and industry partners, will demonstrate how digital data spaces enable autonomous machine operations as part of the Factory-X research project. This includes automated fault detection and predictive maintenance recommendations.
A remote operator can monitor multiple machines simultaneously without being physically on-site. When a component requires maintenance or replacement, the ERP system provides the necessary information via the data space, enabling efficient planning of service operations and spare part orders. Additionally, the identification, selection and procurement of spare parts are further automated through seamless integration with the data space.
Implementation is made possible by the interoperability of various business applications, which are connected through data spaces using Factory-X connectors (FX ports). From a process perspective, the demonstration includes the automated creation of tickets in the Proalpha ERP system and decision-making on whether service interventions or spare part procurement are necessary. The technical foundation for this is the REST API framework of Proalpha ERP version 9.5.
Transparency and Sustainability with Digital Product Passports and Industrial AI
In another showcase at the SmartFactory-KL stand (Hall 8, Booth D18), Proalpha demonstrates how digital product data and product passports (DPP) are integrated with ERP systems. Digital product passports will soon be legally required in many industries, enabling continuous tracking and updating of product data throughout its entire lifecycle, from production to recycling. They ensure high data integrity and provide different stakeholders along the value chain with tailored insights into a product, such as its carbon footprint, which can be leveraged by other participants.
The ERP system serves both as a data provider and a data consumer: it supplies material information and enables access to product history in case of repairs. To provide production data such as bills of materials or manufacturing steps, the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) can be used to ensure a standardized and interoperable data structure.
The use case, developed in collaboration with SmartFactory-KL, demonstrates how modular product orders and subsequent manufacturing processes leverage collected production data, such as production progress or energy consumption, alongside ERP data, like material information. These combined data sets can then be used, for example, to calculate product carbon footprints.
Proalpha at the Sustainable Supply Forum
How companies can measure and optimize their product carbon footprint across the entire supply chain using Proalpha's Industrial AI Platform will be explained by Pascal Benoit, CEO and co-founder of ENIT, Proalpha's Digital Shopfloor division, in his presentation on April 1 at 10:00 AM in Hall 3 as part of the Sustainable Supply Forum. Additionally, on the same day, from 1:40 PM to 2:20 PM, Michael Finkler will participate in a panel discussion within the forum, addressing the topic: "How Can a Company Become Smart? Challenges and Solutions in the Digitalization Era".
Further details about the Proalpha Group’s presence at this year’s Hannover Messe, appointment scheduling with Proalpha experts on-site, and access to free e-tickets for interested attendees can be found at: www.proalpha.com/de/messe/hmi.
