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christine_donato
Active Participant

Maybe you remember this Mercedes-AMG cameo appearance in the movie, Transforms Dark of the Moon.

Driven by supermodel and actress, Rosie Huntington Whiteley, this equally attractive speed demon, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, transformed into mechanical giant, Soundwave the Decepticon.

Mercedes AMG, the performance division of Mercedes-Benz, creates some of the most sought-after vehicles in the world.  Each engine is hand built from start to finish with utmost craftsmanship, making the brand a staple for speed and high status.

High Performance. High Quality.

Priding itself for high-performance and gold-standard cars, Mercedes-AMG is careful to test each engine thoroughly. There’s just one problem.  Engine testing is a costly and data-intensive process. And while most engine failures occur within minutes, failed tests cannot be identified until the hour-long process is completed, wasting time and money.

Mercedes-AMG engineering employees expressed their strong desire for real-time data analytics to improve the engine production process, and recently, parent company, Daimler AG, decided to make it happen.

As a trial to determine potential companywide benefits, Mercedes-AMG piloted a real-time quality assurance platform, deployed by SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, that harnessed the Internet of Things and SAP Predictive Analysis software to optimize engine-testing processes when manufacturing its vehicles.

Now, an engine test showing unusual engine behavior can be stopped and ended at any time during the test procedure, and results are sent directly to engineers via tablets for faster resolution.

The Result


With its new system, testing run time on unsuccessful engines is 94% faster than before, and therefore Mercedes-AMG gained the equivalent of an extra day of testing capacity each week. Mercedes-AMG lowered internal costs, and engineers and customers alike are happier because now there is more time to focus on refining engine quality and vehicle customization.

In an interview with Forbes Insights, Dirk Zeller, head of IT Consulting at Mercedes-AMG, explained that this process “leads to more insights faster, as we compare more data and use complex analytics without losing time.”

Continued Growth


In the future, Reinhard Breyer, CIO of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, explained that, “This breakthrough innovation is just the start.  Ultimately we want to monitor engine performance in customer vehicles.”

Watch below for full video interview:

After implementing this new simplified IT system, Mercedes-AMG experienced their most successful year in history, selling over 32,000 automobiles in 2013.

For more information about Mercedes-AMG and the full range of solutions provided by SAP, check out:

Forbes Insights Case Study

Mercedes-AMG Business Transformation Study

Video interview with Reinhard Breyer, CIO, Mercedes-AMG.

For more on IoT, part of the Networked Economy, click here.

To hear more about how real-time analytics can affect your business, click here.


Let’s race.  Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.