Category

Business Strategy

Jul 10
An Old Woman Weighing Gold Coins (Rembrandt School, 17th Century)

The ROI of IoT: Quantifying the Strategic Value of IoT

By Business Strategy, Internet of Things (IoT) One Comment

The Digital Transformation: From Conduits to Content

In the earlier days of the Internet of Things, the industry was obsessed with the magnitude of the network and forecasting how many millions and billions connected “things” it will encompass. As it turned out, those predictions were mostly overblown, vague and inconsistent.

But the hypothetical ability to connect billions of devices to the Internet is of little or no consequence to most industrial companies. Of course, telecom companies, wireless carriers, and semiconductor manufacturers see growth opportunities across many industrial sectors, but these numbers are meaningless to an organization that is trying to harness the IoT to optimize and grow its business and its customers’ business.

The fascination with astronomical number of connected devices is finally subsiding and the conversation is moving gradually from data pipes and conduits to utilizing their content to create business value. Read More

Jun 23

PTC and Rockwell Automation Partnership: A New Era of PLM Competition Begins

By Internet of Things (IoT), Mergers & Acquisitions No Comments

PLM software vendor PTC and factory automation equipment maker Rockwell Automation recently announced  a partnership agreement. As reported, Rockwell is making a $1 billion equity investment in PTC to acquire 10.6 million newly-issued PTC shares and will become its third-largest shareholder. Rockwell will also get a seat at PTC’s board of directors.

This partnership is significant and will change the balance among the top-tier PLM and factory automation vendors for years to come.

Read More
Apr 23
The Red Queen (Sir John Tenniel, 1871)

Connected Assets Drive Business Agility

By Business Strategy, Internet of Things (IoT) One Comment

Business Agility

All organizations are constantly looking for ways to improve productivity, streamline internal processes, respond to changing business circumstances, and serve customers better and quicker.

But today’s ever-changing global markets present threats and opportunities at every turn. Since 2000, more than half the companies in the Fortune 500 have either been acquired or merged, gone bankrupt, or joined their peers in the graveyard of failed businesses. These organizations failed to recognize and respond quickly enough to the pace of change. Poor business agility led to their demise.

Business leaders are worried. A new research reveals that two thirds of C-suite executives believe that 40 percent of the Fortune 500 will not exist in 10 years.

Organizations must perform better and faster to remain competitive, as the Red Queen from Through the Looking Glass observed: “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.” Read More

Jan 26
Magic Mirror (M.C. Escher, 1946)

Recharging Your PLM Investment

By IT Strategy, PLM One Comment

What Does the ‘L’ in PLM Stand For?

Many product companies that use product lifecycle management software do not manage to reach the full potential of the concept and exploit the power of the software.  Often, the engineering department merely uses PLM product data management (PDM) tools as the system of record, and as a central repository of product design changes. But these only scratch the surface of toady’s very capable PLM software tools.

A long-promised, but frequently under-delivered, the principle of PLM has been the ability to frontload key product-related decisions such that design engineers can incorporate key capabilities and considerations concerning downstream activities such as manufacturing and service. Later, as the product continues down the path and goes into production and deployment, the PLM software provides feedback that informs upstream processes about manufacturing quality, warranty issues, and field service operations. These, in turn, enable a continuous quality and product improvement process throughout the product’s life, all the way to its decommission and retirement. This is the ‘L’ in PLM; at least, this is the intent.

Why do some product organizations struggle to implement this notion and to incorporate downstream considerations during early design stages and thereafter? Read More

Jan 06
The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Katsushika Hokusai, 1832)

Digital Disruption: Shaping the Future of the Auto Industry

By Automotive, Mergers & Acquisitions, PLM No Comments

Industry in Turmoil

Automakers have been keeping a steady pace of technology innovation and manufacturing excellence for over a century. Since the breakthrough of the highly efficient assembly line, auto manufacturers were in the forefront of engineering innovation, designing and building cars that were successively better, safer and cleaner. For many decades, the industry has been at the center of the US economic development, and, to many, an industrial and social icon.

But over the past decade or so, the iconic and seemingly stable industry has been in turmoil. It has been undergoing massive changes caused by the cumulative effect of rapid technology innovation, disruptive business models, aggressive new competitors, and an emerging supply chain ecosystem whose full impact is not fully comprehended yet.

One of the most profound changes the auto industry is grappling with is the emergence of connected and autonomous cars. Most industry visionaries and practitioners portray a bold vision of a future in which cars, occupants, and cloud-based information and control systems communicate and exchange information in the omnipresent Internet of Things cloud. Cars are becoming part of the Internet, or, in today’s parlance, they are yet additional, if unconventional, “things” in the Internet of Things (IoT). Read More