Simulation-Driven Planning in Pharma: Roche Project Apollo

This Hannover Messe panel session explores how Roche applied digital twin technology and the industrial metaverse to plan a nearly$2 billion greenfield pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in the US — simulating every process, footprint, and system interaction before construction began. The discussion centers on Roche's Project Apollo, a high-volume production site presenting significant planning uncertainties around lines, AGVs, buffers, and conveyors. Rather than relying on static planning methods, Roche adopted a simulation-driven approach, modeling the full facility virtually ahead of groundbreaking. Ibo Küttel, Director for Smart Manufacturing at Roche and Head of Digitalization for Project Apollo, explains how the project shifted from retrospective data analysis to quantified process prediction — enabling surgical precision in scheduling and resulting in multi-million dollar savings. Roche reports exceeding its initial business case by 40%. The panel examines how each partner contributed to the ecosystem: Nvidia served as the technology nucleus through its Omniverse platform; Accenture acted as the connector, integrating fragmented data silos across vendors; and Siemens provided the industrial logic — described by Roche as the brain behind the solution. Stuart McCutcheon from Siemens outlines how Omniverse libraries are being embedded into Siemens' simulation portfolio to deliver out-of-the-box industrial metaverse solutions. Florian Guenther from Nvidia and Hugues Badet from Accenture round out the panel with perspectives on implementation, scalability, and the "design one, build many" principle. Cross-industry examples include BMW achieving 30% efficiency gains in production planning, PepsiCo realizing 10–15% CapEx savings and a 20% OEE improvement within ten weeks, and KION Group using digital twins to optimize AMR fleet commissioning. The session closes with each panelist sharing their outlook for the next phase, including Roche's plans to extend the approach from greenfield into brownfield environments.