please take the survey to share your thoughts. As a thank you, we will send you a copy of the report summarizing the findings. In addition, respondents will be entered into a drawing for one of four $25 Amazon gift cards.*
Individual responses will be kept confidential. Please feel free to forward this survey to others you feel have an opinion to share.
Thank you for your support, please check out our Active Research page for additional Tech-Clarity survey opportunities.
*See survey for eligibility rules
[post_title] => Managing Capital-Intensive Projects Survey
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => managing-capital-intensive-projects-survey
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-05-12 23:08:59
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-05-13 03:08:59
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21947
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[1] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21857
[post_author] => 2574
[post_date] => 2025-05-08 09:00:36
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-05-08 13:00:36
[post_content] => How are manufacturers doing at global Digital Transformation? What could accelerate progress? These are a few of the questions that Julie Fraser and other experienced industry analysts will discuss on a panel on June 17th. The session is part of the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s (MLC) Rethink Conference on Marco Island, Florida, and supports its theme, Accelerating Digital Transformation in Manufacturing.This “Power Panel” will leverage research from four analyst firms to explore the current state of Digital Transformation in manufacturing. Joining the panel are Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser, Bob Parker of IDC, Craig Resnick of ARC, and Matt Littlefield of LNS Research. The panel moderator is David Brousell, Director and Founder of the MLC, which is part of the National Association of Manufacturers. The panel will also address “handicapping” questions such as: What is the picture for global digital transformation in manufacturing? Are some regions ahead of others? If so, why? And questions about the path forward such as: What’s needed to move to the next stages of maturity? Are we ready to move from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0? These four long-time manufacturing software industry analysts will each contribute their opinions and share insights.This panel is just a part of this dynamic in-person conference. The program includes a wide array of presentations, panel discussions, case studies, and networking sessions on culture, leadership, process, and technology. Topics range from what to expect in the economy to emotional intelligence for a thriving culture to defining the human-machine relationship to digital transformation for small and medium manufacturers. There is also an exhibit hall for sponsors to show their offerings on Tuesday and Wednesday.Rethink runs from Sunday evening June 15th happy hour and then has three days of content. It ends with the black-tie Manufacturing Leadership Awards gala on Wednesday evening June 18th. The many categories of awards showcase what leading manufacturers are doing in AI Vision and Strategy, Business Model Transformation, Collaborative Ecosystems, Digital Supply Chains, Engineering, Production, and Integration Technology, Operational Excellence, Sustainability and the Circular Economy, and Transformational Business Cultures. There are also individual awards.The MLC website describes the event: “Rethink examines today’s digital factory as it intersects with technology, organizations, and leadership. Come away with a better understanding of the smart factory and what’s needed to compete, succeed, and thrive in the connected future.” Last year’s event was compelling, and the topic for this year is global digital transformation. If you are attending, please let Julie know to set up some time to get face-to-face.
[post_title] => Power Panel: Handicapping the Global Digital Transformation Race
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => global-digital-transformation
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-05-08 09:42:18
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-05-08 13:42:18
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21857
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[2] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21886
[post_author] => 2
[post_date] => 2025-05-07 08:30:37
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-05-07 12:30:37
[post_content] =>
Jim Brown's recently published eBook research, The Business Value of An Industrial System of Engagement Platform, introduced the concept of the Industrial System of Engagement (SOE). Following the eBook, he penned a guest post for Hexagon summarizing the eBook and how the Industrial SOE provides a platform to extend the value of current enterprise systems by providing enhanced connectivity and collaboration.
The Industrial SOE
The post shares the challenge that manufacturers face – plenty of data but significant difficulty connecting and collaborating on the product digital thread information it holds. The eBook proposes that it’s time for manufacturers to change how they connect and collaborate across the systems that house their product data. Beyond sharing the challenges, the post offers a definition for the Industrial SOE and what it must deliver, including:
Data Centricity
Integrated Information
Operationalized Collaboration
A System for Action
Hexagon’s Nexus Platform
This guest post shares an overview of the Industrial SOE concept based on our research and interviews with two thought leaders, Style Crest Project Engineer Tyler Lucas and Paragon Medical Devices Senior Quality Manager Jeff Livingston. It then discusses how Nexus, Hexagon’s open digital industrial platform for manufacturers built on the Microsoft Azure platform, delivers collaboration value for manufacturers. For more information on the Industrial SOE and Nexus, you can read the full blog post on the Hexagon site. You can also download the full white paper directly from Hexagon.
[post_title] => Hexagon Delivers a New Digital Industrial Platform to Accelerate Innovation
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => industrial-soe
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-05-07 14:02:16
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-05-07 18:02:16
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21886
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[3] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21911
[post_author] => 2
[post_date] => 2025-05-06 10:00:02
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-05-06 14:00:02
[post_content] =>
The Value of AI in Manufacturing is Accelerating
There is a lot of talk about the value of artificial intelligence in manufacturing, and rightfully so. Although AI isn't new, it appears to be reaching a tipping point where companies are more open to exploring its potential and AI techniques are more accessible than ever. Manufacturers are acting on the opportunity. Our recent Making Manufacturing Analytics and AI Matter research, for example, shows that 99% of manufacturers plan to invest in analytics and AI in the next year.
Further, AI has moved from the experimentation phase to the value phase. Our latest executive survey, Executive Strategies for Sustainable Business Success 2024, found that AI / ML (Machine Learning) was the most common application type providing value, with 88% of responding companies reporting they achieved business value from AI / ML. Further, these results can come quickly. The manufacturing analytics and AI study found that companies achieve fast ROI more frequently from advanced analytics / AI than from their other software investments. For example, the data shows that 73% of respondents received benefits from GenAI in less than a year.
Talking about AI Adoption with the Experts
Our research shows that AI / ML can drive value, and companies can achieve that value rapidly. But that value doesn't come from buying software. It comes from applying the right solution to solve a real problem. However, many manufacturers don't know where to start or how to implement these capabilities. To better understand how manufacturers can target and adopt AI, we sat down with two experienced consultants with real-world experience in helping manufacturers improve business value by adopting AI. We sat down with Kalypso: A Rockwell Automation Business's Senior Manager of Data Science and Digital Transformation, Chelsea Barnes and Master Data Consultant William Rosengarten to get their perspective. Let's see what they have to say!
What are Manufacturers Asking For Today?
Jim Brown
Kalypso works with a lot of manufacturing companies. What are manufacturers asking for related to their AI strategy and implementations?
Chelsea Barnes
At one end of the spectrum, some companies are enthusiastic but lack direction. They know they need to do something with AI because it's a buzzword or their CEO says it's important, but they don't know what that looks like. They need help setting a direction. On the other end of the spectrum, some clients have a very specific problem and sometimes possibly even a solution in mind, like needing a machine vision solution to detect malformities or burns on a chip because it's costing them $10 million in scrap every year. They need help validating and implementing a solution. But there's also a middle ground where companies have operational targets in mind and maybe some initial hypotheses about how to improve them but aren't sure where to start.
Regardless of what the starting point looks like, the core of the ask is the same. They want value delivered quickly, at scale, using the best advanced technologies available.
Targeting Business Value versus Technology
Jim Brown
I've known Kalypso for some time and I appreciate that you don't believe in technology for technology's sake but focus on adding business value. How do you get companies started or help them frame their problem?
Chelsea Barnes
We help them discover where their business problems really are and what technology solutions are best suited to those problems. Then, we bring those things together. When we talk to a company, they know their issues far better than we do. For example, the people operating a line will be able to specifically articulate what problems are happening and have a very good hypothesis as to why they’re happening. Then, we bring our business, operational, and technology expertise to those conversations so that they meet in the middle with solutions.
Jim Brown
One of the things I appreciate is that you're not just technologists. You are domain experts who understand operations and the manufacturing industry. For example, in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry, when you mentioned "burns on a chip," I knew right away you meant potato chips and not microprocessors. Can you tell me a little bit about why it's important that advisors don’t just approach their clients with AI knowledge, but also bring relevant business expertise to the table?
William Rosengarten
We're not coming in cold because we have a depth of expertise in the industry. We already have a point of view on the end goal. If a client comes to us with a problem, we know what best-in-class in the CPG industry looks like, so we can help them create a plan to achieve it.
Chelsea Barnes
Exactly. We bring together a variety of expertise to make that happen. We're coming in with a really solid set of hypotheses around what the problems typically are. We're familiar with approaches to improve quality yields and deal with issues like variable material inputs that cause problems for food and beverage clients. The specifics come from the client and their own knowledge, but our experience helps us get to a diagnosis more quickly.
Prioritizing the Right Opportunities
Jim Brown
In a recent cross-industry survey, we asked companies about their AI goals. The most common goals identified across industries were product and service innovation, product and service performance, and workforce efficiency. Those are essential in any industry. A survey specific to the manufacturing industry, however, clearly identified cost reduction as the most common investment driver. What are the CPG companies you're working with looking for?
Chelsea Barnes
We’re seeing the same thing on the ground. There are two macro trends that are really squeezing manufacturers right now. The first is inflation, which increases cost pressures. The other is workforce turnover, including a wave of seasoned specialists leaving the workforce, which puts a new sense of urgency on workforce efficiency. To meet those cost reduction and efficiency goals, the top AI use cases we hear are around quality control, process optimization and predictive and prescriptive maintenance.
William Rosengarten
We also see a common pain point in accessing the right data, especially when working with time series data. Five years ago or so, manufacturers felt they needed to capture everything from the plant floor, store it in the cloud, and historize it. So many manufacturers have created a giant haystack of all of their data, and they're struggling to find that needle that will drive specific use cases like the ones Chelsea is describing.
Justifying Projects
Jim Brown
With all of the potential projects you may identify with a client, how do you help them decide on what to focus on? Do you counsel them to focus on the most significant problems, or maybe try to have them find repeatable problems? Or is it purely the project with the largest ROI?
Chelsea Barnes
Manufacturers are absolutely looking at ROI. They need to understand how it will affect the process, the tangible value they will get from the initiative, and how they will measure achievement. It's critical that they know what their quantifiable goal is.
However, when it comes to investments in digital, sometimes the value isn’t as clear-cut as a 12-month payback. In some cases, companies are looking to stay ahead of the competition by operating on the bleeding edge of innovation. This might justify a more long-term investment approach to allow the transformation they’re looking for to take root.
Getting back to determining ROI, we’re big proponents of rapid use case identification and prioritization, where you quickly narrow down your short list of high-potential opportunities before investing too much time rigorously evaluating all options. To do this, you need a good value calculation framework, which we bring to all of our assessment projects. But,you also need the right technologists in the mix to help you quickly vet the solutions and estimate implementation complexity to understand the cost of an initiative.
Choosing the Right Technology
Jim Brown
Generative AI is on most peoples' minds and has become popular in conversations because of OpenAI and ChatGPT. However, many other AI and machine learning (ML) techniques are available. AI can be applied at different levels, ranging from companies wanting to retrieve data more effectively to the other end of the spectrum where they are pursuing AI-driven autonomous, real-time decisions to drive equipment behavior on the floor. How do you help your clients decide what technologies to apply for a specific problem?
Chelsea Barnes
We always start by confirming the business needs and what's the problem to solve now. Even if they come to us with a very specific request, like "I need a machine vision solution," we will diagnose the issue together and then confirm that's the right solution. We don't tell our clients to “go GenAI” their business. That wouldn't be good business for them, and it's not good business for us. We have a collection of tools in our toolbox to bring to this equation depending on the problem to solve and the data they have to work with.
William Rosengarten
We make sure to map technologies to business needs. For AI technologies, we consider:
What data types are we working with?
Is it structured data?
Is it time series data?
Is it natural language data?
What kind of action or decision are you trying to take?
What is the risk of error in that decision?
Is there a human interaction component that would be an essential decision-making factor?
The choice will be different if they just need to organize and retrieve data quickly or if they're looking for insights from the data they have. For example, you shouldn't use copilots for autonomous control, but it's valuable when a human is in the loop for decision-making. These questions help drive considerations about the modeling and architecture that should come into play.
Chelsea Barnes
We always look at what kind of algorithmic approach will be best suited for the scenario. While generative AI is the topic of the day, there are plenty of cases where you should not be using it. For example, a GenAI model will not help make a prediction to autonomously control a production process - think predicting fill by monitoring time series data so you can adjust your filler dosage so it comes exactly at target. It's just not suited to do that. But if you are trying to process something like a year's worth of shift logs to find anomalous patterns in those free text shift logs, that's a situation very well-suited for a large language model.
Two other important decision criteria in regulated scenarios are the risk of error and whether the results are explainable. GenAI models, which are neural networks, are by nature black boxes where you don't know how it arrived at a decision, so having a human operator in the loop is critical to confirm the results.
A Closer Look at Copilots
Jim Brown
AI copilots are gaining a lot of traction to streamline and improve human workflow. When do you find those applicable for your clients?
Chelsea Barnes
A copilot makes sense when they are trying to augment what a human can do, to make them more efficient in a process, or help them with the decisions that they are making. A good example for an operator would be a troubleshooting copilot. For example, a line is down and a fault code comes up. Instead of looking that up manually, the copilot could take the operator through a decision-making process and walk them through the troubleshooting steps.
Copilots are attractive because the manufacturing industry has not fully rebounded following COVID, and many companies still have jobs left unfilled. Retaining institutional knowledge in manufacturing is even more of an imminent and challenging concern as a substantial percentage of the workforce nears retirement. Many companies would love to get to lights-out manufacturing, but that can be decades away. So the goal is to find the best way to augment and assist the workforce they have. Copilots can help make them more productive and efficient, and equip them with decades of institutional knowledge, even if they haven't worked on the line for 15 years.
William Rosengarten
Agree. Copilot assistants are an excellent solution for capturing and retaining institutional knowledge. For example, they are very good at taking notes. A technician running a troubleshooting process is trying to get the line back up and running and typically doesn't have time to document what they're doing. They are making decisions on what steps to take based on their experience. A copilot could take notes about the decisions they make and the impacts they have on the troubleshooting process. Doing this creates a feedback loop that typically only exists in free text or just in a technician's head and tribal knowledge today. In that way, copilots can help guide troubleshooting and feed information into a knowledge repository to assist in future troubleshooting efforts.
Key Takeaways
You've shared a lot of insights into how manufacturers can identify the right business opportunities and apply AI to solve them. Two of my key takeaways are that it's essential to have industry expertise to help diagnose the problem and that it's critical to have diverse technical knowledge to be able to apply the right AI capabilities to get the job done. This is an exciting topic, and we'll stay in touch about it.
Thank you to Kalypso, a Rockwell Automation Business, and Hadley Bauer for arranging the interview. We learned a lot from the discussion and know manufacturers will, too.
[post_title] => Expert Interview: AI Adoption in Consumer Packaged Goods
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => ai-adoption
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-05-12 08:50:11
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-05-12 12:50:11
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21911
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[4] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21833
[post_author] => 2
[post_date] => 2025-04-25 09:30:45
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-04-25 13:30:45
[post_content] => How do leading companies drive sustainable business success?Tech-Clarity is conducting our 7th annual study on the challenges, strategies, and plans companies have to develop their products, services, supply chain, workforce, and business for long-term business success. Please complete this questionnaire, and we’ll send you a copy of the final report as a thank you. The survey should take no more than ten minutes to complete.
Individual responses will be kept confidential. Please feel free to forward this survey to others you feel have an opinion to share.
Thank you for your support, please check out our Active Research page for additional Tech-Clarity survey opportunities.
[post_title] => Strategies for Long-Term Success 2025+
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => business-strategy-2
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-04-25 09:53:05
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-04-25 13:53:05
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21833
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[5] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21810
[post_author] => 2574
[post_date] => 2025-04-17 09:00:51
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-04-17 13:00:51
[post_content] => How can recipe-based producers ensure cost-efficiency and consistent, high-quality products no matter where they are formulated or produced? By implementing enterprise recipe management (ERM) with a manufacturing execution system (MES) to deliver closed-loop data flows in and out of production. Leading Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), specialty chemical, and other manufacturers are standardizing for ERM. Quite a bit of technology is required to digitalize this recipe transformation process (recipe management, PLM, digital twin. MES), but the value of eliminating inefficiencies, speeding product launches, and cross-disciplinary collaboration creates an excellent payback.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens (registration required).
Table of Contents
Product Consistency: Key to Brand Success
Meeting Market Trends and Realities
Why Enterprise Recipe Management Matters
The Recipe Management Process
Changing Recipes and Production
Multi-Disciplinary Workflows
Bridging Differences and Disconnects
Recipe Management Across the Enterprise
Common Challenges for Enterprisewide Recipe Management
Technology Challenges to Overcome for Enterprise Recipe Management
Added Challenges for Enterprise Recipe Management
ERM Solutions Have Data Management at the Core
Creating ERM Data Flows
MES’ Role in ERM
Top MES Requirements for ERM
The ERM Digital Thread
Recipe Management Success
Acknowledgments
Product Consistency: Key to Brand Success
Recipes Matter
Managing recipes efficiently and executing them for product consistency on a global scale can be the difference between market leadership and brand disaster for fast-moving consumer packaged goods (CPG or FMCG) and their suppliers. Yet, enterprise recipe management (ERM) is fraught with challenges that can damage margins.
Software for Enterprise Recipe Management
There are plenty of challenges, but fortunately, some known paths forward. Overlaying current systems with a way to standardize and reuse recipe elements is crucial. ERM needs rules, models, and libraries, as well as data flows among various applications. Do not underestimate the pivotal role a suitable and well-integrated manufacturing execution system (MES) plays in the overall picture of enterprise recipe management. It executes the recipes and can send in-context as-produced data from the actual process back to recipe authors to populate libraries accurately and drive improvement.
Multi-Disciplinary Workflows
The ERM ConceptStandardization is at the heart of enterprise success with recipe management. Companies must standardize many interdependent elements for ERM to work. One of the drivers behind the ISA88 standard, Dennis Brandl, explains that the ERM concept is “Standard product descriptions based on standard definitions of manufacturing operations, based on standard quality attribute definitions, based on standard process parameter and process report definitions.” This illustrates the many layers and facets to standardize for ERM.
ERM in Innovation
The NPDI process begins with innovation. This, in itself, is a multi-disciplinary effort, typically including:
R&D with their associated labs and scientists
Marketing and consumer research
Product development
Packaging design and development
ERM in Operations
A significant challenge is to scale up the recipes from the lab to operation in dozens of plants. On the operations side, again, many disciplines must participate in the recipe transformation process and scale up to full production. These include:
Process and manufacturing engineering
Operations or production or manufacturing
Quality
Food safety & regulatory
Materials, procurement & supply chain management
Manufacturing or production IT
Automation, controls engineering, and operations technology (OT)
Creating ERM Data Flows
Impact Analysis
To succeed, ERM must also include impact analysis. For every change in formulation, materials, equipment, or regulation, the system should review whether to update bills of materials and other recipe details, operations, and work packages. Having all the data does not automatically make this impact analysis effective or efficient. Having it centralized does improve the odds of good impact analysis as well as use for other analytics functions or artificial intelligence (AI).
Many Systems
ERM typically requires integration between MES and PLM, plus PLM or MES and Batch systems, possibly also integration between MES and ERP or PLM and ERP. For ongoing accuracy and best production results, automation and MES are also connected for complete process data sets without overwhelming the enterprise systems. In the ideal scenario, MES, PLM, ERP, and ERM are integrated through a process digital twin that accurately reflects the product and data flows in virtual form.
Solutions for ERM
A special set of capabilities is needed for a true ERM solution. Data from multiple systems is one aspect, and data management to handle the recipe data volumes, complexities, and contingencies are all key. Handling recipe transformations, testing, and validation will also typically require special software capabilities. These ERM integrated solutions do exist today, butare not yet in common use. With MES, the as-produced data can readily be fed back to ensure the ERM libraries, models, and rules reflect best practices.
Recipe Management Success
ERM for Success
Enterprise Recipe Management eliminates inefficiencies and empowers teams to focus on value-added tasks by streamlining processes, reducing manual work, and enabling better resource allocation. Beyond reducing time to market and improving product quality, ERM allows the company to be more agile and adapt to change faster. One measure of success is how many recipes are directly downloaded and executed at top quality with minimal intervention from local operators.
Benefits to Expect
Creating an ERM digital thread can deliver significant benefits to multi-site, fast-moving consumer goods companies. Benefits that are a hallmark of ERM success span the lifecycle. They start with accelerated innovation, then faster NPDI or speed to market. ERM should also deliver improved product quality assurance and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Better understanding the impact of changes and decisions can lead to increased efficiency, improved product quality, and lower brand risk.
Building an ROI Case
Calculating potential value from ERM has many facets. Some factors to consider are reduction of labor, time, utilities, other costs based on a consistent source of data, quick recipe conversion, and less test batch engineering time. MESA White Paper #49 includes a basic spreadsheet approach.6
MES Optimizes ERM
Every product’s quality relies on the execution of the recipe at a line or cell in a plant; that’s where MES ensures execution matches the recipe's intent. ERM also uses MES's accurate data on plant capacity, production capabilities, and recipe compliance. Finally, MES data on ‘actuals’ from every batch inform everyone of how that recipe is performing, for brand success.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full report, please visit our sponsor Siemens.If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.
[post_title] => How MES Supports Enterprise Recipe Management
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => enterprise-recipe-management
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-04-17 09:33:42
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-04-17 13:33:42
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21810
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[6] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21799
[post_author] => 2572
[post_date] => 2025-04-10 10:00:37
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-04-10 14:00:37
[post_content] =>
We recently had a chance to catch up with Siemens Digital Industries Software and get an update on NX. We heard about recent developments, the latest strategic direction for #CAD, their efforts to support comprehensive workflows, and progress to enable a Model-Based Enterprise (MBE). Here are a few of the highlights.
NX Innovation and Customer Adoption
The NX team at Siemens has been very busy. They are on a continuous release cycle, with major releases every December and June. The 4200 enhancements and 45 patents reflect the level of innovation investment over the last year. At the same time, they maintain high levels of quality, as 75% of NX customers are on a release from 2024 or 2023. They've also added over 1000 new customer logos, especially in the SMB space. Their cloud offering, NX X, largely drove this. Additionally, they continue to receive awards from peer review sites like G2 and Trust Radius.
Introducing Designcenter
On January 6, 2025, at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, Siemens introduced Designcenter.
Designcenter is a new brand that combines both CAD products, NX and Solid Edge, to provide a single scalable mechanical CAD offering. The intent is to offer comprehensive workflows that integrate with Teamcenter and Simcenter to provide a seamless experience across design, simulation, and manufacturing.
Both NX and Solid Edge are built on the same Parasolid kernel, making it easier to work with Solid Edge models in NX and vice versa. Over the last couple of years, Siemens has invested in evolving the user interfaces to give them a similar look and feel, making it easier for users to switch between the products. Designcenter furthers this approach to bring the two brands closer.
Scalable and Comprehensive
To meet customer needs, whether they are a large, medium, or small enterprise, Designcenter offers four options:
Essentials
Standard
Advanced
Premium
Essentials is the rebranded product that was formerly Zel X. Standard, Advanced, and Premium are tiered offerings so that customers can match the package with their needs, yet have options to scale should their requirements evolve. All three include built-in data management.
Within these packages, NX offers extensive capabilities for typical parts, assemblies, and drawings. However, based on the business, organizational function, industry, project stage, and supply chain role, some users may need more specialized functionality that is available in an optional module. In the past, it was difficult to justify the investment in an optional module, especially if it was for functionality that wasn't needed regularly. Siemens has addressed this challenge with a value-based licensing model for NX. This concept has worked well in the Simulation/CAE space to give users access to specialized analyses when needed, so it makes sense to apply it to CAD as well.
NX's value-based licensing model uses tokens for optional modules, which allows customers to use and return tokens for different functionalities. The intent is to give customers a cost-effective, flexible way to access specialized functionality when needed. For example, an aerospace company may want to use the token pool to take advantage of optional modules to design machined aerospace components or composite parts.
Enabling a Model-Based Enterprise (MBE)
Tech-Clarity’s research has found that while companies who have started the journey to adopt MBE report many benefits, including better traceability, greater agility, and faster time to market, there are still many barriers to adoption. Interestingly, people and culture challenges are even bigger obstacles than either technology or process challenges. To overcome this, the Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI) embedded in the CAD model needs to become more consumable to downstream departments. Siemens is looking to do this with NX Stage Models, which help manufacturing engineers decompose design models into manufacturing stages, and a new NX Inspector, which supports a new standard for model-based characteristics.
In 2024, the DMSC™, an ANSI Accredited Standards Developing Organization and an ISO A-Liaison, released the Model-Based Characteristics Standard (MBC). The new MBC standard defines a common approach for tagging and uniquely identifying product characteristics for quality processes in a way that makes the PMI both human-readable and machine-readable. This is a giant step toward making PMI more usable, which should encourage MBE initiatives. By supporting this new standard, NX Inspector provides a mechanism for automating inspection plans based on the PMI in the CAD model.
Our Take
It is nice to see all the effort into making NX more accessible, especially to smaller and medium-sized enterprises. Solid Edge customers should also have an easier path to scale up to more advanced capabilities as they need them. The token-based licensing model is also a nice way to make advanced, productivity-improving capabilities available to more users.
What's really exciting to us is the MBE capabilities. The MBE capabilities should be particularly interesting to the Aerospace and Defense industry, which has shown the most interest in MBE.
The vision to move away from 2D drawings has been around for well over 20 years now, but manufacturing still largely follows a 2D-driven process. Capabilities that leverage semantic PMI to automate downstream processes should go a long way to finally realize that vision. The functionality offered by NX Inspector that supports an opportunity to automate inspection plans based on the 3D model is a big step forward. It should save significant time and reduce the risk of errors introduced with traditional, manual processes that leverage a 2D drawing. This should lead to efficiency gains, which will be a huge motivator for adopting an MBE approach. We look forward to seeing how this evolves, especially as Siemens works towards integrating metrology within its digital industries.
[post_title] => A Siemens NX Update: Extending Access and MBE
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => siemens-nx
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-05-05 19:40:09
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-05-05 23:40:09
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21799
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[7] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21746
[post_author] => 2574
[post_date] => 2025-04-08 09:00:15
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-04-08 13:00:15
[post_content] => Where’s the best place to start in improving supply chain resilience? Our research shows it’s inside the company. Many companies will need to start new initiatives and make additional investments to ensure their data is flowing for supply chain internal value. Data sharing and collaboration are crucial within supply chain disciplines, but also throughout the company between supply chain and engineering, manufacturing engineering, and the plant floor.Supply chain and business disruptions are normal and often have severe negative impacts. Some of those factors are outside a company’s control, so most companies are investing in supply chain resilience (70%). Supply chain leaders must invest to tackle the #1 supply chain issue for executives: risk. Most companies need to do more to manage effectively and stay agile in the face of uncertainty, volatility, and ever-changing issues.So, what to do? Change suppliers? Move production? Pull more production in-house and away from external suppliers? Improve design for supply? All of those might have good results.Supply Chain resilience inside is the key. Gaining visibility into the product development and manufacturing or “make” areas of the company are crucial differentiators for those companies doing well. How would it be to see changes to products or production capabilities within an hour? Companies that can do that are performing better. Our research suggests that strong data flows across the company are a foundation for supply chain resilience.Yet for many companies, this will require setting up new initiatives and investing at an enterprise level. Some of the changes might be in employee metrics and incentives to foster collaboration. Another idea is to invest in software that might have agentic AI, improved integration, or multi-tier planning and response capabilities.Read Julie Fraser’s article in the Global Links section of Supply Chain Management Review that went live in March 2025. The above is a summary, and the full PDF of the article is linked here.Thanks to Richard Sherman and Supply Chain Management Reviewfor the opportunity to share our views.
[post_title] => Starting Inside the Company: Supply Chain Resilience Requires New Initiatives and Investments
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => supply-chain-resilience-inside
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-04-08 09:05:44
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-04-08 13:05:44
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21746
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[8] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21722
[post_author] => 2574
[post_date] => 2025-04-02 10:00:30
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-04-02 14:00:30
[post_content] => How can companies be sure to gain value from manufacturing analytics and AI projects? It turns out benefits are ubiquitous for those who have invested. Yet the Top Performers in our new survey of over 400 manufacturing respondents indicates some key differences that improve their results.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor MESA International (registration required).
Table of Contents
It's Time to Invest in Analytics and AI
Why Invest in Manufacturing Operations and Analytics
Business Challenges
Smart Manufacturing Journey
Smart Manufacturing Progress
Investment Outcomes
Analytics May Pay Off Faster Than Other Software
Analytics and AI Deliver Benefits that Matter
Top Performers Are Role Models
Smarter Manufacturing
Descriptive Analytics
Predictive Analytics
Predictive Analytics Hurdles
Overcoming the Challenges
Predictive Analytics Benefits
Generative AI and Analytics to Support and Guide
GenAI Hurdles
GenAI Benefits
Rapid Benefits from GenAI
Manufacturing DataOps Needs Improvement
Industry-Specific AI
Key Takeaways
Recommendations
About the Research
Acknowledgments
It’s Time to Invest in Analytics and AI
Analytics and AI Deliver Value to ManufacturingAnalytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are hot topics in manufacturing operations today. This research explores what companies are doing, why, and how. The data from 423 responses from companies that manufacture or produce worldwide is conclusive. Those investing in Analytics and AI are gaining substantial benefits. The benefits matter, as they are in the areas that match their objectives: cost, efficiency/productivity, quality, and error-proofing most commonly.100% of these respondents are facing significant challenges, and 99% are investing in manufacturing operations, analytics, and AI to address them. Those using analytics and AI longer tend to see benefits in more areas.Top Performers doing better on operations metrics are also outperforming Others on business metrics. What are they doing differently? More of them are using dashboards, analytics, and AI. They also prioritize use cases based on business value.
Analytics May Pay Off Faster Than Other Software
Quick Positive Impact
Investments are always made to yield a return or positive impact. Just as the previous time MESA partnered to conduct this research2, advanced analytics was the top application for rapidly delivering ROI. Nearly a third of the respondents gained the value of analytics and AI relatively rapidly.
Changes Over Time
We suspect many of the changes between 2022 and 2025 are due to the different sets of respondents. Other possible reasons for the significant changes: The big new drive to AI in the past couple of years is likely a factor in its more prominent showing. Maintenance and asset management have been a focus of predictive analytics. In contrast, sustainability has moved into the realm of legal and regulatory requirements, which may be slowing the benefits.
Critical Data
Each use case will require a specific set of data. New technologies make it easier to identify and extract essential data from existing sources.
Data Foundation
Most of these projects require modeling and data-cleansing efforts to deliver benefits. Companies gaining rapid benefits from analytics and AI will likely already have a good data foundation.
Paving the Path to Value
Companies may get a solid data foundation by implementing some of the other systems on this list, such as ERP, Asset Management, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) or Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM).
Analytics and AI Deliver Benefits That Matter
100% Gaining BenefitsAnalytics projects are delivering significant benefits that support top drivers and help meet challenges. Every one of these respondents (100%) reports gaining benefits from analytics programs, which is excellent news for our industries.CostCost reduction is the #1 driver (p. 4) and actual benefit. Most companies know they could lower costs, but analytics and AI can help to pinpoint where to focus efforts. Predictive and preventive analytics can avoid an array of unnecessary expenses due to waste.Efficiency & QualityEfficiency contributes to cost and indicates people are effective, even in the face of a skilled workforce shortage. Error-proofing is necessary for less skilled staff, and even more experienced staff can benefit from error-proofing when change is rapid, the product mix through the plant is high, or specifications change frequently.What Customers NeedOn-time perfect orders make the company a reliable supplier, leading to revenue opportunities and being viewed as trustworthy in these uncertain times. Customers also seek quality; internally that lowers costs, increases revenue opportunity, improves supply chain resilience, and enhances sustainability.And MoreOther areas where respondents report significant benefits from analytics programs include:
Office visibility into performance (22%), which is crucial to executives and other disciplines since manufacturing is at the center of the company.
Planning and scheduling at 21% is heavily dependent on insights and is inherently an analytical process.
Customer satisfaction and collaboration (20%) based on analyzed data and sharing insights can drive revenue.
Some get benefits in waste/scrap/energy, asset performance and uptime, comparability among lines or sites, employee satisfaction, supplier issues, and returns or warranty costs.
Key Takeaways
Progress: Manufacturers are moving along the Smart Manufacturing path. Many have multiple projects underway or are already seeing results.
Seeking Data Outcomes: Manufacturers are seeking some fundamental data management outcomes from their investments, such as easy access to high-quality, timely, complete plant data for plant employees and integration of equipment, plant, and enterprise data.
Interested in New Technologies: Many are also focused on advanced analytics and IIoT.
Varied Drivers: What matters most to manufacturers right now varies, but cost reduction, supply chain resilience, sustainability, workforce skills, and revenue opportunity top the list.
AI Delivering Benefits: Fortunately, AI in all its forms is delivering benefits in desired areas. Benefits come relatively quickly, with expected payback often in less than a year.
Supporting Operations: AI can help fill the knowledge gap in today’s workforce, driving efficiency and guiding people.
Key Differences: Top Performers are more likely to have organizational structures, capabilities, and technologies to support their success.
Room for Improvement: Nearly all manufacturers we surveyed could improve their data management, governance, accessibility, and operations. We are growing as an industry in this area.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our research partner MESA International, where the full report is available for members.
Tech-Clarity and MESA have made anexecutive summary available for the public as well.This research was sponsored by and is also licensed to Aegis Software, Arch Systems, Epicor, and GE Vernova.If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.
[post_title] => Making Manufacturing Analytics and AI Matter
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => manufacturing-analytics-and-ai
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-04-07 19:43:21
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-04-07 23:43:21
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21722
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[9] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21790
[post_author] => 2574
[post_date] => 2025-03-25 10:00:48
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-03-25 14:00:48
[post_content] =>
What does it take to digitalize assembly, an area where people must participate? Quite a lot, especially with complex configured products. Over time, MTEK Industry AB has consistently focused on developing software to support complex discrete assembly operations. They keep adding functionality in MOM and beyond to the MBrain digital production system. Integrating to equipment, informing people, and improving are core. They recently added a no-code IT integration platform, Mint, for enterprise data flow. They are delivering value in weeks.
Assembly Focus
For several years, MTEK has focused on creating no-code software that supports manufacturers with complex discrete manufacturing operations typically characterized by configured products, takted or untakted assembly flows, and a high reliance on manual operations. This market has largely been underserved, partly because it’s very complex and changes frequently, often for every configured product (“batch-size one”). Most of these companies have some equipment and automation, but many operations also rely on people since variation is generally the enemy of automation. MTEK started in 2002 as a manufacturing excellence consulting company, so its roots are deep in these industries.
Broad Functionality
Not constrained by what is traditionally included in MES, they have built many functions. MTEK calls it a Digital Production System. MBrain has core functions focused on delivering visibility, a large variety of “make” functions, and a suite of “improve” functions to make lean best practices digital. These functions support specific assembly challenges such as planning, andon, configuration QA, line tolerance, and user competences.
Traditionally, this scope might require four or five specialized systems besides MES. Because it’s no-code, once a customer gets proficient, they can – and typically do – expand it further to meet their specific needs.
Start Where You Are
Anyone who has worked in an assembly operation, particularly a takted one, knows how critical the processes are to keeping products flowing through the plant. MBrain includes a Process, or Method Builder, which is the core tool for constructing a digital replica of the logic of your production and the heart of why MBrain sets out to be a Digital Production System.
They encourage customers to start by mapping their current methods and keep working as they have. Given the no-code design, manufacturers can use the system to identify areas for improvement and then implement them. With more rigid system architectures, clients typically need to identify the “to-be” state before implementation. MTEK challenges that logic and way of working with a more flexible tool.
They can use or later add elements such as getting product data from PLM, reporting materials consumption to ERP, pushing a recipe to a machine, or printing a label. The great news is that customers can view the method or workflow in production, maintenance, quality, etc., at any level of granularity. This supports both skilled and less skilled workers at just the level they need.
Mid-Size Operations Typically
While manufacturers are all different, the MTEK team realized these complex assembly operations have a typical profile. Whether the plant is part of a larger group or the company's entire operations, the facilities are typically 100-250 people, with around $100M in output (+/- 50%). They are often in smaller towns, which limits how large operations can be. Typically, even larger companies are also built by acquiring many smaller operations – meaning there are geographical and historical reasons for the size of a typical plant in discrete manufacturing and assembly. Focusing on this scope of operation, they knew a traditional multi-million dollar, multi-year MES implementation was not the best approach. MTEK’s no-code approach enables MBrain to be both affordable and configurable to the specific operating needs of each customer.
Microsoft Azure IoT Operations Partner
In November 2024, Microsoft’s Azure IoT Operations included MTEK as a launch partner. This is a prestigious position in the Microsoft Adaptive Cloud approach for cloud-to-edge connectivity in manufacturing. Using the Mint and MTalk elements of MTEK’s digital production system, data from equipment, sensors, IoT devices, and adjacent IT systems can feed not only MBrain but also cloud-based analytics. MTEK is strong on its own, but the Microsoft partnership illustrates the advanced nature of their software architecture to enable scaling.
No-Code Mint for IT Integration
The new addition to the MTEK product family is a no-code integration platform, Mint. This innovation from MTEK was originally designed to remove the barrier to growth created by the monetary cost and delay caused by traditional integration work.
As the platform has been deployed with clients, however, MTEK has noticed that the bulk of the value comes from creating a much more integrated systems architecture and event-driven IT/OT stack. Gaining data flows among IT systems can be a powerful and transformative step for manufacturers. The goal is not just to integrate IT systems but to integrate and automate business processes seamlessly. This patent-pending approach to integration can serve MBrain customers and others.
Customer Success
Much of the breadth of functionality has come from customer needs. Since 2020, MTEK has had success with complex discrete assembly customers, including many larger companies whose names you recognize. In one larger company, Accenture was the service partner and saw the value of MBrain. With this no-code approach, many customers report seeing results in a couple of weeks after starting to deploy MBrain. This is not possible with traditional full-code manufacturing software. With the improved IT integration of Mint, the value of these deployments could continue to grow even beyond the MBrain functional footprint.
Solid Combination
No-code, but with built-out functionality out of the box as a starting point, is a strong starting point. Adding so much functionality beyond traditional MES allows MTEK to lay claim to a larger footprint and deliver more value. Integrating the lean tools natively gives continuous improvement a leg up. Integration to automation with MTalk supports automated aspects of the operation. Adding the Mint integration platform addresses one of the most troubling issues in manufacturing digital transformation, helping data flow among systems across the company.
Assembling for the Future
We are convinced that assembly-based manufacturers should explore the MTEK Digital Production System. It seems to have both industry-specific functions that are ready to use and extreme configurability with the no-code approach. Thank you, Tord Johnson and Oscar Wallner, for updating me.
[post_title] => MTEK’s Digital Production System Delivers Value for Complex Assembly in Weeks
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => digital-production-system
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-04-11 11:47:17
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-04-11 15:47:17
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21790
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[10] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21705
[post_author] => 2
[post_date] => 2025-03-25 09:00:46
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-03-25 13:00:46
[post_content] => How does expanding PLM beyond engineering to support the digital thread from requirements through commercialization help manufacturers launch quality products that meet regulatory demands and customer expectations? How can companies take an end-to-end PLM approach to drive better new product success? Join the Meet the Pros: New Solutions & Expert Advice To Help You Achieve Product Success webinar to hear Jim Brown share Tech-Clarity’s research on how Top Performers get the most out of PLM to drive better, more profitable products. Jim will join Propel experts who will share their perspectives on a more valuable approach to PLM and directly share some announcements and answer questions about their offerings.
[post_title] => How an End-to-End PLM Approach Drives Product Success
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => product-success
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-03-25 09:24:44
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-03-25 13:24:44
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21705
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[11] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21775
[post_author] => 2580
[post_date] => 2025-03-17 10:00:13
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-03-17 14:00:13
[post_content] =>
The Case for Boosting Digital Transformation with Low-Code
Why should Siemens Xcelerator customers embrace low-code capabilities from Mendix, a Siemens Digital Industries Software Business, to accelerate their #digitaltransformation journey?
In today’s fast-paced manufacturing environment, using data from various sources to make informed decisions is crucial for operating profitably. This dynamic data often resides in systems like ERP, CRM, PLM, and MES. However, most manufacturers lack the resources to rapidly develop and deploy software applications integrating data from these systems. IT teams struggle to meet these needs, often too company-specific for solution providers like Siemens to address directly.
Our research, Filling Digital Transformation Gaps with Applications, found that digital transformation increases the speed of change, demands more agility, and creates the need for more (and faster) software development. The survey also found, however, that manufacturers using low-code development are better able to fill their digital transformation gaps to meet their evolving needs.
To stay competitive, manufacturers must repurpose existing solutions, connect them, and augment them with new capabilities. Mendix, Siemens’ low-code platform, enables this adaptability. A recent Mendix briefing to Tech-Clarity analysts shed light on their strategy for helping manufacturers efficiently extend and enhance their core systems.
Adapt and Extend Siemens Xcelerator with Mendix
Mendix makes low-code available for any industry, but Siemens has invested in making Mendix more valuable for industrial customers using Siemens’ existing solutions. There are two ways Siemens customers can use Mendix to extend their product development and manufacturing data:
Use the Mendix platform to build applications: Manufacturers can use the Mendix platform to easily build and manage applications. Its low-code capabilities empower teams to develop, deploy, and maintain applications more efficiently, which is helpful to get the most out of limited IT resources. Mendix enables application developers to integrate data from Siemens solutions like Teamcenter (PLM) and Opcenter (MES) and make it available to more users. Additionally, it supports external data sources such as ERP, allowing manufacturers to create comprehensive, composite applications that unify multiple systems. By centralizing data and providing access to stakeholders, Mendix helps manufacturers make informed business decisions.
Use Mendix capabilities embedded in Siemens Xcelerator products: Siemens has strategically embedded Mendix low-code technology within its core Xcelerator portfolio, driving greater flexibility and accessibility. Key Mendix functionalities are already integrated into Opcenter (see our earlier Insight on Mendix Lowcode for Industrial Applications), enabling users to personalize, extend, and enhance the way they use Opcenter in their factories. Siemens is set to embed Mendix into Teamcenter Active Workspace, extending Teamcenter’s existing configurable user experience and empowering product development teams to seamlessly connect and enrich their data with Mendix-powered solutions. This will further the ability of Teamcenter, providing additional capabilities beyond what is available today. This deep integration ensures manufacturers can rapidly adapt to evolving business needs and unlock new levels of efficiency.
Do More with AI, Integrate New Technologies
No briefing today is complete without the mention of #AI, and the Mendix team delivered. Developers can harness AI-assisted development in Mendix to streamline and enhance the application-building process. This capability provides real-time guidance, helping both novice and experienced users develop applications faster, with fewer errors, and accelerating their path to expertise. Beyond the AI capabilities of Mendix itself, Mendix’s low-code approach allows companies to embed new technology, including AI, into their existing solutions. Mendix also enables seamless integration of Generative AI, allowing manufacturers to build intelligent, AI-augmented applications that enhance decision-making, automate processes, and drive greater efficiency across their operations.
Accelerate Digital Transformation and Stay Competitive with Mendix
Mendix offers Siemens Xcelerator customers a new way to stay competitive by enabling rapid custom-application development, seamless data integration from core systems such as PLM, MES, ERP, QMS, and CRM, and leveraging AI. Whether building stand-alone custom Mendix applications or leveraging embedded low-code capabilities within Siemens solutions, Mendix offers manufacturers the potential to enhance agility and drive smarter decision-making. With Mendix, Siemens aims to help manufacturers gain the flexibility to adapt and extend their systems to meet rapidly changing business needs and unlock new efficiencies, ensuring they stay profitable in an increasingly digital and data-driven world. Thank you, UV Subba Rao, Gregory Rosa, and Shaun Ennis, for updating us on Mendix's latest developments.
Facing Skill Shortages, Intense Competition, and Supply Chain Chaos? Are You Ready to Adapt?
In today's volatile market, operational agility is no longer a luxury—it's a necessity to future-proof your manufacturing operations. Our own researcher Julie Fraser joined a panel of experts from electronics, powder coatings, and building products for an interactivewebinar on April 9, 2025. Watch our replay below to discover how to navigate these challenges and transform your operations for success. Don't get left behind.The manufacturing industry is evolving rapidly, with a barrage of significant new challenges. To stay competitive, manufacturers need clear, data-driven insights to optimize operations and keep up with constant change.New research from MESA International and Tech-Clarity explores how AI and analytics are being used to drive efficiency, improve decision-making, and strengthen resilience in manufacturing. This webinar uses the research findings as a platform to dive into real-world success stories and practical strategies to help you leverage AI effectively.Listen to this panel discussion to discover:
Why companies embark on a smart manufacturing journey
Proven AI and analytics strategies for manufacturing success
Common barriers to AI adoption and how to overcome them
Best practices for preparing people, process, and technology
How to choose AI solutions that align with your business goals
Julie shared results of the new research “Making Manufacturing Analytics and AI Matter” that was published with support from not-for-profit association MESA International. Panelists who manage software programs for their manufacturing companies discuss their experiences. David Batet of DigiProces; Nasser Ahmad of Höganäs; and Jason Bassett of Madsens Custom Cabinets share what they have experienced in working with smart manufacturing technologies, analytics, and AI.Learn how these manufacturers are future-proofing their manufacturing operations. If you missed the IndustryWeeksession and the discussion on April 9th, 2025, please watch the replay here and below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1TzxgRNF_Y
[post_title] => Future-Proof Your Manufacturing Operations: Stories of the Journey to Confident Agility with AI
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => future-proof-your-manufacturing-operations
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-05-02 14:13:17
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-05-02 18:13:17
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21685
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[13] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21654
[post_author] => 2572
[post_date] => 2025-03-11 11:20:22
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-03-11 15:20:22
[post_content] => How do you accelerate the co-development of hardware and software for your products?Today's products increasingly rely on software for innovation. Yet, development teams follow different processes and use separate tools to support the engineering and development of hardware and software. This creates silos within the development team that causes breakdowns in communication and hurts efficiency. Then, the inevitable errors and bottlenecks drive up costs. By integrating Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for hardware and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) for software, engineering teams can overcome development silos. This will enable more efficient processes that accelerate the development of higher-quality products. This buyer's guide reveals buying criteria to select the right solutions for integrating PLM and ALM.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor PTC (registration required).
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Why Integrate?
The Value of a Digital Thread
How Will Integrating ALM and PLM Help?
1. Requirements Management
2. Change Management
3. Configuration / Variant Management
4. Test Management
5. Regulatory Compliance
Adoption and Implementation
Vendor Considerations
Specific Company Needs
Conclusions and Next Steps
Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
ALM and PLM
As fierce market competition drives companies to get to market faster with innovative products, companies need to empower their development teams to be as efficient as possible. Products continue to become increasingly complex, and software plays an ever-growing role in innovation. Silos between development teams increase the risks of problems which drive up costs and cause delays. One way to overcome these silos is to integrate ALM and PLM.
Introducing This Guide
By integrating ALM and PLM, companies will enable improved collaboration, better traceability with a digital thread, and earlier visibility into potential problems. This will result in a more efficient development process while reducing the risk of finding errors late in the process, helping to avoid delays and increased costs. This buyer's guide will help manufacturers select the right software for an integrated ALM and PLM solution.
How to Use This Guide
This guide comprises four major sections covering software tool functionality, service requirements, vendor attributes, and special company considerations. Each section includes a checklist of key requirements to support your selection process.
This guide does not focus on buyer criteria for PLM or ALM solutions, but rather criteria to support key processes that should span both systems as an integrated solution. It is not an all-encompassing requirements list, but provides a high-level overview of criteria considerations.
Why Integrate
Growing Importance of Software
Software is increasingly becoming a major source of innovation, increasing its importance in product development. Yet, despite its criticality, many companies develop it separately from the hardware. As a result, companies experience many challenges that make the jobs of engineers much harder.
Business Cost
While engineers have done their best to develop processes to deal with the challenges associated with siloed development teams, the increasing complexity and growing requirements make it easy to overlook errors. These errors come at a business cost. Companies can avoid this cost by adapting their development processes to support a more integrated multi-disciplinary approach.
The Value of a Digital Thread
Overcome Silos
Hardware and software follow different development methods. The rigor of hardware development has led many companies to adopt PLM to help them manage it. Meanwhile, software is developed at a much faster pace, often following the Agile Methodology. ALM solutions have been tailored to support the rapid software development process.
With so much innovation coming from software, software needs to iterate quickly and should not be slowed down by hardware's slower pace. However, keeping the systems separate prevents processes from being managed across disciplines, resulting in companies missing out on opportunities to improve efficiency.
Disconnected systems make it hard for engineers to find what they need. They are also unsure if they can trust data as they don't have visibility into changes that impact them. Inefficiency results in engineers wasting 33% of their time on non-value-added work. This non-value-added work includes things like searching for information and recreating work. They often don't even know if they are working with the latest information.
Integrate ALM and PLM
One way to overcome this is to integrate ALM and PLM. This integration will create a digital thread across the development process, resulting in multiple business benefits (see graphic).
Conclusions and Next Steps
Accelerate Development
With fierce global competition, companies must accelerate their development processes without adding cost or hurting quality. Engineering teams need to be as efficient as possible, yet wasted effort often hinders the development of today’s complex products. Inherent silos across engineering disciplines are often a major contributor to this wasted effort. As software continues to be a significant innovation driver, companies that empower their development teams by overcoming these silos will enjoy a competitive advantage. Integrating ALM and PLM can be a way to achieve this. By bringing these solutions together, you will create a digital thread across the hardware and software, enabling efficiencies that make it harder for competitors to compete against.
Select the Right Solutions for Your Company
Integrating ALM and PLM allows you to create a digital thread across hardware and software development. With traceability to support the management of requirements, changes, configurations, testing, and regulatory compliance, engineers will have greater confidence in their data, resulting in fewer errors, lower costs, and less wasted time. To select the right solutions to integrate ALM and PLM, consider not just software capabilities, but also factors like implementation, adoption, vendor considerations, and your specific company needs.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full report, please visit our sponsor PTC.If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.
[post_title] => Integrating ALM and PLM Buyer’s Guide
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => alm-and-plm
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-03-11 11:20:22
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-03-11 15:20:22
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21654
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[14] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21629
[post_author] => 2580
[post_date] => 2025-03-06 09:00:29
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-03-06 14:00:29
[post_content] => As highlighted in a Tech-Clarity eBook, “Extending the Digital Thread to the Customer Experience,” manufacturers who maintain accurate, up-to-date, and trusted digital thread data with complete service and maintenance records offer superior customer experience. Additionally, these manufacturers reduce service costs and increase customer confidence by avoiding multiple service visits and fixing issues perfectly the first time. How can manufacturers delight customers with superior service and drive more profitability? This game-based infographic explores how maintaining accurate service and maintenance records can improve profitability and customer loyalty. It sheds light on how manufacturers can improve their first-time fix rates, optimize spare parts inventory costs, upsell new services and upgrades, convert service records into a strategic asset, and enhance machine quality. Click here to download thefull infographic. For more information about improving service performance and profitability, please visit our sponsorSiemens.
[post_title] => Improve Profitability and Customer Loyalty by Maintaining Accurate Service Records
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => accurate-service-records
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-03-06 09:53:19
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-03-06 14:53:19
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21629
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[15] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21675
[post_author] => 2574
[post_date] => 2025-03-03 12:14:27
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-03-03 17:14:27
[post_content] =>
Can you reimagine how people interact with enterprise software? Epicor is doing just that. Their announcement of the Prism agentic AI network and orchestrator takes the next step in moving from a system of record to a system of action.
Prism includes conversational AI for employees to interact with ERP, and Epicor plans to integrate automation and causal AI in the future.
Core Agent Capabilities
Kinetic, Epicor’s manufacturing-focused ERP, already has five types of Prism vertical AI agents. The graphic below illustrates and describes the specialized functions of these semiautonomous, pre-trained bots.
Prism's agents use LLM and RAG technologies. While LLMs and related generative AI excel at understanding unstructured data like documents, they struggle with structured data typically found in ERP systems. Prism's first innovation is its ability to navigate ERP structured data effectively.
These agents can answer questions and create filtered lists in multiple ways.
Most ERP users need only particular portions of the whole data set to perform their tasks, and Prism can streamline that.
Epicor has encoded the data structures of Kinetic ERP with typical fields and processes into Prism to pass context onto the LLM. In addition to the standard Epicor agents, they can include customer-specific questions and point to their customizations. So, it is both Kinetic-specific and customer-specific in function.
When crafting new approaches to support employees or automate processes, Prism will determine which agents are required and how many. Depending on the problem to solve or the process to improve, one or multiple agents may come into play.
How It Works
Epicor says it has an unfair advantage since it has broad enterprise functionality that many customers have had in place for years. So, historical data about the business is already stored in a structured data ontology that fits their industry. This forms a quick-start basis for RAG to create an Epicor- and customer-specific context for the large language model (LLM). Newer customers are encouraged to import a rich data set during their implementation.
Epicor talks about three elements of this agentic AI.
Handshakes, which redefine how humans interact with enterprise-grade data
Gears, which are the data models, integrations, and APIs that enable data to flow through the system
Sparks, which are the insights the AI can distill to support decision-making
Security and Data Governance
One of the top issues or fears companies have with using AI is security, trust, and ensuring results are valid. For security, Prism agents act on behalf of each system user. That means the agents only have access to the portions of the system that the user has, based on existing security settings, through Kinetic.
On the LLM security front, Epicor follows standard guidance on OWASP’s 10 pillars for safety and security. They have separate data for each customer and do not pool data across customers. The LLM for Prism is always guided by the context of a specific customer. The business activity queries focus on the company’s data set, logic, and rules.
Coming up Next
As in the graphic above, Epicor is creating an agent for their Enterprise Content Management or ECM. While digitalization has come a long way, companies still tend to do business with documents such as contracts, requirements, etc. Today's many supply chain challenges suggest that this could be a beneficial agent. Questions around supply contracts will likely proliferate as companies restructure their supply chains in the face of tariffs, regulations, and natural disasters.
Another in-development agent will support automating mass modifications. For example, if you have 100 lines in an order, and they all need to be modified, Prism will be able to do that for the user at their request.
Continuing the Conversation
Epicor has continued to innovate and include leading-edge technologies in their ERP platforms for years. This is an excellent milestone for Kinetic in manufacturing. We look forward to hearing more as Epicor keeps moving forward. Thank you, Steven Knuff, for keeping us updated, and to Arturo Buzzalino, Michael Atkisson, Ph.D., and Michael Muckala for creating a concise and informative briefing!
[post_title] => Epicor’s Next Step in Cognitive ERP: Prism GenAI Agent Network
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => genai-agent-network
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-03-11 12:15:52
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-03-11 16:15:52
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21675
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[16] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21599
[post_author] => 2580
[post_date] => 2025-02-26 10:00:26
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-02-26 15:00:26
[post_content] => As highlighted in a Tech-Clarity report, “Drive Higher Profits with IoT Machine Monitoring and Optimization,” Top Performers are more likely to integrate machine data, enterprise systems, engineering data, and operational systems to drive higher profitability. This integration improves their ability to offer low-cost service, keep unplanned downtime low, troubleshoot machine problems quickly, provide data security, and ensure the customer’s machines perform with the highest quality.How can manufacturers win more service business with integrated service and ultimately improve profitability? This imaginary game gives manufacturers some ideas on excelling at offering integrated service. By improving the way they deliver service, companies can win more service contracts and increase revenue and profits from additional sources. Click here to download thefull infographic. For more information about improving service performance and profitability, please visit our sponsorSiemens.
[post_title] => Win More Service Business with Integrated Service
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => integrated-service
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-02-26 10:48:38
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-02-26 15:48:38
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21599
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[17] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21546
[post_author] => 2
[post_date] => 2025-02-21 09:00:34
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-02-21 14:00:34
[post_content] => How can manufacturers take advantage of the benefits of product customization without suffering from decreased profitability? We gathered responses from 234 companies involved with to-order products and interviewed two leading manufacturers to find out how to improve product configuration.
Read on or click here to download the full report with no registration required, courtesy of our sponsor, Siemens.For more information about product configuration solutions please visit our sponsor Siemens.
Product Configuration is Booming, Are Profits?
Increasing Demand for Configured Products
Our 2016 Driving Engineer-to-Order Differentiation and Profitability survey showed that most manufacturers were already increasing product customization and 58% expected it to grow in the following years. Time has passed, the results are in, and the predictions held true. The majority of manufacturers have continued to increase customization in recent years. Looking to the future, 94% of respondents to this year's survey say it will continue to grow over the next five years.
The Pros and Cons of To-Order
Given the growth, it's important to recognize that configuring customized products is both compelling and challenging. Selling to-order products brings significant top-line benefits. However, configuration challenges can lead to business impacts that quickly erode profit margins.
Table of Contents
Product Configuration is Booming, Are Profits?
To-Order Continues to Expand
What Drives Customization?
Differentiating To-Order Products
Profiting from To-Order Products
Evolving Customization Strategies
Evolving Order Strategies
Recognize Selling Challenges
Recognize Delivery Challenges
Recognize the Business Impacts of Challenges
Identifying the Top Performers
Top Performers are Transforming Order Processes
Top Performers are Transforming Order Processes
Top Performers are Transforming Technical Enablers
Product Configurators Drive Significant Value
Conclusions
About the Research
Acknowledgments
To-Order Continues to Expand
Product Configuration Continues to Grow
Selling to-order products is not new, but it is evolving. One way it's changing is an increase in the amount of configuration and customization in companies' products. Our research over the years has continuously predicted growth in product configurability, and it appears the appetite for customization continues to expand.
Today, over one-half of respondents report that the amount of configuration / customization in their products grew over the last five years. Further, an overwhelming 94% say it will further increase in the next five years! Perhaps just as tellingly, not a single company said they expect it to decrease, even somewhat, in the next five. Selling and producing to-order products is the reality for manufacturers, and there is no end in sight.
What Drives Customization?
Change Revenue Drives Customization
Given the growth of customization, we wanted to understand the primary reasons companies offer to-order products. The short answer is product sales. Three-quarters of companies say they sell to-order products to differentiate from their competition. In addition, two-thirds do it to command higher prices, perhaps because they can better meet customer needs. This driver grew from only 28% in the prior survey. It's important to note that these benefits are not exclusive, and many companies reported both as drivers.
Some Companies Don’t See Another Option
Historically, our surveys show that many companies feel they must configure products. It's just the nature of their industry. Typically, between one-third and one-half of companies in our studies report this. In this study, fewer companies selected that option. However, more than one-half say that they feel required to sell to-order products in order to sell their standard products. This may account for the discrepancy because selling configured products to maintain the ability to sell standard products wasn't an answer choice in the earlier studies. Protecting sales may be why they said it's just the nature of their industry. While an industry may not require all products to be custom, some customers may require suppliers to customize products to their needs to maintain their status as a preferred supplier.
Localizing Products is also a Common Driver
Configuring products to order can also help companies define a product once and tailor it to specific market needs for an order. Over one-third of respondents report selling to-order products to allow them to localize their offerings for different markets or geographies, similar to the earlier survey.
Differentiating To-Order Products
Better Meeting Customer Needs
Given the prevalence of customization, how can manufacturers differentiate their to-order products from those of their competitors? The overwhelming answer is to better meet customer needs, as reported by about three-quarters of companies. In addition, about two-thirds differentiate through their level of product customization. Manufacturers that are flexible enough to satisfy customers' needs are more likely to win the business, assuming all else is equal. “One of our key advantages is that our products are not cookie cutter. Our custom engineering and manufacturing capabilities enable us to deliver tailored solutions,” explains Stone Kane, a business analyst at Schumacher Elevator Company. “Customization allows us to be competitive.”
Differentiate Through Customer Experience
As mentioned above, meeting customer needs will likely lead to the order if all other things are equal. However, this is rarely the case. Another essential factor is offering a compelling configuration experience. For example, about one-half of responding companies report developing quotes rapidly is important to differentiate. This has more than doubled since the previous survey. Customer expectations have gotten higher as manufacturers have improved their product configuration capabilities.
Differentiate Through Efficient Operations
Efficient configuration execution is also essential. One of the primary ways that companies compete by operating efficiently is by offering a competitive price. One-half of companies report price as a way they differentiate and the importance of cost as a differentiator has significantly increased. “Speed to market is huge, and newer customers just want the highest value product,” says Ingersoll Rand’s Geoff Leach.
This is another sign that customer expectations have increased, even for highly configured items. This may be due to increased configuration maturity and fiercer global competition in the manufacturing industry. Beyond cost, effective operations can also help deliver service excellence and product reliability, which are also differentiators.
Profiting from To-Order Products
Deliver Rapidly on Customer Expectations
Capturing orders through differentiation is only valuable if that business is profitable. Companies must do many things right to make money from configured products. These include setting and meeting expectations created by quotes and effectively executing configured orders.
Accurately Predict Cost, Leadtime, and Performance
Two-thirds of responding companies say that offering accurate quotes is one of the most impactful factors driving the profitability of their to-order products. Over one-half also report both engineering and delivery leadtimes as drivers. In addition, about one-half report meeting planned performance drives profits.
Increased emphasis on price differentiation puts stress on the ability to predict product costs. Without accurate predictions, manufacturers must cushion their price and risk losing the sale or keep prices tight and risk selling unprofitable deals. The same is true for promised leadtimes.
To compete, manufacturers must be able to set – and meet – customer expectations. This goes well beyond capturing order parameters.
Offer a Compelling Order Experience
Beyond that, companies must ensure an effective order process. Almost one-half of respondents say that order accuracy impacts profitability, and well over one-third report that the ease and speed of their customer's order experience drives profits. “Speed and accuracy are critical factors that help us win more work,” says Schumacher Elevator’s Kane.
Getting the order experience right drives profitability, not just competitive differentiation. Of note, companies are less than one-half as likely to report that fast quotes drive profits as accurate quotes do, although rapid quotation is essential to differentiation. It appears that it's more important to get quotes right than deliver them fast to make money, although both are important to differentiate.
Evolving Customization Strategies
The Bar on Configuration is Higher
The challenges companies face designing, selling, and producing to-order products are significant, and the bar for selling and delivering them is higher than ever. How are companies responding?
Make Customization More Standard
To-order product strategies are shifting to help companies simultaneously increase customization and lower configured order complexity. They want to offer customization, but they want it to be less burdensome. Several of the most common strategies aim to meet customer needs in a more standard or configure-to-order (CTO) approach instead of an engineer-to-order (ETO) way to reduce cost, time, and the chance to introduce errors. Around three-quarters of companies are shifting products from ETO to more pre-engineered, modular CTO products. “Customers want it faster. CTO, taking out the ETO element, is helping us get there,” shares Geoff Leach of Ingersoll Rand. “Engineering is expensive, and CTO reduces our engineering hours,” he adds.
A related approach, reported by almost two-thirds of respondents, is to steer customers toward more standard products through guided selling. This allows companies to meet customized needs but do so with more standard configurations. Another approach that decreases complexity, reported by 42% of companies, is selling products that are ETO at the systems level but basing them on more standard / CTO components.
Maintain the Ability to Meet Customer Needs
Clearly, manufacturers are pursuing more than one of these approaches. They are complementary and signify a desire to minimize custom engineering if possible while recognizing the reality that meeting customer needs drives differentiation. It's important to note that this isn't counter to the goal of meeting customer needs, as over one-third are trying to increase customization. The idea is to pursue custom products with the ease of standard products.
Evolving Order Strategies
Companies are Shifting Configuration toward CustomersWe investigated a trend for manufacturers to move configuration closer to the customer, such as from sales engineers to salespeople or from distributors to customer self-service. We found a clear desire to shift configuration "left" toward the customer. Having customers configure their own orders may be an opportunity for them to better validate their orders if they have the means to do that effectively via self-service. It can also help save time and increase efficiency, increasing quote response times and freeing up engineering time for innovation, again, if it is enabled properly.
Recognize Selling Challenges
Challenges Throughout the Order Lifecycle
With the bar set higher, it's essential to examine the challenges manufacturers face when selling and delivering to-order products. Configured products create inherent challenges across the product lifecycle. We'll start with the challenges with configured quotes and orders.
Estimation and Speed Issues
From an order perspective, companies face estimation and speed challenges. Specifically, about three-quarters of responding companies have difficulty developing accurate cost estimates. This is a significant issue because developing accurate quotes is the most common profitability driver. Stone Kane of Schumacher Elevator explains, “We used to face inconsistencies because every project is unique, and it’s challenging to accurately estimate the engineering time required, particularly for more complex designs. Our previous system relied on a basic spreadsheet, which lacked dynamic pricing capabilities, meaning ten different salespeople could potentially generate ten different prices for the same project.”
In addition to the need for accuracy, about two-thirds have trouble responding quickly. This is also a significant business issue because one-half of companies see rapid quotes as a differentiator. It's challenging to be both accurate and fast, but that's the reality. Accurate cost estimates and rapid quotes were already the top two challenges in the earlier survey, but both have grown in prevalence.
Ensuring Orders Meet Needs
Companies must make sure that configured orders are manufacturable, but also ensure they will deliver the value the customer’s desired value. Almost one-half of responding companies, however, have difficulty ensuring that ordered configurations meets customer specifications. If the configuration isn't right up front, it will cause significant downstream issues that can impact cost, time, and customer satisfaction. “Communication between engineering, sales, and tendering wasn’t very detailed or accurate, and they didn’t always pass those details onto engineering,” Geoff Leach of Ingersoll Rand recalls. “It would come up later and lead to expensive rework.” And if a company can't develop a valid configuration, how can they predict costs to develop an accurate quote?
Recognize Delivery Challenges
Inefficiency and Extra Engineering Work
In addition to selling challenges, let's review challenges related to engineering and manufacturing to-order products. The first category of challenges is the burden on engineering. The most common challenge, reported by about three-quarters of manufacturers, is too many "specials" that require extra engineering work. This is likely why companies are trying to shift from ETO to CTO. The next most common challenge, reported by about one-half of companies, is accommodating customer change requests. “Projects evolve over time. It’s not uncommon to deliver solutions that differ from the original plans ,” shares Stone Kane of Schumacher Elevator. Changes may occur because customer needs change or because of errors in validating orders or predicting performance. Either way, they are time-consuming and disruptive.
Over one-third of respondents also share that they struggle with long engineering lead times with too much manual effort, perhaps due to specials or lack of automation. These challenges impact engineering and delivery leadtimes, which are in the top three most common profitability drivers.
Predicting Performance and Cost
Predicting performance and cost are both issues reported by over 40% of responding companies. This is a big challenge considering that accurate quotes are the most common profitability driver and better meeting needs is the most common differentiator. Overall, to-order product challenges reflect both engineering workload and the inability to estimate cost and performance of to-order products, signifying that engineers are working hard to meet deadlines but can’t determine the engineering information needed to drive profitable business.
Additional Challenges
We discussed the most common challenges, but manufacturers reported many other challenges, including supply chain volatility, designing new configured products, providing complete / accurate information to manufacturing, coordinating with suppliers, increased software in products, and a lack of knowledgeable engineering resources. Designing and producing configured products is just hard.
Recognize the Business Impacts of Challenges
Cost Overruns
The number and frequency of order, quote, engineering, and manufacturing challenges lead to material business impacts. The most common, reported by about two-thirds of respondents, is overrunning cost targets. Perhaps it's not surprising given that three-quarters of companies say predicting costs is challenging. It's a significant business issue because offering accurate quotes is the most common profitability driver.
Errors and Quality Issues
From an execution perspective, the challenges lead to significant disconnects that cause downstream issues. For example, almost one-half of responding companies report manufacturing errors. This can happen if orders aren't validated properly or if inaccurate predictions require changes. Further, many companies find translating ordered specifications into executable manufacturing instructions hard. These issues can also impact delivery leadtimes, potentially because of the need for extra engineering or rework.
Not all of these issues, it appears, are caught in engineering or manufacturing. Over one-third of companies face recalls / warranty work because errors escape the factory. In some cases, they can also result in fines or brand damage, as can late product deliveries.
Identifying the Top Performers
Tech-Clarity’s Performance Banding Process
To understand best practices processes and technology, we use a benchmarking process we call "Performance Banding." We look at responding companies' performance against metrics that represent success in our research topic. We create an aggregate score across these metrics and identify (approximately) the top 25% as "Top Performers." We then look at what these leaders do differently from the poorer performing companies, the "Others.”
Benchmarking To-Order Top Performers
To understand which companies profit more effectively from their configured products, we benchmarked the financial performance for to-order products over the last 24 months as compared to their competitors for:
Revenue growth
Profitability
We analyzed the results and identified the highest-performing 16% of respondents based on a logical cutoff in performance scores. We then analyzed what these Top Performers do differently to make recommendations to "Others."
We found that the Top Performers take different approaches related to order processes, engineering techniques, and technical enablers, which we believe help them achieve superior financial performance. The remainder of the report will share those findings.
Top Performers are Transforming Order Processes
Top Performers are Shifting CTO Orders Left
The vast majority of manufacturers would like to shift configuration closer to the customer. Top Performers are ahead of the curve in this trend and are 74% more likely to have significantly shifted configuration left. ”Configuration extends to tendering and sales people, they select the options best align with customer specs based on standard options, which are controlled by engineering,” says Geoff Leach of Ingersoll Rand. “We were able to do that because the configurator provides guard rails and gives engineering more control, which cuts down on margin erosion.”
We also found that the top-performing companies are 61% more likely to view customer self-service as a differentiator. We analyzed who typically configures responding companies' to-order products to better understand this transformation. At Schumacher Elevator, Sales creates a project and adds the specs, finishes, and other parameters and then the configurator estimates a price and generates a proposal. “There’s also been talk about having customers and architects use it directly,” shares Stone Kane.
We found that Top Performers are 46% more likely to have customer self-service for their to-order products and about twice as likely to have self-service for distributors and partners. As a result, they are about one-third less likely to have engineers configure orders, freeing up engineering resources. However, they are just as likely as Others to have sales engineers or sales do so.
Shifting Left has Business Benefits
These findings show a correlation between shifting configuration left and achieving better business performance. This indicates that transferring order configuration away from engineers toward customer self-service has significant business benefits.
Top Performers are Transforming Engineering Techniques
Top Performers Design Differently
Top-performing companies are more likely to take advanced approaches to product design that make engineering and producing configured products more effective and efficient. Specifically, they are more likely to use both modular and platform design approaches.
This was also the case in the previous survey. As shared in the earlier report "platform and modular design approaches allow order engineers to more readily reconfigure products. Modules developed with standard interfaces can be replaced more easily to address specific customer needs, for example by substituting a more powerful motor or higher torque gear assembly." Compared to 2016, however, more companies in both performance classes follow these approaches, suggesting that processes are more mature and that the bar has raised.
Top Performers Configure Differently
In addition, we found that Top Performers are more likely to engage in multi-level configuration, also known as “product in product.” This technique allows configuration at the product, assembly, module, or even systems level. It is a form of modular design where configured modules can be used in higher-level assemblies or systems to make those underlying designs more consistent. This is a more complex form of configuration that increases standardization and reuse. Although it takes more time to set up, it drives repeatability and saves significantly on engineering individual orders.
Better Engineering for To-Order Has Business Benefits
The approaches employed by the Top Performers show that manufacturers who design more strategically for configuration are achieving better business performance. We believe that taking the time to design for configurability helps reduce operational complexity to help deliver to-order products more effectively.
Top Performers are Transforming Technical Enablers
Top Performers Support To-Order with Configurators and PLM
Top Performers are also leveraging different technical enablers. The most common way Top Performers and Others take orders and develop quotes is by using a sales configurator. Sales configurators typically handle customer and order parameters very well. However, this is not the most differentiating approach among the Top Performers.
Top Performers are more than twice as likely to use PLM to develop quotes. This is likely due to the need to get designs right so they can use them for cost, leadtime, and performance predictions. “Having one source of truth to find information can save you a lot of money and opens up the door to hand off the data downstream in a consistent manner to improve leadtimes and efficiency,” explains Stone Kane of Schumacher Elevator. “Otherwise, a lot of money can be left on the table due to poor communication .”
Top Performers Use More Configuration Capabilities
Beyond sales configurators and PLM, companies use other technologies like technical configurators. Researchers found that the most differentiating use of configurators was not which type of configurator they used but what capabilities they used it for.
The most common uses, pricing and quotation, are important but not very differentiating. What sets Top Performers apart is using more advanced configurator capabilities, including technical drawing creation, CAE automation, 3D visualization, and engineering calculations. These capabilities go beyond simple options and variants to leverage an engineering product model. More importantly, these specialized capabilities help support the top to-order differentiators and profitability drivers, including estimating costs, leadtimes, and performance and driving speed, efficiency, and quality. ”We added a considerable amount of automation to create models and documentation,” explains Goff Leach of Ingersoll Rand. “We were able to reduce engineering hours by about 75% because we have CAD automation that works hand-in-hand with our PLM.”
The Basics Aren’t Enough for Higher Business Value
The Top Performers and Others commonly use standard capabilities like capturing order specs. They are essential features and add value but do not necessarily lead to better business performance. We believe that configuration maturity has increased and these features have become basic requirements to compete, but driving a competitive advantage now requires more advanced capabilities.
Product Configurators Drive Significant Value
Value Achieved from Product Configurators
While Top Performers are gaining more significant competitive advantages through their best practices, both Top Performers and Others reported valuable business benefits. Companies don't have to be Top Performers to overcome to-order challenges and improve to-order execution.
The benefits reported from using configurators are clear, and range across different facets of to-order business, including:
Higher product quality
More accurate and better-validated orders
Accurate manufacturing documentation
Accurate and timely quotes
More efficient engineering
Shorter leadtimes
For example, Geoff Leach of Ingersoll Rand shares that costing and pricing are now based on their engineering configuration so they get exact costs.
It's important to recognize that configurators add multi-faceted benefits. Responding companies typically reported achieving multiple benefits, including others not included in this list.
Top Performers Achieve Higher Strategic Value
Top Performers reported even higher value in several strategic areas. These benefits align well with the top differentiators and profitability drivers, including cost, leadtimes, and quality, showing that adopting best practices drives even greater business value. Top Performers reported higher than average benefits in:
Lower product cost
Shorter delivery leadtimes
Fewer order errors
Greater engineering efficiency
Higher product quality
For example, Schumacher Elevator’s Kane explained that their bottleneck was custom engineering. But “that is no longer the case. By leveraging technology, we’ve significantly improved our engineering and manufacturing workflows, improving our team’s efficiency and resulting in increased profitability,” he shared.
Geoff Leach explains the benefits at Ingersoll Rand. “We cut down our engineering hours from about 1,000 to around 250, it’s a huge time savings. We have been able to lower cost, which can translate a lower price or more margin,” says Leach.
These enhanced benefits are likely a key reason for Top Performers' better financial performance.
Conclusions
Configuration is Growing
Our research shows that the amount of configuration in products has been steadily growing and continues to increase. There are a variety of reasons for offering to-order products, but the most prominent is to capture more business. Selling to-order products helps manufacturers better meet customer needs to earn their orders.
Configuration is Challenging
The survey results show that selling and delivering to-order products remains challenging. Manufacturers face a variety of challenges when designing, quoting, selling, and producing their configured products. Some of the most significant challenges relate to predicting cost and performance and the ability to execute quickly despite complexities like change requests.
Configuration Strategies are Evolving
Respondents report adopting new strategies that reduce to-order complexity to address these challenges, including shifting from ETO to CTO products and guided selling. We don't believe these approaches are to reduce the ability to meet customer needs, but to address them more efficiently. As evidence, we still see that quite a few companies are increasing the level of customization in their products.
Configuration Strategies are Maturing
To support these strategies, companies are adopting best practice order processes, engineering techniques, and technical enablers. These practices include shifting configuration toward the customer and adopting proven engineering practices like modular design. Best practices also extend to technology, including configurators and PLM, and more advanced configuration capabilities that rely on an engineering product model. These best practices help manufacturers more rapidly and predictably deliver customized products that meet customer needs with less of the engineering burden typically associated with ETO.
Configurators Drive Business Value
The final conclusion from the survey is that configurator technology leads to significant benefits for both Top Performers and Others. “Our configurator enables us to estimate projects with increased speed and accuracy,” explains Stone Kane of Schumacher Elevator. “That increases our opportunities to secure more jobs .” These benefits add strategic competitive advantages because they align well with the to-order differentiators and profitability drivers. “Our configurator led to lower cost and leadtime savings, it’s working,” concluded Geoff Leach from Ingersoll Rand. Although Top Performers report more significant advantages, companies from all performance levels report achieving benefits from product configurators.
Click here for the full report with no registration required, courtesy of our sponsor, Siemens.
[post_title] => Making To-Order Product Configuration Profitable
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => product-configuration
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-02-21 09:42:03
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-02-21 14:42:03
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21546
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[18] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21530
[post_author] => 2580
[post_date] => 2025-02-20 09:00:15
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-02-20 14:00:15
[post_content] => Do disconnected project management approaches hinder project execution, risk management, and decision-making, ultimately setting project leaders up for failure due to a lack of project intelligence?Engineering programs, including new product development projects, are becoming more complex. Companies delivering these programs often struggle to complete them on time and within budget. However, companies can improve their project management and execution processes to better meet deadlines and manage budgets.This eBook explores five data-driven, deliverables-based approaches manufacturers can adopt to better hit their complex engineering project targets by leveraging project intelligence. It incorporates practical insights from L&T Energy Hydrocarbon to provide a real-world perspective on improving project performance.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, Dassault Systèmes (registration required).
Table of Contents
It's Time to Transform Complex Project Management
Five Keys to Better Hit Product Development Targets
Exploit the Intelligence in Historical Project Data
Make Projects the Hub for Product Development Through Execution
Leverage the Intelligence in Product Development Data
Reduce Non-Value-Added Status Reporting
Foster Collaboration Across Project and Product Development Teams
Conclusions and Recommendations
Acknowledgments
It's Time to Transform Complex Project Management
Complex Engineering Project Status Quo isn’t Enough
Companies executing complex engineering programs often struggle to complete their projects on time and within budget. New product development programs are frequently delivered late, compromising profitability, competitive positioning, and brand. Tech-Clarity's research indicates that manufacturers miss product development deadlines and budgets over one-half the time. This unacceptable performance raises the question, do disconnected project management approaches hinder project execution, risk management, and decision-making, ultimately setting project leaders up for failure?
Transform Engineering Project Management
In this eBook, we explore five data-driven, deliverables-based approaches that manufacturers can adopt to better hit their complex engineering project targets. We also incorporate practical insights from L&T Energy Hydrocarbon to provide real-world perspective on improving project performance.
Five Keys to Better Hit Product Development Targets
Transform Project Execution
Current approaches to project execution leave significant room for improvement. Product development and complex engineering projects are often delivered late and over budget, which can have severe financial implications for a business.
To address these challenges, we have identified five transformative ways companies can improve their project management and execution processes to better meet deadlines and manage budgets for new product development.
Exploit the intelligence in historical project management data
Make projects the hub for product development
Leverage the intelligence in project and product development data
Reduce non-value-added (NVA) status reporting
Foster collaboration across project and product development teams
For each of these approaches, we review:
The negative business impacts of the current status quo
How companies can transform to avoid these impacts
The critical enablers required to implement the transformation
Conclusions and Recommendations
Integrate Project Management and Product Development
Complex engineering projects often fail to meet stated goals due to delays and cost overruns. One leading cause is that project leaders have a hard time identifying and addressing risks in a timely manner. However, this situation improves if they can gain accurate, data-driven insights that inform their decisions. To ensure projects complete on time and within budget, companies should choose an integrated solution for collaborative project management, product development, and collaboration. This transformative approach enables the implementation of key strategies outlined that can lead to faster market entry, increased profitability, and reduced risks.
Implement the Five Keys to Hit Project Targets
To transform their project management and execution processes by implementing an integrated platform that combines project management, product development, project intelligence, analytics, AI, and collaboration, companies can follow these five keys:
Exploit the Intelligence in Historical Project Data: Leverage data-driven insights from prior projects to create realistic schedules that closely resemble the actual situation.
Make Projects the Hub for Product Development Through Execution: Manage projects in a system that links project and product development data so that information is visible to all, kept up-to-date, and connected.
Leverage the Intelligence in Product Development Data: Use product data intelligence to update project schedules automatically and identify and mitigate project risks based on real-world product development status.
Reduce Non-Value-Added Status Reporting: Utilize automation to eliminate non-value-added status reporting, allowing engineers to concentrate on innovation.
Foster Collaboration Across Project Teams: Provide a collaborative environment for project leaders and product developers to assess risks and resolve issues while building a comprehensive knowledge base from actual project execution data to enhance planning effectiveness and ensure timely, budget-compliant delivery.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full report, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes.If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.
[post_title] => Five Keys to Hit Product Development Targets with Project Intelligence
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => project-intelligence
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-02-20 10:26:11
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-02-20 15:26:11
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21530
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[19] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21487
[post_author] => 2572
[post_date] => 2025-02-06 09:30:03
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-02-06 14:30:03
[post_content] => How can you accelerate battery design innovation?The incredible demand for batteries has created significant opportunities for battery manufacturers at both existing businesses and new market entrants. However, current battery limitations can create an adoption barrier for more sustainable energy solutions. Companies with the right capabilities to rapidly innovate to overcome these battery limitations will be well-positioned to capture market share and establish themselves as a leader in the battery space.This eBook examines how battery manufacturers can accelerate their innovation practices. It explains how to foster a culture of innovation, supported by digitalization, to advance R&D and engineering efforts for the next generation of batteries, and shares best practices for R&D and product development teams.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens (registration required)
Table of Contents
Business Opportunities for Battery Innovation
Battery Challenges
Innovation Success for the Lab and Engineering
1. Develop a Battery Digital Twin
2. Facilitate Collaboration
3. Explore Ideas with Simulation
4. Support Chemistry Development & Cell Engineering
5. Optimize Battery Packs
6. Use the Right System Tools for the Battery Management System (BMS)
Recommendations
References
Acknowledgments
Business Opportunities for Battery Innovation
Increasing Demand for Batteries
The battery cell market is expected to grow by more than 20% annually until 2030, reaching at least $360 billion globally, with a potential for as much as $410 billion. Much growth comes from sustainability initiatives to shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and alternative power sources to help address climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Batteries are critical to this transition as they can enable 30% of the required reductions in carbon emissions in these sectors.
Energy Storage and EVs
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are not constant, so batteries are critical to support their adoption. With projections for renewable capacity to grow by almost 2,400 GW, an 85% acceleration over the previous five years, the demand for batteries will continue to spike. Further, the electric vehicles market is booming, setting new sales records every year, with 2023 approaching $40 billion, nearly double 2022 sales. This demand should continue, as by 2040, EVs are expected to represent 70% of all passenger vehicles. With EV's reliance on batteries as a power source, this could create incredible opportunities for those already in the battery industry, as well as those looking to enter it.
Battery Innovation
Much of this growth has been made possible by the impressive advancements in battery technology. For example, battery energy density, the amount of energy batteries can store, is now nearly three times what it was in 2010. Further, prices have dropped 87%. However, more work is needed to encourage wide-scale adoption. EVs must increase their range, charge faster, and cost less, while ensuring safety and long operational life. Achieving this requires companies to develop new material chemistries and innovate around battery cell and pack designs.
Batteries Impact Profitability
To accomplish this innovation, companies should invest in their R&D and development processes. Those investments will pay off as batteries contribute more than a quarter of an EV's weight, account for 35% to 50% of the vehicle's cost, and significantly impact performance and profitability. With the right capabilities and technology solutions, manufacturers can accelerate innovation to enjoy a competitive advantage by getting to market faster and capturing market share. By acting quickly, they can even offset costs by taking advantage of government incentives and new funding to support green alternatives.
Battery Development Challenges
Engineering Challenges
Despite the advancements in battery technology, batteries must perform beyond what is capable today to realize the market potential. Overcoming these challenges requires analysis and trade-offs across multiple domains spanning chemistry, structural engineering, heat transfer, electrical engineering, electronics, software engineering, and more. Manufacturers will be better positioned to manage this with the right technology solutions.
Overcome Adoption Barriers
EVs must charge faster and increase their range to overcome major adoption barriers. They also need to use more environmentally friendly materials and cost-effective production methods. The chemistry, cell, and pack design directly impact this. Manufacturers must create an environment to facilitate innovation, enabling R&D and engineering to develop new solutions to these challenges.
Battery Safety
As battery technology has advanced, batteries can store more energy. However, this also means that heat can build up. If the heat is not managed properly, a dangerous situation called thermal runaway can occur, which can lead to fires. It is so challenging to manage, even experienced manufacturers struggle. In 2013, this problem led to Boeing needing to ground 50 787 Dreamliners. It is also why Panasonic, Sony, and Lenovo had to recall their laptops due to the potential fire hazard.
A Battery Management System (BMS) provides the intelligence to monitor the battery and make adjustments to manage thermal conditions and optimize performance, but it adds additional design complexity. The right development tools can provide needed insights to manage thermal runaway and the complexity of the BMS.
Slow Development Cycles
Batteries are so complicated, it is difficult to predict their internal reactions, particularly around safety and aging. This leads to a trial-and-error approach that depends on physical testing. However, physical testing takes time and slows development efforts. Plus, it is often hard to obtain needed insights to understand the root cause of failures to make improvements. Development teams need better insights into real-world performance during development to accelerate innovation.
Recommendations
Recommendations and Next Steps
Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations for battery manufacturers designing batteries:
Develop a battery digital twin. The insights offered by a battery digital twin can lead to the breakthrough innovations required to solve top challenges, such as faster charging and longer ranges, which have created adoption barriers for electric vehicles.
Facilitate collaboration. Battery development involves multiple disciplines, including chemical, materials, thermal, structural, software, manufacturing, and more. Facilitating collaboration across the team will strengthen it so they can leverage their collective expertise to develop new innovative solutions
Explore ideas with simulation. By running experiments via simulation, more experiments can be conducted in less time, at a lower cost, than in the lab.
Optimize battery packs. Use the digital twin of the cell to model the pack and ensure the enclosure will meet the safety requirements for the battery.
Use the right system tools for the Battery Management System (BMS). Model the complex controls of the BMS with model-based design tools integrated with software development tools. Then, use the digital twin to test it to catch problems and ensure it will function as required in various scenarios.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens.If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.
[post_title] => How to Accelerate Battery Design Innovation
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => battery-design
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-02-06 11:04:39
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-02-06 16:04:39
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21487
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
)
[post_count] => 20
[current_post] => -1
[in_the_loop] =>
[post] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 21947
[post_author] => 2572
[post_date] => 2025-05-13 07:00:26
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-05-13 11:00:26
[post_content] => How do you manage capital-intensive projects without going over budget or missing deadlines?
We are researching capital-intensive projectsto understand best practices for managing them. The survey explores topics like common causes of delays and cost overruns, the best strategies to manage capital intensive projects, and the impact of improved visibility to project data. The survey takes about 10-15 minutes.
If you are involved in planning, designing, or delivering large-scale projects like:
Factories
High-speed rail
Bridges
Airports
Offshore platforms or refineries
Nuclear facilities
Mining
Electric grids
Windfarms
Datacenters
Ship building
Life science facilities
please take the survey to share your thoughts. As a thank you, we will send you a copy of the report summarizing the findings. In addition, respondents will be entered into a drawing for one of four $25 Amazon gift cards.*
Individual responses will be kept confidential. Please feel free to forward this survey to others you feel have an opinion to share.
Thank you for your support, please check out our Active Research page for additional Tech-Clarity survey opportunities.
*See survey for eligibility rules
[post_title] => Managing Capital-Intensive Projects Survey
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => managing-capital-intensive-projects-survey
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2025-05-12 23:08:59
[post_modified_gmt] => 2025-05-13 03:08:59
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=21947
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
)
[comment_count] => 0
[current_comment] => -1
[found_posts] => 732
[max_num_pages] => 37
[max_num_comment_pages] => 0
[is_single] =>
[is_preview] =>
[is_page] =>
[is_archive] =>
[is_date] =>
[is_year] =>
[is_month] =>
[is_day] =>
[is_time] =>
[is_author] =>
[is_category] =>
[is_tag] =>
[is_tax] =>
[is_search] =>
[is_feed] =>
[is_comment_feed] =>
[is_trackback] =>
[is_home] => 1
[is_privacy_policy] =>
[is_404] =>
[is_embed] =>
[is_paged] =>
[is_admin] =>
[is_attachment] =>
[is_singular] =>
[is_robots] =>
[is_favicon] =>
[is_posts_page] =>
[is_post_type_archive] =>
[query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => b5a0fa7b3e0ed44beb2fb39dcd9eb2b7
[query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => 1
[thumbnails_cached] =>
[stopwords:WP_Query:private] =>
[compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => query_vars_hash
[1] => query_vars_changed
)
[compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => init_query_flags
[1] => parse_tax_query
)
)
How do you manage capital-intensive projects without going over budget or missing deadlines? We are researching capital-intensive projects to understand best practices for managing them. The survey explores topics like common causes of delays and cost overruns, the best strategies to manage capital intensive projects, and the impact of improved visibility to project data. The…
How are manufacturers doing at global Digital Transformation? What could accelerate progress? These are a few of the questions that Julie Fraser and other experienced industry analysts will discuss on a panel on June 17th. The session is part of the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s (MLC) Rethink Conference on Marco Island, Florida, and supports its theme,…
Jim Brown’s recently published eBook research, The Business Value of An Industrial System of Engagement Platform, introduced the concept of the Industrial System of Engagement (SOE). Following the eBook, he penned a guest post for Hexagon summarizing the eBook and how the Industrial SOE provides a platform to extend the value of current enterprise systems…
The Value of AI in Manufacturing is Accelerating There is a lot of talk about the value of artificial intelligence in manufacturing, and rightfully so. Although AI isn’t new, it appears to be reaching a tipping point where companies are more open to exploring its potential and AI techniques are more accessible than ever. Manufacturers…
How do leading companies drive sustainable business success? Tech-Clarity is conducting our 7th annual study on the challenges, strategies, and plans companies have to develop their products, services, supply chain, workforce, and business for long-term business success. Please complete this questionnaire, and we’ll send you a copy of the final report as a thank you. The…
How can recipe-based producers ensure cost-efficiency and consistent, high-quality products no matter where they are formulated or produced? By implementing enterprise recipe management (ERM) with a manufacturing execution system (MES) to deliver closed-loop data flows in and out of production. Leading Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), specialty chemical, and other manufacturers are standardizing for ERM. Quite…
We recently had a chance to catch up with Siemens Digital Industries Software and get an update on NX. We heard about recent developments, the latest strategic direction for #CAD, their efforts to support comprehensive workflows, and progress to enable a Model-Based Enterprise (MBE). Here are a few of the highlights. NX Innovation and Customer…
Where’s the best place to start in improving supply chain resilience? Our research shows it’s inside the company. Many companies will need to start new initiatives and make additional investments to ensure their data is flowing for supply chain internal value. Data sharing and collaboration are crucial within supply chain disciplines, but also throughout the…
How can companies be sure to gain value from manufacturing analytics and AI projects? It turns out benefits are ubiquitous for those who have invested. Yet the Top Performers in our new survey of over 400 manufacturing respondents indicates some key differences that improve their results. Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research,…
What does it take to digitalize assembly, an area where people must participate? Quite a lot, especially with complex configured products. Over time, MTEK Industry AB has consistently focused on developing software to support complex discrete assembly operations. They keep adding functionality in MOM and beyond to the MBrain digital production system. Integrating to equipment,…
How does expanding PLM beyond engineering to support the digital thread from requirements through commercialization help manufacturers launch quality products that meet regulatory demands and customer expectations? How can companies take an end-to-end PLM approach to drive better new product success? Join the Meet the Pros: New Solutions & Expert Advice To Help You Achieve…
The Case for Boosting Digital Transformation with Low-Code Why should Siemens Xcelerator customers embrace low-code capabilities from Mendix, a Siemens Digital Industries Software Business, to accelerate their #digitaltransformation journey? In today’s fast-paced manufacturing environment, using data from various sources to make informed decisions is crucial for operating profitably. This dynamic data often resides in systems…
Facing Skill Shortages, Intense Competition, and Supply Chain Chaos? Are You Ready to Adapt? In today’s volatile market, operational agility is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity to future-proof your manufacturing operations. Our own researcher Julie Fraser joined a panel of experts from electronics, powder coatings, and building products for an interactive webinar on…
How do you accelerate the co-development of hardware and software for your products? Today’s products increasingly rely on software for innovation. Yet, development teams follow different processes and use separate tools to support the engineering and development of hardware and software. This creates silos within the development team that causes breakdowns in communication and hurts…
As highlighted in a Tech-Clarity eBook, “Extending the Digital Thread to the Customer Experience,” manufacturers who maintain accurate, up-to-date, and trusted digital thread data with complete service and maintenance records offer superior customer experience. Additionally, these manufacturers reduce service costs and increase customer confidence by avoiding multiple service visits and fixing issues perfectly the first…
Can you reimagine how people interact with enterprise software? Epicor is doing just that. Their announcement of the Prism agentic AI network and orchestrator takes the next step in moving from a system of record to a system of action. Prism includes conversational AI for employees to interact with ERP, and Epicor plans to integrate…
As highlighted in a Tech-Clarity report, “Drive Higher Profits with IoT Machine Monitoring and Optimization,” Top Performers are more likely to integrate machine data, enterprise systems, engineering data, and operational systems to drive higher profitability. This integration improves their ability to offer low-cost service, keep unplanned downtime low, troubleshoot machine problems quickly, provide data security,…
How can manufacturers take advantage of the benefits of product customization without suffering from decreased profitability? We gathered responses from 234 companies involved with to-order products and interviewed two leading manufacturers to find out how to improve product configuration. Read on or click here to download the full report with no registration required, courtesy of…
Do disconnected project management approaches hinder project execution, risk management, and decision-making, ultimately setting project leaders up for failure due to a lack of project intelligence? Engineering programs, including new product development projects, are becoming more complex. Companies delivering these programs often struggle to complete them on time and within budget. However, companies can improve…
How can you accelerate battery design innovation? The incredible demand for batteries has created significant opportunities for battery manufacturers at both existing businesses and new market entrants. However, current battery limitations can create an adoption barrier for more sustainable energy solutions. Companies with the right capabilities to rapidly innovate to overcome these battery limitations will…