Eplan Next26 attracts 1,200 industry professionals in Germany

The two-day event had a lot to offer, from inspiring keynote presentations to informative best practice sessions, master classes, live demos and interactive experiences that included a future lab with hands-on demonstrations of application solutions. More than a typical trade show, this year’s Eplan event was a festival experience for everyone involved in shaping the future of engineering. The event opened with a greeting from Sebastian Seitz, Eplan CEO, who stated the goals of the event and encouraged the participants to take advantage of all of the opportunities provided by the various elements of the festival (Figure 1). He pointed out that the goal of the event was to bring together people from around the world to learn about the latest solutions and methods to accelerate and simplify their industrial processes, hear about the latest trends and get ideas on ways to migrate the industry forward.

One of the opening highlights included a preview of the new Eplan Platform 2027, which offers significantly updated functionality. This includes things like updated preplanning capabilities with added automated functions, 3D project generation and new features in the Eplan Electric P8 graphical editor, such as built-in preview. There is also a parts compare function with the capability to handle the data for up to 10 parts, which can be filtered for differences; this can be done while the project is being synchronized with the product database.

Eplan will also include two new key innovations: Eplan Copilot, an AI agent that can empower engineering, and Eplan Smart Sourcing, a new offering for automated, data-based component procurement. Copilot represents a new generation of AI-supported assistance that will fundamentally transform access to engineering knowledge, supporting users as a dependable partner in their day-to-day work. It is designed to serve as a reliable source of information, bringing together engineering expertise and platform functionalities, enabling more efficiency, coherence and decision-making for users. Eplan Copilot addresses the fact that the real challenge is less about generating knowledge than in making that information available at the right time and in the correct context. Copilot will act as an interface layer between people and the Eplan Platform, bringing together knowledge, functions and real-world applications.

Eplan Smart Sourcing provides an intelligent link between electrical engineering and procurement, enabling control cabinet manufacturers and system integrators to accelerate their planning processes. The tool makes it clear early on in the design phase where and how quickly the required parts can be procured, helping designers and distributors to benefit from the closer interconnection between engineering and procurement. Since component availability is a major factor for efficient electrical engineering and manufacturing, knowing suppliers’ stock levels for required parts, or the lead times for those parts, enables them to adjust their planning accordingly. Eplan Smart Sourcing enables engineers to replace critical parts early in the process and create qualified bills of materials in projects, simplifying downstream processes and significantly accelerating both engineering and procurement.

Get your subscription to Control Design’s daily newsletter.

Productive panels and presentations

Among the highlights of the event were the panels and presentations, featuring industry luminaries and experts who provided insights and advice while expressing their opinions. The Connected Industry panel, for example, was an interesting conversation that explored issues in the industry regarding the migration to a more integrated and interoperable industry infrastructure (Figure 2). The consensus was that many things could be improved to streamline and optimize industry processes, with standardization of definitions and communications being paramount to enable easier flow of information between developers and suppliers.

The panels provided insight into how industry leaders see the marketplace and how things are done could be optimized by having more of the players operating from the same set of defined parameters in design and component procurement. This is one of the areas Eplan excels in and will continue to address. The more information standardization exists, the easier it is for those doing business with one another to communicate needs and provide solutions in an accessible, open environment where everyone agrees on part definitions and design language.

There were also several presentations on industry best practices, with subject matter experts from leading organizations showing how they addressed issues in organization, optimization and deployment of next-generation solutions for industrial automation (Figure 3). For example, Andy Lee of Eaton spoke about how the company took its Changzhou factory, the global manufacturing base for medium- and low-voltage assembly products, from a failing facility to a World Economic Forum Lighthouse. In 10 years, the company doubled output and reduced lead times by 39% without increasing the number of workers.

Lee explained how the company established a customer-centric refocus, with an emphasis on bidding, engineering, production, testing and services, and he emphasized that the process was not about deploying new technology, but was really about redesigning the entire engineer-to-order (ETO) value stream. He pointed out that data continuity matters more than tools, and doing things like reducing information handoffs and implementing a first-time-right execution plan can increase production efficiency. There were also a variety of master classes providing direct practical benefits for users on topics such as smart control cabinet design from engineering to manufacturing, efficient engineering automation, automated data processing and workflow optimization.

Eplan Next26 was a very successful event, bringing together the industrial automation community in a new and exciting way to discover, learn and network. The event established itself as a place where the future of industrial automation engineering is being shaped, through vision, practical experience and interaction with fellow members in the industry. From informative and interesting panels and presentations to hands-on learning opportunities and educational exhibits and demonstrations, Eplan Next26 underscored its importance as a major must-see event in the industry.