Making the value of technology clear
It is truly an exciting time to be in manufacturing. The transformation is underway, and while there are some challenges, the gains are tremendous. Thank you, Manufacturing Leadership Council and David R. Brousell, for hosting us there!
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How can manufacturers leverage search-powered GenAI to connect their digital thread to improve engineering and service performance? Join our webinar on as we discuss how to get more value from enterprise systems like PLM by tapping into the data that already exists.
Rapid product development and fast service response are critical to profitability in the manufacturing industry. Engineers, product developers, and technicians need fast access to accurate information to develop and support today’s complex products. But today’s product digital thread data is hard to access, creating inefficiencies, rework, and errors across the product lifecycle.
The systems that make up the product digital thread, which often include one or more PLM systems, are complex and typically disconnected. How can advanced technologies like Search-powered GenAI help manufacturers tap into the product and service intelligence they need to get products to market fast and support them efficiently?
Join Jim Brown, President of Digital Innovation Research at Tech-Clarity, and Jeff Evernham, Chief Technology Evangelist at Sinequa, to learn:
Will connected medical devices make the Star Trek medical tricorders a reality in healthcare?
A few decades ago, Star Trek’s tricorders were complete science fiction – only in the imagination could a device perform a simple scan and offer a full medical diagnosis of any ailment. While we may not be quite there yet, today’s connected medical devices are getting close to making that a reality and, in some cases, have already delivered. In fact, connected medical devices have come so far, they can provide medical treatments, diagnostics, and real-time monitoring that would have been considered science fiction not too long ago. Connected medical devices will revolutionize healthcare by advancing the quality of patient care, lowering healthcare costs, and improving people's lives.
To learn more, read our guest post that:
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What steps is your company taking to make your supply chain more sustainable? Join our community discussion on Wednesday, June 12 from 11AM-12PM EST hear Julie Fraser facilitate this conversation and learn from each other.
Nearly every company has sustainability initiatives now. The era of greenwashing is fading away. So what can you do, and how will it impact your business? The pressures and expectations vary by industry and company. Please come to share; what you’ve done already may help to inform others and accelerate our entire manufacturing economy toward greater sustainability success.
The World Economic Forum claims that the circular economy will be good for your supply chain, and lower the risk. Are you finding that? Are you seeing benefits? Are your suppliers ready to step into this arena with you? How do you measure environmental impact, and where do you start?
Consumers and customers are seeking suppliers who support their environmental sustainability policies. Yet, as a manufacturer, that means taking both internal and partner measures. In emissions terms, we can consider 1 (direct), 2 (directly used such as from the local power plants fueling factories and distribution centers), and 3 (in our value network).
Join us to discuss your experiences and questions such as:
Based on our recent update briefing with iTAC board member Martin Heinz, we have an exhilarating view of how high and low an MES player can reach. With an offering that includes strong integration to sensors and IIoT, controls, SCADA, and ISA 95 Level 3 MES/MOM, iTAC shares this depth with only a few other players in the market. They talk about an end-to-end approach for the digital factory.
iTAC has long been a leading MES/MOM provider, and they continue to upgrade the MOM Suite, with Version 11 due out in the 2nd Quarter 2024. Beyond the original product, this release adds to both the platform and the application suite. It moves analytics forward and allows customers to choose from hosting options: on-premise, cloud, or hybrid.
iTAC built in low code for extensions a few years ago. Now, beyond the standard client and customer-specific clients, they offer a client framework. With the framework, the standard client can get a customer-dedicated plug-in. This becomes a single client for customization that can also upgrade with new releases. The company has also added a ChatGPT-based product, Ask Our Doc, to make their technical documentation easier to use.
And so much more. iTAC can now claim it goes from level 0 to level 3 of the ISA 95 model. This claim holds water even beyond Cogiscan factory connectivity to nearly anything. Newer integration with DXQ SCADA from Dürr deepen the level 1 and 0 story. They can also begin to address process industries through new Dürr acquisition ANT Solution. While some companies get buried or neglected in larger organizations, iTAC has gained significant advantages from being part of Dürr.
Machine integration and bi-directional communication is through an API layer. The combination of these features and Dürr-family products enables iTAC customers to integrate to machines, IIoT, and other enterprise software as well as define workflows and create custom-specific clients. With Dürr, MANZ and GROB, iTAC also supports closed loop continuous improvement (CI) processes for battery production.
Despite the richness and equipment connectivity, iTAC fosters customer enablement for independence. For example, one major customer who started over 20 years ago now implements the systems by themselves, which for many MES customers with automation has been a difficult dream to fulfill. At the same time, iTAC has expanded its professional services, enabling it to better serve customers globally.
We’re looking forward to following iTAC’s progress in the market, bolstered by the entire iTAC Software AG and Dürr Group portfolio. Thank you, Martin Heinz, for keeping us updated even though we could not be at Hannover Messe to see it all.
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The integration of advanced digital technologies and data-driven approaches in the laboratory provides greater efficiency and improved accuracy in scientific research. Innovative technologies are enabling scientists to capture and extract novel insights from their experiments, optimize experiment design, and identify important patterns in their data. Implementing digital technologies in the lab requires proper planning and a strategic approach to maximize the benefits.
In this Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News webinar, industry experts Jim Brown, Kirsten Gesenberg, and Stephen Hayward provide a comprehensive approach to digitally transforming the lab. During the webinar, you’ll learn how to enhance lab operations with streamlined workflows and improved data management, how to boost overall business performance through increased efficiency and productivity, and how to navigate the digital transformation journey with confidence.
Key topics covered in the webinar include:
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Can manufacturers use existing data to instantly improve profitability and customer satisfaction? Join the webinar on June 12 to hear experts from Magic Software FactoryEye and their partner Sugar CRM along with Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser discuss whether this is a pipe dream or reality. Learn what it takes to have this data-based lever for business results at your decision-makers’ fingertips.
Our panel of experienced manufacturing software industry veterans will discuss:
Do you want to ensure your investment in a manufacturing execution system (MES) generates full benefits? If so, you’ll need to understand not only why it’s valuable and what characteristics to evaluate, but also how to set up the team to buy MES. Traditional software procurement processes are typically not adequate. The MES Buyer’s Guide explains each of those areas. Read it to structure a sound buying experience and enjoy a much higher likelihood of long-term success and maximum benefits from MES.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Critical Manufacturing (registration required).
MES has increased in importance with Industry 4.0 and Digital Transformation. Manufacturing data is central to the information flows that can optimize business success. Thus, manufacturers should regard buying MES as a strategic project. This decision is a cornerstone to enable digital continuity for production plus the rest of the enterprise.
Why this Guide
Each manufacturer needs to address arguments and misconceptions about MES. This guide offers ideas about three main areas where MES buying projects often go wrong. There is a section for each of these areas.
Why MES Matters
The first step is defining MES and explaining why it’s vital to the company’s success. Without some education, many manufacturing companies’ teams can’t agree on their needs and why they should invest in MES. This guide points to the role and benefits of MES in the manufacturing application landscape.
How to Buy MES
Organizing your team and the buying process for success may sound straightforward, but it is not. MES has many stakeholders and specific issues that are not common to other enterprise applications. Standard software procurement processes often fail to select the best MES for a manufacturer’s situation.
What to Consider
The third section focuses on what to evaluate when considering your MES options. Categories of criteria include product functionality, technical architecture, vendor, implementation, and special needs you may have.
Plant Data is Central
MES is often a top priority among the many technology projects a company could undertake. That’s because plant floor data in context – across one or many plants – is vital to the entire business: finance, design, supply chain, quality, regulatory, and profitability. MES is uniquely designed to handle the diversity of data in production. No other system aims to do this.
Diverse Data
Manufacturing data comes in many formats, volumes, and frequencies, including relational database or structured data as well as unstructured documents. The plant also has tag, point, and time-series data from process, line, utility, and facility control systems.
With the advent of the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), more data is coming from the production process and equipment. All of this data is only valuable if you can put it in context and know what to do with it.
IT/OT Converges Here
One of the thorniest issues for Industry 4.0 has been harmonizing information technology (IT) with automation or operations technology (OT). Our research shows that nearly 40% of companies often have conflicting data between IT and OT systems.2 Modern MES is designed to bridge the gap, create better understanding, and ensure good performance.
Workforce Needs
The shortage of personnel to work in manufacturing, particularly in production operations, affects most manufacturers. MES is a way to provide workforce support in an environment with rapidly changing processes and often high turnover. MES can ideally support digital-native younger workers and those with vision issues, varying native languages, and others.
MES OPTIONS; FOR DISCRETE AND MIXED-MODE HIGH HIGH TECH, THE MIDDLE IS TYPICALLY IDEAL[/caption]
Julie Fraser and Jim Brown were excited to get an update from Pillir about their cloud-based low-code / no-code offerings. We’ve been following them for some time and have been impressed by their ability to bring together disconnected systems common in the supply chain and manufacturing application ecosystems. In these areas, composite applications that create a unified process and UI can dramatically help users get their jobs done without having to interact with multiple underlying ERP, MES, and other systems.
Our research in this area shows that low code can help fill functional gaps that would otherwise limit or prevent digital transformation. That maps well with Pillir’s vision to “empower businesses to rapidly innovate and adapt in a dynamic environment with our cutting-edge digital platform” focused primarily on SAP-centric manufacturing and supply chain companies.
We were happy to hear that Pillir has seen success growing their business in their core market and also expanding to Europe and the Federal marketspace. They also have some Oracle customers in addition to their strength in the SAP ecosystem. They’ve also expanded to support private cloud and GovCloud in addition to AWS, which should open up additional market opportunities.
Pillir Connects Disconnected Systems - Even Offline
The most unexpected part of the briefing is that Pillir has added another wrinkle to bringing together “disconnected” systems by connecting them even while users are disconnected. Let’s unpack that. It’s pretty common for industrial or government facility users to lose their signal and go offline, whether due to poor connectivity or intentionally prevented for security and IP protection. Pillir was designed to accommodate those environments, supporting offline users in fabs, shop floors, or remote maintenance scenarios. Their Disconnected Edition offers seamless offline-to-online transitions, disconnected transaction execution, and guaranteed data integrity. Not everyone needs to support this type of environment, but it’s a very interesting capability we haven’t heard about from others in this space. We’ll be interested to hear how important this is for their customers and how differentiating it is for Pillir in the market.
Pillir is Looking to Create Customer Value in Artificial Intelligence
We also had a refreshing conversation about #AI. It seems that every vendor feels they need to have an AI story. Pillir, like others, has conducted some interesting proofs of concepts (POCs) into AI to look for additional ways to add value to their customers. As examples, they’ve explored code conversion for legacy systems, embedding AI in document management, and improving work order management. But they seem less focused on having an “AI story” and more focused on ensuring they can accommodate it in their tech stack while looking for the right places for it to add customer value.
Thank you for the update, Vaidya Aiyer; it’s always a pleasure. We look forward to staying in touch.
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Julie Fraser is excited about the Fuuz by MFGx MES Platform after a briefing with MFGx founder Craig Scott and new EVP of Sales Steve Modrall, a long-time industry sales pro. Here are a few of her key takeaways from the conversation.
Fuuz is the manufacturing plant floor software partner of choice for Oracle NetSuite and the preferred MES for other major ERP vendors. The software originated to enable digital transformation for manufacturers beyond what a single ERP can offer. The event-driven platform and no-code, low-code toolset enable ERP to send and receive meaningful information – not just data – throughout the company. Customers can build, tailor, or apply what they need more specifically, too.
The Fuuz MES Platform is both an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and a platform as a service (PaaS) purpose-built for manufacturing. OK, that’s a lot to process.
In our interpretation, MFGx delivers a Unified Namespace (UNS)* in a single platform rather than a stack of different products. The MFGx team reports the Fuuz MES Platform can store, contextualize, and serve out the data rapidly enough for plant floor dashboards to have sub-second performance despite cloud hosting.
Fuuz also includes functional modules in addition to the platform. Examples are manufacturing execution (MES), preventative maintenance, warehousing (WMS), and quality (QMS). Any of these may be the easy entry point to fill a gap in a manufacturer’s functional landscape.
Given the nature of the platform, customers can adjust these modules to enhance their fit. Fuuz has not only no-code, low-code development options but also pro-code or full software development in traditional programming languages. According to MFGx, customers and partners develop applications 7-10X faster with Fuuz than other products on the market, with fewer limitations.
The platform is delivered with continuous deployment, so all customers are always up-to-date. Fuuz is on a multi-tenant cloud, true SaaS environment (with edge available). Customers get a log-on and annual contract with pricing options such as unlimited user subscriptions that invite scale-out.
To us, that means manufacturing customers on Fuuz SaaS do not have to adjust anything on the cloud infrastructure. IT can focus on what matters most to its operations customers and simultaneously have a streamlined tech stack.
The Detroit-area company has customers in automotive, food and beverage, medical devices, chemicals, plastics, rubber, A&D, retail, and distribution. Our takeaway is that the infrastructure must work securely to enable regulated industries to validate the software.
Over the past couple of years, the services partner network for Fuuz has grown to include PwC, MHI Solutions, Logical Systems Inc. (LSI), and Razorleaf, with others in process. With service partners to deploy and ERP partners to sell, the MFGx team has been free to focus on developing their software.
With this history, the company has not had a high profile in the market. That may be about to change. The company is starting to focus on both recruiting VARs and selling directly to enterprise accounts. Their ecosystem of ERP and service partners speaks well of Fuuz’s capabilities, as does its growing customer base of over 100 companies and over 1000 sites.
Thank you, Craig Scott and Steve Modrall, for taking the time to brief us. Thank you, Kathy Suchowiecki, for setting it all up for us. We look forward to following Fuuz's growth and its partners and customers in the market.
*Unified Namespace (UNS), as coined by Walker Reynolds, is the hub in an event-driven architecture where all data to run the business lives. This data is both IT and OT, no matter what layer in the ISA95 model, enterprise, plant, line, equipment, or IoT. All systems publish into UNS and pull from it as needed.
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Has your continuous improvement kept up with your business? It is a new era for manufacturing, and a new era for continuous improvement (CI) is available too. This eBook gives you ideas for how to update your CI with digital support and new approaches that ensure you build on your CI successes.
We interviewed manufacturers, consultants, and associations to validate and expand on the concepts we explain in this white paper.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research please visit our sponsor, PTC Thingworx (registration required)
The Problem-Solving Story
Enabling CI Sequels
Switching software architectures, like the current move from web-based enterprise architectures to SaaS, can cause significant cost and disruption. How can companies avoid the increased total cost of ownership and reduced ROI during these transitions? Learn how low-code platforms help eliminate the need to repeat the rip-and-replace cycle as computing paradigms evolve.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Aras (registration required).
Software architectures have changed dramatically over the last several decades as the industry has evolved, innovated, and matured. These technological advances come in “waves” that improve the value of computing by unlocking new capabilities and improving the efficiency of how applications are delivered.
In the long run, new architectures increase the value software provides and drives computing cost down. Greater benefits at lower costs lead to increased software return on investment (ROI). Technology architecture transitions, however, come at a cost. They drive the total cost of ownership (TCO) higher, at least for a while. Although the resulting computing paradigm may be more efficient, migration typically causes significant disruption and decreases the ROI as companies move from existing applications. In the short-term, they must trade off the rich features, extensions, integrations, and customization they’ve developed in their existing software for a more advanced, but less tailored solution.
Optimizing the ROI of Architecture Transition
Today, the cycle is repeating itself. The cloud / SaaS transition is in full swing, reducing barriers to application adoption and supporting digital transformation with better access, agility, granularity, usability, and collaboration. But these benefits are frequently offset by the increased transition cost and functionality tradeoffs. This traditional “rip and replace” approach to software architecture transition is not sustainable.
This eBook shares details on the TCO and ROI impacts of technology waves. It also explains how companies can prepare themselves for continuous evolution at an optimal ROI by using composable, low-code applications to break the expensive rip-and-replace cycle, reduce TCO, and build long-term ROI.
Plan for the FutureWe had a fascinating update briefing with Gridraster COO/Co-founder Dijam Panigrahi, highlighting the growing potential of XR and spatial computing. When we first spoke with them a couple of years ago, we were excited about their platform and what it offers their application provider partners. Namely, Gridraster provides the infrastructure they need to deliver solutions with remote rendering, precise 3D spatial mapping of virtual objects in mixed reality, and other enablers that unlock the power of the metaverse.
One of the reasons Julie Fraser and I like speaking with Gridraster is that they do quite a bit of work in the aerospace and defense industry. A&D helped pioneer #virtualreality and continues to push the maturity of what mixed reality can do. They have also been leading proponents of digital twins, where Gridraster can provide the granular data underpinning for the industrial metaverse. Of course, it’s hard to discuss XR right now without mentioning Apple. As Dijam told us, “With Apple coming in, the new word is spatial.” The introduction of the Apple Vision Pro created a lot of enthusiasm about the metaverse across industries and should contribute to new use cases and greater adoption.
However, technology is only one part of the equation; gaining real business value is another. Manufacturers are starting to gain more confidence in spatial computing and beginning to achieve real value. Gridraster is working with manufacturers that are applying XR across the product lifecycle, from engineering through support. Some of the critical use cases they’re working with customers and partners on include:
Dijam explained that one of their most compelling capabilities to support these use cases is their ability to capture geometry with millimeter-level accuracy. With this, they can create very precise renderings or compare “as expected” digital models with the scanned truth with high precision and identify discrepancies with very high accuracy.
Our research shows that it may still take some time for XR and the industrial metaverse to become pervasive tools in the manufacturing industries, at least outside of larger companies and industries like automotive and A&D. Still, our discussions with GridRaster Inc. show that the value is available, and we believe the barriers will continue to drop. As devices become more capable, computing power grows, and platforms become more accessible, at least in some part due to the gaming industry, we expect further adoption. Thank you, Dijam Panigrahi to keep us in the “believers” camp for greater adoption – and value – from AI and XR. And thanks to John Sternal for coordinating the discussion.
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Jim Brown and Julie Fraser are enthused after recently catching up with ComplianceQuest’s CSO and VP of Product Marketing, Nikki Willett. Their progress is impressive. At ten years old, ComplianceQuest continues to expand and innovate to realize its vision of software for quality that touches everything. This vision and product suite span engineering and R&D to operations and manufacturing to safety to supply chain to services to customers.
ComplianceQuest has expanded its product footprint with the ProductQuest (PLM) suite alongside the existing QualityQuest (QMS) and SafetyQuest (EHS) suites. In all, there are 28 products in these three suites. All these applications are integrated on the ComplianceQuest Digital Quality+ platform. If you know the company, you know the software is natively built on the Salesforce Business Cloud platform. ComplianceQuest partners with Salesforce effectively to take advantage of their Force Cloud platform, applications, and ecosystem opportunities.
Last year, new functionality releases included Digital SOPs, CQ.Forms, (both online and offline) PLM, and FMEAs and Control Plans (APQP) for its Design Quality solution, connections from regulations and standards to auditing, an Intake Wizard to quickly guide users to report a nonconformance, a Response Wizard that helps create all the required records needed in an audit finding, Change Control impact assessment, and Supplier Performance rating system. In the AI space, they added CQ.AI agents, enhanced Next Best Actions/tasks (NBA) to drive more than workflow but tasks/steps as well, embedded analytics with AI in non-conformance and complaints so separate reports are no longer necessary, Intelligent Analytics for better current and predictive visibility, and Quality Maturity Index (QMI) to assess quality across the entire organization and by location.
ComplianceQuest targets both Life Sciences and Manufacturing industries. They have also made progress in the government / public sector with a FedRAMP attestation. Their integrator and reseller partner network continues to expand as the company gains customers of all sizes. Sales are also growing in Europe and Asia Pacific English-speaking countries.
ComplianceQuest’s unified solution approach is increasingly attractive as companies seek to improve the success of digital transformation and roll out the same applications across their enterprise. With quality management (QMS), environmental health and safety (EHS), and now quality-focused product lifecycle management (PLM) all on a single platform, ComplianceQuest customers have a strong data flow for the quality digital thread. Those who use the Force.com platform for other purposes can avoid integration headaches even more broadly.
The platform has AI and other decision-making enablers built into it. ComplianceQuest emphasizes the data-driven approach, a break from the document-driven approach of many historical QMS products.
Thank you,Nikki Willett, for taking the time to update us. We look forward to a deeper dive into PLM for product quality and following ComplianceQuest’s continuing growth in the market.
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How and why are real estate developers taking a design-build approach to residential real estate development? How does that increase the need for AEC technology to improve communication, validation, and planning?
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Graphisoft (registration required).
Design-Bid-Build Spreads Risk and Supports Specialization
Over the last 100+ years since the Industrial Revolution, the most common approach has been to prepare a collection of design documents and then have builders or general contractors develop pricing to deliver it, often in competitive circumstances.
This evolved beyond the framework initially dominated by the master builder (eventually the architect), who assembled craftspeople at a project location and then developed the design in place with limited pre-planning and almost no estimating and pre-construction pricing. The advent of building services and the pursuit of comfort brought technology advances and the need to preplan in advance of construction. This evolved the question, “How much will this cost?” and Design-Bid-Build (DBB) was born. The increasing complexity of construction assemblies lent itself to alternate forms of bidding and contracting.
Key to this was to establish trade scope packages and then allow the specialized experts to price based on a stipulated sum.
These technological advances led to an increase in specialization that caused design and construction firms to push those out of house due to the nature of boom-bust cycles, and the ebb and flow of work volume. It became undesirable to keep specialized craftspeople on payroll, supervised, mentored, and adequately trained. This led to a mindset of driving risk down the supply chain and lump sum project pricing. Tight stipulated price contracts ensured that owners wouldn’t see any cost escalations unless there were design changes, regardless of the materials and resources needed to deliver the project.
How does the Digital Manufacturing Journey unfold? What are views of the past, present, and future? Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser will be on an industry analysts panel discussing this at the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s Rethink Conference on Marco Island, FL. The conference runs from June 2nd to June 5th and will include a live panel discussion focused on the digital model of manufacturing. Register to hear Julie Fraser and analysts from LNS, ARC, and IDC in person on Tuesday, June 4th at 2:40 PM.
Julie and other panelists have been watching manufacturing IT change over the past 20 or more years. They will bring that experience to discuss current and future steps in the digital manufacturing journey. Digital transformation is inevitable, but how it unfolds is not yet entirely clear. This promises to raise areas of agreement and contention among the never-shy industry analysts.
The Rethink conference is designed for manufacturing and IT leaders and their teams to interact in roundtables and more traditional conference settings. The theme is accelerating digital transformation in manufacturing. Rethink has many networking opportunities as well as an agenda where you’ll hear from leading and award-winning manufacturing peers.
For the full-week agenda, visit the Manufacturing Leadership Council Rethink 2024 homepage.
Thank you, David Brousell of the Manufacturing Leadership Council, for extending the invitation to participate and share our views.
[post_title] => The Digital Manufacturing Journey: Past, Present, and Future
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Tech-Clarity's Jim Brown at Aras ACE 2024[/caption]
I really enjoyed the Aras ACE 2024 user conference this year. The event gave me the opportunity to hear and learn from Aras leadership, specialists, partners, and users to gain a deeper perspective on the future of Aras. I’ll share my takeaways, but I’ll start with my summary and the advice I give to manufacturers about Aras Innovator. I always tell people that if they’re looking for a PLM system, they should include Aras in their research, not because they are necessarily a better offering but because they are a very different offering. I’ll talk more about that in this post, but I talked about it in my recap of ACE 2023 as the “Aras Difference.” They aren’t the right fit for every organization, but their approach is compelling and high value for the right companies.
Business is Sunny
Let’s start with the business. CEO Roque Martin started by sharing some positive growth statistics, specifically a 61% subscriber growth since his arrival in late 2021 and 77% year-over-year growth in SaaS deployments. The SaaS growth is very important as Aras transitions to a cloud business while helping manufacturers modernize their PLM systems.
Business is Cloudy
Forgive the “cloudy” pun but I think it’s important. Most enterprise systems vendors, including PLM, provide some form of cloud offering. What I’ve seen from Aras is more than just a shift in their technology deployment approach. Aras is acting like a cloud business. They’ve adopted a more agile software development cycle and moved to smaller, more frequent releases. They’re thinking more along the lines of web services, delivering more granular, purpose-built APIs to allow Aras Innovator to fit more openly into their customers’ heterogeneous systems ecosystems in the cloud. They’ve reorganized themselves, and their solutions, around a robust DevOps approach for both internal operations and customer deployments. The transition is more than a facade or the ability to run in a cloud environment, it’s a move toward the future way solution providers deliver value.
Crystalizing their Unique Position
Aras has always been unique. From their “open systems” offering to their low-code architecture, there has always been a pride in being unique. They now have a name and a better definition of what differentiates Aras from other solution providers. It’s “the Aras Effect.” The Aras Effect is the new way they explain their basic principles of openness, support for the digital thread, adaptability, scalability, and community.
[caption id="attachment_20070" align="aligncenter" width="877"]
The "Aras Effect" as Presented at Aras ACE 2024[/caption]
I’ll touch on each of these based on my experience at ACE. I already mentioned openness due to open, granular interfaces that allow companies to execute and embed Aras capabilities in their cloud ecosystem. Scalability is thanks to the support Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. I’m going to touch on the others directly.
Digital Thread
While I said Aras Innovator may not be the best system, it may be. Their PLM capabilities are extensive. The digital thread is the representation of broad PLM capabilities Aras has built into Aras Innovator to support the product lifecycle. Aras Innovator’s scope starts with requirements and creates traceability throughout the product lifecycle. Although Aras focuses on adaptability, they offer core capabilities as a starting point and announced continued investment in enhancing the standard offering. Aras SVP of Product Management John Sperling announced significant current and planned enhancements to both the low-code capabilities and to functionality. For example, he shared details on important PLM needs like maturing variant management including variant 3D Design with visualization. It’s just one example of Aras continuing to invest in become a more complete digital thread platform.
Another significant announcement related to the digital thread was the announcement of a new product to optimize supplier connectivity and collaboration, Supplier Management Solutions and the associated Aras Portal. The new application provides secure, remote access to controlled select digital thread and PLM information through configurable, mobile-optimized web applications. It’s not intended to replace a procurement or logistics system, but it offers direct connectivity in the integrated with data from Aras Innovator. Aras understands that the digital thread doesn’t exist in a single enterprise, but extends out into the value chain.
[caption id="attachment_20071" align="alignnone" width="977"]
Aras Supplier Management Solutions[/caption]
Adaptability
The ability to adapt Aras Innovator to customer needs has long been a key difference between Aras Innovator and the others. Whether it was called a “model-based architecture” as it was when I first started following Aras or more commonly known as “low-code,” the key point is that the operating infrastructure is separated from the data model and the logic. This decoupling allows the solution to change independently from the core underpinnings of the system.
The result is more important than the details, and Aras has leveraged that difference to offer customers more than a “cookie cutter” solution, but instead encourage customization. That’s about as different as you can get from the advice from other vendors. For any given company, “different” might not be better. But what it allows Aras to do is promise customers that they can upgrade their Aras software without disturbing their customizations.
Their low-code-enabled agility also allows them to tackle non-traditional PLM needs like what they’ve done in the process industries, most notably with Red Bull for CPG / batch process and Renesas for semiconductor manufacturing. For these companies that where there are fewer mature PLM offerings, they can modify the solution needs – including the data model – to meet unique industry without creating a dead-end resulting from their customization. It also allows Aras the ability to offer their platform as a service, but I’ll cover that next in community.
Community
Aras also works differently within the software community. That’s true for customers, but also for partners. As I mentioned, Aras offers their platform as a service for other vendors to build solutions based on their core capabilities. Some significant examples include Ansys’s Minerva Simulation Process and Management (SPDM) system and AVEVA’s Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) offerings that are both built on, “powered by,” the Aras platform. I spoke about those in last year’s coverage as well.
There is a direct relationship between their agility differentiator and their community aspect. The ability for other providers to build on top of Aras is unique. Another new example was uncovered at ACE this year as the result of a partnership with SAIC. I won’t go into detail about the offering, but SAIC announced their ReadyOne offering which is a Digital Engineering solution configured for the specific requirements of the Department of Defense. A quick look at their architecture is very telling, showing Aras platform services, modeling engine, and platform features serving as the underpinning for the SAIC data model and ReadyOne Digital Thread.
[caption id="attachment_20072" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
SAIC ReadyOne Data Model[/caption]
The ability to customize Aras Innovator is now crystalized as the ability to “build with Aras.” The capability not entirely new, but Aras is bringing more to the table including a planned app marketplace. I expect to learn more about that over time.
[caption id="attachment_20078" align="aligncenter" width="936"]
Build with Aras Program Announced at Aras ACE 2024[/caption]
From a customer community perspective, Aras has always fostered an environment where customers share with each other, even sharing customizations. Another example of doing things differently is Aras in the Round. This final session at ACE opens up the floor to all participants to ask anything as VP Leon Lauritsen tosses foam cubes with microphones to the audience. There were some challenging questions, and Roque Martin and Rob McAveney shared candid answers. It’s a unique experience.
Final Notes
There is always too much to cover at these events. As expected, Aras also discussed their continued investment in AI. In their case, it’s to support Industry 5.0 where systems augment and automate human capabilities. They are bullish on the potential, as Rob McAveney shared in a very interesting panel. As Rob explained, they are “expecting a giant leap forward in how products are designed and manufactured.” They shared some tangible examples, including requirements as a service, syndication of digital twins, and continuous design streams, AI-infused engineering, and an AI-driven chatbox hooked up to Aras Innovator. I expect a lot more from this in the coming months.
Summing Up ACE 2024
Aras is unique and comparing Aras Innovator to other PLM systems is comparing apples to oranges. They offer broad capabilities to support the digital thread, but that’s not the end of the story. Manufacturers looking to implement or upgrade PLM should take a look at Aras, if nothing else to understand the difference the “Aras Effect” delivers.
Thank you to Jason Kasper and Kylie Ochab for organizing my visit and setting up some interesting conversations.
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How can manufacturers bring the same digital transformation benefits enjoyed by other operational areas to the lab? How can the lab continuously improve and join the digital transformation? We offer five ways to get started.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA (registration required).
The Five Dimensions of Lab Integration
People, Process, and Technology
What does it take to integrate and drive better lab – and business – performance? We've identified five focus areas companies can measure and improve against using a continuous improvement approach. You can look at these "dimensions" across a typical, balanced view of people, process, and technology. This framework provides a proven foundation for developing and introducing more mature operations to drive better outcomes.
Any change effort must start with the people involved. For labs, it's critical to get the most out of highly skilled scientists and technicians. They must be motivated, understand their contribution to the greater cause, and be enabled to collaborate to streamline work, data flows, and innovation. Operator data is also critical to creating a complete digital thread of scientific data.
This leads to process. Peoples' activities must be standardized and optimized into efficient workflows and analytical methods that get the most out of people's effort and create well-documented, trusted scientific data. Both physical and virtual processes, such as simulations, must be standardized and streamlined.
Segmenting the Technology Dimension
The third, fourth, and fifth areas relate to technology. Technology is too complex and too important to consider a single dimension. We'll look at how integrating software, hardware, and data significantly improves lab productivity, throughput, and value.
Acknowledging Overlaps
Note that there are clear overlaps between these areas. For example, trusted test results rely on hardware readings but also validated analytical methods executed by people with the right permissions and certifications. Despite these inherent overlaps, we try to discuss each without too much overlap to give them the attention they deserve.
Can smart manufacturing, connectivity, and IoT reduce the tradeoffs of serving customers well? In this blog post, Julie Fraser explains both the importance of moving to smart manufacturing and how connectivity and IIoT support each other in moving a company forward. No company can afford to stay behind - moving to digital approaches is a foundation for success.
To get manufacturers on the road, this blog starts with unpacking the MESA definition of Smart Manufacturing. Fraser then explains the specific roles that industrial IoT (IIoT) and connectivity play, separately and together.
IIoT is a means to capture new data from equipment and processes. An IIoT platform can also put that data into context with other production data, enriching it to then visualize it and turn it into actionable information. This is a complex set of functions, each of which is crucial - but not easy to set up piecemeal.
Connectivity is what allows that data and information to flow where it’s needed, when it’s needed and to the people who need it to make decisions. What is special about industrial connectivity is that much of the data is not in a traditional database or structured format. Sensor data from IoT devices, time-series data from historians, and more can all be part of the data flows.
These two elements come together to enable smart manufacturing. Some of the benefits include agility, cost savings, efficiency, better customer experience, remote troubleshooting, less downtime, and higher product quality. Manufacturers must improve all of these at once.
Having the data you need, easily available and in context is what IIoT and connectivity together can deliver. Smart manufacturing that leverages IIoT and industrial connectivity is a clear path to the future.
Read the full blog post to understand the impact of smart manufacturing connectivity and IoT. Thank you to PTC for the opportunity to express our views here.
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[post_content] => Jim Brown and I had the opportunity to catch up with Anark to get an update. Anark has been serving the engineering and product development community for a long time, starting with their ability to translate and publish 3D visualization data and building that into a collaboration platform for manufacturers, and we wanted to catch up on their progress.
Poor collaboration has been a challenge companies have struggled with for years. In fact, Tech-Clarity's "What's the Cost of Poor Collaboration" finds that an overwhelming 93% of companies need to improve collaboration with different groups. Further, as products become more complex, the need for improved collaboration grows. For example, engineers reported that even for simple products, they collaborate with an average of 21 people and 35 for more complex products. Collaborators include other engineers, manufacturing, suppliers, customers, product managers, and more.
A digital thread can offer significant value by connecting different systems, but it doesn't capture the many communications that happen during product development. Product data is still often siloed in proprietary formats in CAD, PLM, ERP, and other systems, making it difficult to share. Consequently, engineers often share data via email just because it is easier. However, once data is shared via email, the digital thread is broken, and there is no control or visibility if that email is forwarded to anyone else. Not to mention, those communications are lost in email and need references to keep it in context with the product data.
These collaboration issues are particularly challenging when working with third parties. Our research, "How to Reduce Non-Value-Added Work in Engineering," finds that data becomes outdated 29% of the time when working with third parties, resulting in rework, delayed time to market, and excess cost.
Anark is leveraging its history and experience with CAD and PLM integrations to address the collaboration problem. They’ve expanded beyond their early publication approach to help manufacturers, particularly those in discrete manufacturing industries like aerospace, defense, automotive, industrial equipment, and medical device, improve product development. Their goal is to offer an all-in-one collaboration solution for manufacturers that provides the ease of use of a general-purpose collaboration tool, with the security to protect IP, and the ability to put the data in context.
Their integrations and adapters bring together:
The Anark Product Suite leverages this data foundation with three offerings:
Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser was on the analyst panel of the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s (MLC’s) 20th anniversary Rethink conference. The panel looked back 20 years and forward 20 years in the journey to digital manufacturing. Julie’s perspective is that some things that seem new are not – like AI, which she wrote a report about in about 1990. That shows how many things must be in place technologically and in our mindset and culture.
The digital transformation will also require a personal transformation. The key is to go after Smart with Heart. She also believes there is a “pot of gold” at the end of this journey. Like a leprechaun, rather than only seeing the material wealth there, we’ll want to ensure we do the manufacturing dance to celebrate.
The panel – and the entire conference - touched on technology, including networking, materials handling, enterprise and plant software, AI, and Generative AI. Every presentation also emphasized innovation, processes, workforce engagement, and leadership skills. The more new technologies we employ in manufacturing, the more conversation it generates around human beings. People are, and it seems will continue to be, at the center of manufacturing – even as it is increasingly automated and autonomous.
One of the notable features of this conference was the level of engagement in the MLC community. These leaders and their teams eagerly and openly engaged with each other and with the technology and services providers. It was rare to find someone standing alone for even a short time—we were all sharing and learning with each other.
The MLC is part of the National Association of Manufacturers - NAM (NAM), but people from around the world were there, sharing their stories and competing for awards. This conference has cleverly incorporated an awards gala to ensure that leaders and their teams who are nominated come, share their stories, and learn from one another. When one company shared information, you could see groups from other companies discussing it with each other.
Some award nominees and speakers, like Matthew Herman of Whirlpool, are turning the corner in understanding how to gain benefits while building toward scalability and enterprise-wide rollout. This scaling seems to often involve changes to the organizational structure and staffing.
Becky Sidelinger of Flex shared the journey to extreme contract manufacturing flexibility in their production operations to match product innovation. They use digital twins of their end-to-end manufacturing lines, machine learning, and AR/VR goggles to guide work. Beyond that, she discussed effectively bringing suppliers into the sustainability frame. A key takeaway was to “be generous with your time” as a leader.
J. Kirby Best of Bespoke talked about his startup custom clothing company, Bespoke. Here, autonomous robots work with people, and real-time location tracking and AI are used to gain productivity at the point of activity. This truly innovative approach to garment manufacturing is based on “getting out of your mind how anything was done before.” The result is essentially infinite selection in zero time.
Craig Stephen Slavtcheff of Campbell’s focused on their agile approach. It is not just meeting hygiene, and not just in R&D, but a deep approach to agile in food and its supply chain. Modifying existing unit operations to live up to the design brief has been crucial. Deep change management plays into ensuring data is considered an essential part of every job.
Prasad Rajiv of forklift maker Hyster-Yale talked about making great strides toward smart and autonomous products. The ability to use 5G communications and interact effectively with WMS, MES, people, and manual operations such as picking. Bringing decisions closer to the action was part of it, zero emissions another.
Chris Platz of Woodward talked about their journey to transform supplier collaboration, even with their many small suppliers. They have built a digital twin of suppliers’ capability and capacity to show what to send where and when. In about a week, they can set up a digital twin of a supplier factory and begin working with the simulation-selected best partner on a 1:1 basis based on pre-negotiated pricing.
The next-generation leaders panel dispelled misunderstandings. Megan McCarthy of General Motors discussed two-way feedback and GM’s commitment to electric vehicles. Jonathan Miller from St. Gobain Life Sciences saw that machine connectivity foundations were a tough sell, but they delivered benefits and removed drudge work once in place. His advice was, “Make everyone comfortable failing.” Angela Accurso, MPA of MdX talked about mentorship and sponsorship, and Marlon Alberto Gonzalez Martinez of IBM pushed for “giving a voice to young people and their ideas.”
TakeawaysHere are some of Julie’s takeaways and highlights from the two days she attended the conference.
It is truly an exciting time to be in manufacturing. The transformation is underway, and while there are some challenges, the gains are tremendous. Thank you, Manufacturing Leadership Council and David R. Brousell, for hosting us there!
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Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser was on the analyst panel of the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s (MLC’s) 20th anniversary Rethink conference. The panel looked back 20 years and forward 20 years in the journey to digital manufacturing. Julie’s perspective is that some things that seem new are not – like AI, which she wrote a report about in…
How can manufacturers leverage search-powered GenAI to connect their digital thread to improve engineering and service performance? Join our webinar on as we discuss how to get more value from enterprise systems like PLM by tapping into the data that already exists. Rapid product development and fast service response are critical to profitability in the…
Will connected medical devices make the Star Trek medical tricorders a reality in healthcare? A few decades ago, Star Trek’s tricorders were complete science fiction – only in the imagination could a device perform a simple scan and offer a full medical diagnosis of any ailment. While we may not be quite there yet, today’s…
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Based on our recent update briefing with iTAC board member Martin Heinz, we have an exhilarating view of how high and low an MES player can reach. With an offering that includes strong integration to sensors and IIoT, controls, SCADA, and ISA 95 Level 3 MES/MOM, iTAC shares this depth with only a few other…
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Can manufacturers use existing data to instantly improve profitability and customer satisfaction? Join the webinar on June 12 to hear experts from Magic Software FactoryEye and their partner Sugar CRM along with Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser discuss whether this is a pipe dream or reality. Learn what it takes to have this data-based lever for business…
Do you want to ensure your investment in a manufacturing execution system (MES) generates full benefits? If so, you’ll need to understand not only why it’s valuable and what characteristics to evaluate, but also how to set up the team to buy MES. Traditional software procurement processes are typically not adequate. The MES Buyer’s Guide…
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What’s one of the most challenging aspects of manufacturing digital transformation? Getting fast access to the right current production information in a usable format. MFGx has set about solving that problem over the past several years by developing Fuuz and is about to raise its profile as it expands beyond its consulting and ERP partners…
Has your continuous improvement kept up with your business? It is a new era for manufacturing, and a new era for continuous improvement (CI) is available too. This eBook gives you ideas for how to update your CI with digital support and new approaches that ensure you build on your CI successes. We interviewed manufacturers,…
Switching software architectures, like the current move from web-based enterprise architectures to SaaS, can cause significant cost and disruption. How can companies avoid the increased total cost of ownership and reduced ROI during these transitions? Learn how low-code platforms help eliminate the need to repeat the rip-and-replace cycle as computing paradigms evolve. Please enjoy the…
We had a fascinating update briefing with Gridraster COO/Co-founder Dijam Panigrahi, highlighting the growing potential of XR and spatial computing. When we first spoke with them a couple of years ago, we were excited about their platform and what it offers their application provider partners. Namely, Gridraster provides the infrastructure they need to deliver solutions…
Jim Brown and Julie Fraser are enthused after recently catching up with ComplianceQuest’s CSO and VP of Product Marketing, Nikki Willett. Their progress is impressive. At ten years old, ComplianceQuest continues to expand and innovate to realize its vision of software for quality that touches everything. This vision and product suite span engineering and R&D…
How and why are real estate developers taking a design-build approach to residential real estate development? How does that increase the need for AEC technology to improve communication, validation, and planning? Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Graphisoft (registration required). Table of Contents The Design-Build Project Approach Construction…
How does the Digital Manufacturing Journey unfold? What are views of the past, present, and future? Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser will be on an industry analysts panel discussing this at the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s Rethink Conference on Marco Island, FL. The conference runs from June 2nd to June 5th and will include a live panel discussion…
I really enjoyed the Aras ACE 2024 user conference this year. The event gave me the opportunity to hear and learn from Aras leadership, specialists, partners, and users to gain a deeper perspective on the future of Aras. I’ll share my takeaways, but I’ll start with my summary and the advice I give to manufacturers…
How can manufacturers bring the same digital transformation benefits enjoyed by other operational areas to the lab? How can the lab continuously improve and join the digital transformation? We offer five ways to get started. Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA (registration required). Table of…
Can smart manufacturing, connectivity, and IoT reduce the tradeoffs of serving customers well? In this blog post, Julie Fraser explains both the importance of moving to smart manufacturing and how connectivity and IIoT support each other in moving a company forward. No company can afford to stay behind – moving to digital approaches is a…
Jim Brown and I had the opportunity to catch up with Anark to get an update. Anark has been serving the engineering and product development community for a long time, starting with their ability to translate and publish 3D visualization data and building that into a collaboration platform for manufacturers, and we wanted to catch…