"Integrated Industry" not only could be defined in terms of technical and electronic integration, but also in terms of the challenge faced by all areas of industry as they seek to cooperate across corporate and sector boundaries. Integration would shorten communication channels and make collaboration more efficient.

The goal of rapidly integrating all systems necessitates a fundamental restructuring of production processes. In the future, intelligent materials will tell machines how they want to be processed and formed. Parts and assemblies will have autonomous digital product memories that will facilitate continuous documentation throughout their entire lifecycles. Components will initiate their own maintenance and repair requests. And intelligent components in complex equipment will independently report faults to monitoring systems, thereby instantly triggering the remedial measures necessary to prevent further damage and initiate repair work.

Allthemes and areas of HANNOVER MESSE 2013 will be underpinned by the HANNOVER MESSE 2013 lead theme of "Integrated Industry."