The "Oscars of Manufacturing": Siemens Energy & Inpixon Join the Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA) 2026 Champions Circle
The recognition highlights Siemens Energy’s Nuremberg plant, where Inpixon’s RTLS and askPixi™ AI turned real-time location data into automated, auditable workflows across 16 zones and 1,500 assets. By delivering measurable impact including a 90% reduction in search time and 50% fewer SAP posting deviations, the solution establishes a scalable blueprint for up to 20% throughput growth in complex brownfield ETO environments.
Inpixon today announced that Siemens Energy was selected as a top 15 finalist, with Siemens Energy and Inpixon jointly inducted into the Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA) 2026 Champions Circle, presented by Microsoft in collaboration with Roland Berger. The solution was honored for its outstanding potential to increase efficiency, improve complex business processes, and serve as a digital blueprint across global manufacturing landscapes.
The recognition honors Siemens Energy’s Nuremberg digital transformation initiative which utilizes Inpixon’s askPixi™ location-aware, agentic AI and Inpixon RTLS (real-time location system) to deliver measurable operational impact and a clear path to scaling across sites.
Siemens Energy’s Nuremberg site, an established steam turbine service operation with over a century of industrial heritage, operates in a complex brownfield environment with high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) and engineered-to-order (ETO) workflows. In such settings, execution reliability requires seamless alignment between the physical flow of materials and the digital record. Siemens Energy’s innovative approach ensures this synchronization by transforming real-time location data into event-driven workflow triggers. Instead of manual documentation and coordination across multiple zones and handover points, the solution provides the necessary ground truth in real-time to eliminate search times and optimize material re-staging. This level of synchronization allows teams to maintain a high-velocity flow and ensures that the digital twin accurately reflects the physical shop floor status at any given second.
Siemens Energy’s transformative application of technology and processes resolves operational bottlenecks. By using Inpixon RTLS to identify the real-time location of pallets, turbines and components as well as orders and documentation, the solution can automatically initiate the correct process steps. This location intelligence extends to regulated areas such as customs clearance zones (ECC) and external processing handovers, where seamless SAP integration via Mendix enables a continuous event loop. The resulting automated and auditable postings drastically reduce manual exceptions and ensure that the digital twin accurately reflects the current execution status in real-time.
To move beyond raw data and enable faster, more confident decisions, Siemens Energy integrated Inpixon’s askPixi AI as an intelligent layer on top of the location intelligence infrastructure. While the RTLS provides the essential ground truth of where assets are located, askPixi turns that data into plain-language answers, real-time priorities, and escalation cues.
"By combining Inpixon’s real-time location intelligence with the decision-ready insights of askPixi AI, we are moving beyond traditional tracking toward a new era of adaptive execution," noted Dr. Norman Dziengel, Senior Product Manager & Consultant at Inpixon. "This project proves that even the most complex industrial environments can achieve a new level of flow velocity by providing teams with immediate, actionable intelligence. We are proud to provide the technological foundation for this transformation recognized by MIMA."
In the validated production scope at Siemens Energy Nuremberg, the solution was deployed across 16 defined zones including critical staging, ECC/customs, and handover areas. With approximately 1,500 tracked assets, the integration of location-aware workflows and AI has delivered significant gains in process velocity and reliability:
Up to 20% higher parts throughput: This reflects increased process efficiency in parts handling in the validated scope, despite brownfield constraints and ETO complexity.
Up to 90% Reduction in Search Time: This virtually eliminates non-value-added labor, allowing teams to focus entirely on core execution.
Up to 50% Fewer SAP Posting Deviations: By synchronizing the physical shop floor with the digital core, the solution minimizes manual corrections and ensures high data integrity for downstream planning.
Up to 25% Improved Dwell-Time Stability: Enhanced control over critical zones prevents bottlenecks and ensures a consistent, predictable flow of materials.
Up to 20% Fewer Congestion-Driven Interruptions: Proactive management of floor space and handover points leads to a more stabilized production environment.
Together, these results support faster coordination, fewer exceptions and rework, and stronger audit readiness through traceable event-to-posting workflows and significantly reduce the need for manual rework, directly supporting Siemens Energy’s commitment to high-quality service delivery.
"Selection for the MIMA 2026 Champions Circle confirms our strategy to turn complex environments into high-velocity execution hubs," explained Daniel Weber, IT-Analyst at Siemens Energy. "By bridging the gap between the shop floor and SAP with intelligent, location-aware workflows, we have created a blueprint that sets a new digital standard for global operations."
Siemens Energy and Inpixon team members at the MIMA 2026 project presentation (left to right): Marvin Koch (Inpixon), Dr. Norman Dziengel (Inpixon), Daniel Weber (Siemens Energy), Maurice Lehwald (Siemens Energy), Kai Sonntag (Siemens Energy).
The Nuremberg template represents more than a local optimization; it provides a scalable blueprint for Europe’s high-mix, engineered-to-order manufacturing environments. Eurostat reports EU manufacturing net turnover of €9.9 trillion in 2023. In these environments, traditional static automation often fails due to constant change and restricted brownfield layouts. Inpixon estimates that a €1–2 trillion portion of this manufacturing turnover is associated with HMLV/ETO complexity. By proving that adaptive, location-aware control loops work in the toughest factory realities, Siemens Energy has established a blueprint for both legacy sites and modern manufacturing environments alike.
This approach addresses the "Complexity Trap"—the gap between static, rule-based automation and the reality of constantly changing, constrained operations—by replacing rigid logic with agentic control, a system of flexible workflows, and fact-based recommendations that remain fully auditable and keep the human in control. It ensures that even in volatile settings, every decision remains traceable and aligned with strict government and industry regulations.
Following the successful validation of this significant impact, Siemens Energy and Inpixon documented a repeatable rollout blueprint that transforms the Nuremberg site into a premier AI lighthouse. This initiative establishes a standardized framework for zones, events, and SAP integration that is universally applicable across high-mix production landscapes.
With an existing footprint of 10 live RTLS installations across 8 sites, Siemens Energy now possesses a robust foundation to scale this successful blueprint further.
Read the full Siemens Energy success story.
About the Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA)
The Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA) is a well-established, pan-EMEA industrial award, now in its seventh year, that spotlights pioneering digital transformation use cases in the manufacturing, construction, process and automotive industries. The competition attracts submissions from leading industrial innovators, and winners are selected after rigorous evaluation by a top-tier advisory jury of executives and technology leaders from industry, consulting, and tech sectors. MIMA is organized by Microsoft Germany and Roland Berger.
###
.svg){kind=small}
-3.png?length=1000&name=Inpixon%20LinkedIn%20Banner%20August%202025%20(2)-3.png)
