Mercedes Benz will make its vehicle production more efficient and sustainable with the help of a new Microsoft data platform.
The German vehicle manufacturer will create MO360 Data Platform, a unified data platform on Microsoft Azure. The new platform will provide the ability to run artificial intelligence (AI) and perform advanced analytics. Mercedes-Benz plans to deploy around 30 car plants to the cloud. With the new data platform, the company plans to improve its production by 20%.
“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.” – said Joerg Burzer, one of the company’s supply chain executives.
The data platform will improve transparency and enhance inventory management across every car factory. This will help the company to resolve its logistical bottlenecks with better prioritization.
Data is everyone business
Burzer added that since Mersedes-Benz wants to become a 100% digital enterprise, data should “become everyone’s business” in the company. Workers, who are building cars on the ground floor, should have access to all the required data in real-time. They should be able to look at live dashboards and make their own data-driven decisions.
One of the key objectives of the company is to avoid potential supply-chain bottlenecks. These congestion points create delays and increase costs. It is essential for businesses to find ways to navigate the bottlenecks and run their supply chain efficiently.
The new centralized data platform allows teams do instantly analyze and visualize their production data. Workers can compare the availability of various components with production orders. Based on this data, they can then plan the operations more efficiently. Meanwhile, plant managers can dynamically allocate operational resources and prioritize projects. All of this improves production processes and helps to identify potential bottlenecks at the early stage.
In pursuit of carbon neutrality
Mercedes-Benz plans to use its new data platform to make better environmental decisions. In fact, the introduction of the new platform is part of the company’s objective to become carbon-neutral by 2039.
The data platform will help to better monitor and forecast the company’s carbon emissions, water and energy use, and improve waste management. With the better data and analytics, the company plans to get 70% of its energy needs from the solar and windy energy sources. The circular use of water is another important environmental step for Mercedes.
The platform is already available in the EMEA Region. The company plans to deploy the data platform in its plants across the United States and China.