Industry Under Pressure: How SAP and Uhlmann Are Strengthening Value Creation Resilience

SAP and Uhlmann announced an integrated approach that embeds digital production environments, open data ecosystems and SAP Business AI directly into operational processes.

The announcement was made at HANOVER MESSE 2026, where they showcased PacXplorer, a high-tech packaging machine from Uhlmann that serves as both an industrial demonstrator and a development platform.

Developed through collaboration within Factory‑X, the PacXplorer brings together digital twins, condition monitoring, smart services and interoperable production solutions within a collaborative data ecosystem. Factory‑X is a lighthouse project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as part of the Manufacturing‑X initiative. Its objective is to establish a decentralized data space for the capital goods industry, enabling secure and interoperable data exchange across companies and industries for equipment manufacturers and operators alike.

The machine is integrated into SAP system landscapes and operated live. It demonstrates how industrial data can be used in a sovereign, interoperable and cross‑company manner not as a theoretical model, but in real production operations. This creates transparency regarding asset condition, utilization and performance while laying the foundation for new data‑driven services.

The value of this approach becomes particularly clear in-service operations. Where production, data and operations are tightly interconnected, service plays a decisive role in ensuring asset availability, productivity and stable customer relationships. One often underestimated lever is spare parts service: delays lead directly to downtime and economic losses, especially in volatile market and supply situations. At the same time, these processes remain heavily manual in many industrial companies.

SAP and Uhlmann are deliberately advancing the further development of this area. An AI‑supported process assists throughout the entire workflow from handling incoming inquiries and clarifying missing information to identifying the correct spare part and generating quotations. The approach integrates into existing SAP service and sales processes and is closely aligned with real‑world business operations. The objective is fast, reliable and scalable customer service.

“Today, industry is less concerned with cost optimization than with decision‑making under uncertainty,” says Dominik Metzger, President and Chief Product Officer, SAP Supply Chain Management, SAP SE. “With SAP Business AI and integrated production and service solutions, we move decision‑making directly into business processes. This allows companies to identify risks early, respond with greater flexibility and remain operational even under unstable conditions.”

The collaboration between SAP and Uhlmann illustrates a fundamental shift in industry: resilience is not achieved through additional buffers, but through better, faster and more-connected decisions across the entire value chain. Companies that manage their production and service processes in a data‑driven way can respond more flexibly to change and secure their competitiveness over the long term.

Beyond HANNOVER MESSE, SAP and Uhlmann will continue their innovation partnership. Following the event, the PacXplorer will be operated at the S.Factory in SAP Experience Center Walldorf, serving as a platform for customers, partners and co‑innovation to continuously advancing industrial transformation.

Source: SAP and Uhlmann media announcement