At the beginning of February 2018, Dr. Jochen Köckler, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG, announced in his outlook for Hannover Messe 2018: "We are fully booked and all spaces are taken!" The reintegration of Cemat has certainly contributed significantly to this. As a reminder: In 2002, Deutsche Messe announced that the topic of material flow and logistics would be spun off into a separate trade fair that would only take place every three years and then in October.

It makes perfect sense that the intralogistics sector will once again be represented every two years in April under the umbrella of the Hannover Messe - after all, it is just as essential a building block for the realization of flexible manufacturing concepts à la Industry 4.0 as robotics, which has also regained a firm foothold at the world's largest industrial show in recent years. For visitors, this means that from April 23 to 27, they will be able to obtain comprehensive information on the topics of the fourth industrial revolution in one place.

Knowing which strategies, methods and products could be used to implement digitalization or Industry 4.0 is one thing - actually doing it is another! Implementation seems to be particularly difficult for SMEs - at least this is the conclusion of a study published in March by the auditing and consulting firm Ernst & Young, which surveyed around 2,000 companies in Germany. One of the main reasons for this, apart from a lack of financial resources: One in five SMEs now complain that they lack the employees to invest at all or more in digitization - a year ago, the proportion was still 13%.

This finding is backed up by another survey conducted by Bitkom Research among more than 900 companies with over 100 employees. As far as mechanical and plant engineering in particular is concerned, 88% of companies have already strategically anchored digitalization - which, incidentally, is significantly higher than the average for the economy as a whole (74%). Nevertheless, 32% of managers surveyed in this sector complain about a lack of specialist staff. For example, mechanical engineers are currently looking for software developers (33%) and virtual reality designers (17%) much more intensively than other sectors of the economy.

Michael Marbler, Partner at Ernst & Young, fears that this development will reinforce the 'digital two-tier society': on the one hand, there are some successful, mostly larger companies that have long been making bold use of the opportunities offered by digital technologies; on the other hand, there are those who are still waiting in the wings. He therefore warns: "Failure to digitize can quickly take revenge. In the worst-case scenario, it can even jeopardize your existence." His advice: "If there is a lack of money and personnel, these companies must become more creative in order to keep pace with developments. Cooperation with other companies or with a research institution can be sensible alternatives." With around 6,000 exhibitors on site in Hanover next week, there should be plenty of opportunities to make contacts - in line with this year's main theme of the trade fair: Connect & Collaborate!