Mercedes-Benz AG and Microsoft Corp. have announced plans to collaborate to make vehicle production more efficient, resilient and sustainable.

The new MO360 Data Platform will allow Mercedes-Benz to connect around 30 passenger car plants worldwide to the Microsoft Cloud, enhancing transparency and predictability across the digital production and supply chain.

 "This new partnership between Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz will make our global production network more intelligent, sustainable and resilient in an era of geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges. The ability to predict and prevent problems in production and logistics will become a key competitive advantage as we go all electric,” said Joerg Burzer, member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, responsible for Production & Supply Chain Management.

The MO360 Data Platform is an evolution of Mercedes-Benz’ digital production ecosystem MO360 and will allow teams to identify potential supply chain bottlenecks faster and enable a dynamic prioritization of production resources toward electric and Top-End vehicles.

The unified data platform is standardized on Microsoft Azure to provide Mercedes-Benz with flexibility and cloud computing power to run artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics at global scale. It will address cybersecurity and compliance standards across regions.

 The platform is already available to teams in EMEA and will be deployed in the United States and China.