Making the value of technology clear
IT Is Critical to Business Strategy Execution
Top IT Strategies
The role of IT has evolved from a tactical “order-taker” delivering on requirements provided by business leaders to a more strategic one. Now IT is more likely to collaborate with business leaders to help identify and define business problems.1 The top IT strategies reflect this more strategic focus.
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation has enabled many companies to achieve efficiencies that are hard for competitors to match.2 As such, Tech-Clarity's research finds that 41% of executives attribute digital transformation as a top business factor driving long-term success.3 Consequently, many executives place high importance on digital transformation, making it a priority for IT.
Successful digital transformation relies heavily on implementing the right technology. However, it is a considerable undertaking as true digital transformation impacts all business processes and requires a deep understanding of company processes, bottlenecks, and optimization opportunities. Implementation requires a significant IT investment. It is also a journey, requiring continuous improvement to realize the highest levels of efficiency.
Enable the Business
IT must ensure its strategies align with business goals. They must meet today's business needs and consider future needs to ensure that whatever they implement doesn't limit the business and will scale as it grows. They also need to ensure that what they implement provides value so the company realizes the expected return on the investment (ROI). Finally, they need to ensure that they can support a variety of environments across all company locations, including those working from home or on the road.
The other key takeaway is that now, 18 months after the merger, Selerant will be known as Trace One. This is important as they take advantage of synergies across the DevEx PLM system, which will retain its branding, and Trace One solutions. The combination gives Trace One the capability to help retail, CPG, and supply chain customers develop and promote compliant products faster, while maintaining full traceability. Trace One describes the solutions as Manufacturing PLM (DevEx) and Retail PLM (Trace One), as the image shows. We believe that expanding the scope of PLM beyond the product and manufacturer to better plan and manage the product in the context of the CPG / retail relationship is a valuable proposition.
Outlook
Selerant appears to be doing quite well as a part of Trace One. I met and heard from quite a few new customers at the conference, in addition to some that are in their selection process. It was good to see the success of a company that has long focused on a core, best of breed offering and has developed significant solution breadth. I also find it a good sign when vendors are confident enough to invite their prospective customers to meet and interact with existing customers at their user conference.
We look forward to learning more about Trace One and watching progress as they bring the combined offerings to market. Thank you Hollie Farrahi, Sunil Thomas, Marianna Fowles, and Saida Ait for including me in your conference. It was also nice to see (and meet) a number of key Trace One and Selerant leaders including Christophe Vanackère, Jacapo Colombo, Carlo Colombo, Claire Bui, Jobi Varghese, Antoine Daviet, Mike Frankel, and others.
[post_title] => Selerant is now Trace One Combining Retail and CPG PLM
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[post_content] => Jim Brown and I are intrigued by what consumer products companies and retailers can do to design products and trade more effectively and sustainably after our briefing with TradeBeyond. Their multi-enterprise PLM and supply chain collaboration platform is expanding. By acquiring Pivot88, they strengthened existing industry-specific capabilities, deepened their presence in apparel, and added quality, compliance, traceability, auditing, materials management, and AI/ML capabilities.
While the company is decades old (formerly CBX Software), new capabilities continue expanding the business value for retailers and their multi-tiered supply chain partner community. The combination of product design and supply chain sourcing, ordering, and logistics is powerful, particularly with many consumer products' short lifespans and seasonal nature. Having these functions in an end-to-end platform designed for multiple trading partners supports the contract manufacturing models common in consumer industries such as CPG, general merchandise, and retail footwear and apparel.
Sustainability has also become crucial for these industries, and TradeBeyond helps with compliance. Elements include partner onboarding, documents, and more. They are also building a network of sustainability-focused partners, including BSCI amfori for a common code of conduct, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in apparel, The Higg Index from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, as well as Reset Carbon, with which TradeBeyond has developed CBX Impact that helps companies assess and improve their scope 3 emissions.
Moving from product ideation to delivery on a single multi-enterprise collaborative platform is rare, and creates a digital thread from ideation through shipping. Most solutions are robust either in the product development and PLM or the supply chain and sourcing areas, but this has both. Pivot88 adds crucial production and operations capabilities in traceability, quality, and compliance. It also brings critical applied AI capabilities that TradeBeyond is already looking at expanding across their entire platform. TradeBeyond’s differentiation and footprint for delivering value is growing.
We look forward to following the company as it continues expanding its product footprint and presence in private-label and branded consumer goods supply chains. Thanks, Eric Linxwiller, and Lilian Bories, for explaining the latest to us. And thanks, Dan Demaree, for setting up the meeting.
[post_title] => TradeBeyond Expands in Quality, Compliance, and Traceability
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How can you help engineers manage complexity to make more informed design decisions?
As the role of product development teams becomes increasingly critical to product differentiation, growing complexity continues to make the job harder. However, with the right technologies, and by connecting simulation and test, you can empower development teams to engineer products that will win market share and boost profitability.
This survey-based research study examines engineering practices and the use of simulation and test. It identifies four best practices to get even more value from simulation and test. It also shares advice to support adoption.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens (registration required).
Every one of the sources of complexity has a direct impact on engineering. Engineers must figure out how to meet more requirements, incorporate new technologies, and integrate their work with additional engineering disciplines, while dealing with increasing demands for new skills. In addition, they must
be confident they've satisfied requirements while avoiding the cost of overengineering and still have the flexibility to innovate. All of this makes their job that much harder. It's such a challenge; companies take many actions to help them deal with complexity (see graph).
Addressing Complexity
Many companies turn to technology to help. In particular, simulation can be a valuable tool to improve engineering decisions. Empowering engineers to make better decisions reduces risk and increases the likelihood of products achieving market success.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the research and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens (registration required).
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the report, please contact us.
[post_title] => How to Engineer Innovation with Simulation and Test
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How can CPG companies cut through the noise to get value from a manufacturing digital twin of their production process? How does it differ in design, commissioning, and operational phases?
The market is filled with a combination of marketing hype and real case studies about how digital twins help companies digitally transform and drive new value. This interactive panel cuts through the buzzwords by discussing the real value of applying modeling, simulation, emulation, and virtual commissioning to help manufacturers, including consumer packaged goods companies, get products to market faster with greater throughput and quality. Digital twin experts Stephen Birtsas and Leo Moran of Kalypso join me in an interactive discussion and then share valuable case studies where Kalypso helped customers transform and tangibly improve performance.
Watch the Kalypso on-demand webinar for real-world insights and case studies about the manufacturing digital twin (no registration required).
For related research, please read Tech-Clarity's The State of PLM in CPG to find out if PLM is living up to its potential in consumer packaged goods.
[post_title] => The Manufacturing Digital Twin – Buzz or Bullseye?
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[post_content] => I had the opportunity to visit Graphisoft’s Budapest headquarters for their recent Building Together | Connect event. I left the event with several key takeaways:
Graphisoft shared its strategy and pointed to significant progress that will help integrate the work of its traditional architect customer base with others. At the event, they shared the release of the MEP Modeler in Archicad and new capabilities in DDScad. They plan to continue to add MEP / structural capabilities with every release. They also demonstrated enhancements to BIMcloud and BIMx that help support collaboration and interoperability to support industry initiatives and standards, including open BIM.
As a reflection of their integrated approach, they merged their product release announcements into one instead of individual announcements for Archicad, DDScad, BIMcloud, and BIMx. That might seem subtle, but it’s a meaningful statement about the importance of integration and evidence of a more integral product planning process and mindset.
Delivering on Customer Requests
The launch event was open to customers and Graphisoft paid clear attention to enhancements that make life better for existing customers. Graphisoft confirmed that “architects will always be at the center of our thinking,” even as they extend capabilities for multidisciplinary teams. These announcements are not the type that excite the market, but they are the tactical improvements that customers love. Some examples included integrated design option management to prevent the need to make numerous copies of a model, improved attribute management, smart distance guides, streamlined manufacturing library import, advanced model compare, and enhanced search. Graphisoft experts explained each of these in detail, and although the customer audience was remote, I could imagine their pleased responses. Graphisoft also added improved documentation for single-line drawings, which will likely make certain customers happy and also make Archicad more attractive in North America. It appears Graphisoft delivered some real value to existing customers with this release.
New Roadmapping Process
As mentioned, the announcement shared enhancements to help Graphisoft deliver on its vision but also showed strong evidence that they are listening to their customers. I met with the head of product management, Sylwester Pawluk, and Ghaleb Khadra from professional services to understand their product planning approach for the release. The plan included a mix of strategic additions like one-click LCA and tactical customer enhancements. What’s new, I’m told, is that Graphisoft has adopted a transparent roadmap so customers know what to expect. They also implemented a new technology preview process to share the enhancements with customers in advance and gained a very positive reaction to the release from their pre-release preview process.
Graphisoft now offers a live roadmap on its website, and this release shows that they delivered on their promises. In addition to solid roadmap items, Graphisoft shared research initiatives they’re focused on, including AI assistance, parametrics, and augmented / virtual reality. We expect to see results from these added to their roadmap over time. Again, Graphisoft is showing transparency and gaining credibility by announcing what they’re working on and adding it to the roadmap as they become confident of when and how they’ll upgrade their capabilities.
Final Thoughts
It’s great to see progress on both vision and customer-oriented enhancements. We’re excited about Graphisoft’s vision to offer a more integrated AEC solution while supporting existing architect customers. To do this, we expect to see continued investment in their existing solutions. We also believe we will see Graphisoft leverage more capabilities from across parent company, Nemetschek, to fulfill their vision and bring more value to their customers. AEC software is a dynamic market with significant opportunities for vendors and the industry. We look forward to seeing what Graphisoft delivers next.
Thank you to CEO Huw Roberts, Ron Close, Julianna Gulden, and the Graphisoft events team for inviting me to join such a well-organized, informative event. Further thanks to Sylwester Pawluk and Ghaleb Khadra for sharing product strategy and progress.
For more information about integrating design processes, see the survey results from our The State of Collaborative Design in AEC study.
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How do you manage a semiconductor production facility? Most people in the chip industry would say: with semiconductor MES. With its complex processes and products that cannot be clearly seen with the naked human eye, the semiconductor industry began broadly adopting MES in the 1980s and 1990s.
And therein lies the problem. The systems that many semiconductor professionals know - and some still use - are completely outdated. This guest blog post by Julie Fraser points out that just as the semiconductor industry has changed radically, so has the software available to support it. She argues it is time for redefining semiconductor MES.
The new definition encompasses many new changes in four categories:
What is the most important way a company can help supply chain resilience so it has a positive impact on the business? What are Top-Performing companies doing differently than others? How important are autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI)? What does the transformation of supply chain planning entail?
Read this new survey-based eBook to find out more about what really matters most to resilience. Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes DELMIA (registration required).
Transforming to Succeed
Every manufacturer has suffered supply chain challenges in the past few years. Thus, supply chain resilience is top of mind but takes work to achieve. What needs to change is typically the scope and focus of planning.
This research shows that transforming and expanding the thinking, team, and processes to achieve resilience in planning can have significant business benefits.
Top Performers’ View
In this survey of 229 manufacturers, Top Performers show the way. These Top Performers are defined by superior performance on business metrics around new products, revenue, profit, and time to market.
Best Practices
Top Performers’ planning is far more likely to involve the entire organization and its data. Not just sourcing, planning, scheduling, and logistics from the supply chain discipline but also product design, process engineering, and manufacturing. The involvement of these disciplines in planning is the #1 factor for Top Performers’ supply chains positively impacting the business. Top Performers are significantly more likely to cite this factor, so it’s a differentiator in what they do. (See chart)
Resilience is an Attainable Initiative
The good news is that internal collaboration and visibility to data from internal manufacturing and engineering groups is a resilience initiative any company can undertake. To succeed with such a program, manufacturers need software that supports a broad-based planning process transformation. Capabilities such as a common data platform and multi-discipline collaboration are crucial to success.
Investing Delivers Benefits
Companies that invest in transformation for resilience are seeing the benefits. This research shows that the longer you invest, the more likely you are to see benefits. Top Performers provide a blueprint for where to focus investment, who to involve, and what to expect from this transformation
Capabilities Change
After collaboration, visibility is the next most important factor in achieving positive supply chain impacts on the business. Manufacturers typically have continuous improvement programs that regularly boost production capabilities. Every time there is such a change, the basis of the supply chain plans should shift.
Hole in the Center
While manufacturing or “make” sits at the center of the supply chain, many companies do not have good visibility into production. The plant floor has often been described as a “black hole” for information flow: it goes in but does not come out readily.
Challenges Seeing Manufacturing Clearly
[post_title] => GE Aims to Operationalize Sustainability
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[post_content] => What’s the right amount of PLM for small to midsized manufacturers? We had a briefing with Office PLM to understand their offering. I spoke with Philip Thurman and he explained that Office PLM has all of the features a PLM system needs, but is affordable and installs in a couple of hours. I’m sure we could all have a long discussion about what features PLM “should” have, but what I saw meets what we call “Extended PLM” that goes beyond managing CAD to cover core revision, BOM, configuration, and engineering change functionality with a configurable workflow. They have a goal to simplify PLM and I suspect that their scope hits the sweet spot for a lot of manufacturers that don’t have time to implement a more complex application. Their integration with SOLIDWORKS and should also appeal to many smaller manufacturers. They offer a lot of educational information about PLM as well to help get their customers up to speed. Smaller manufacturers and suppliers should include Office PLM in their research if they’re looking for a lightweight PLM system. Thank you Philip for taking the time to get me up to speed on Office PLM. I look forward to learning more.
Michelle Boucher and I joined a group of industry analysts for an annual visit to Dassault Systèmes headquarters for an update on their business performance, product progress, and corporate strategy. This year did not disappoint. We had a lot of great conversations with company leadership and heard some really interesting updates. I’m going to try to condense our experience down to a number of key areas and follow that with a list of interesting things you may want to learn more about.
In summary, my observations are that:
How do companies prioritize the business strategies that drive their long-term success? What’s driving their strategy as they face constantly shifting global market disruptions? How do they balance initiatives like digital transformation, ESG, developing their workforce, and adopting new business models to ensure business sustainability in 2023 and beyond?
Read our 5th annual survey to see how executive strategies have changed as companies face shifting global market disruptions.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes (registration required).
For related research, please read our prior survey results from the past five years: Strategies for Business Sustainability 2022, Business Sustainability and Transformation Strategies 2021, Business Sustainability and Survival 2020, and Executive Strategies for Long-Term Business Success 2019.
Disruption is Lower, but Remain Vigilant
Risk and disruption continue to grow, but significant disruption may have leveled off (for now). Although the most common disruptions today are the supply chain and financial market, our research shows that the problems companies face vary. Businesses should anticipate ongoing disruption and the need to develop agility and resilience. Global business means companies are constantly at risk, it's simply the reality.
Take the Long View
It's essential to prepare for disruption but stay focused on long-term business needs. Company success drivers are optimistic and show a belief in the long view, including long-term profits, innovation, and transformation. Disruptions come and go. As companies mitigate risk by becoming ever more agile and responsive, they must also stay focused on the enduring fundamentals of business success, such as customer relationships and long-term profits, while digitally transforming to stay relevant for the long term. At the same time, they must also attract and develop the workforce of the future.
Stay Focused on Sustainability
Companies are taking a balanced approach and continue to focus across the pillars of business sustainability. But the world has changed, and strategic drivers have shifted to put more emphasis on financial markets and the environment. One of the most significant increases in attention is ESG. Environmental and social responsibility are becoming increasingly critical to long-term business success. Companies must continue to drive their internal green initiatives while satisfying regulatory demands. Fortunately, regulations are beginning to reflect environmental imperatives and create a level playing field that supports both business and the environment.
Adopt Technology to Drive Long-Term Success
Our research clearly shows that technology plays a crucial role in driving long-term company profitability and sustainability and achieving value across the pillars of business sustainability. It also delivers significant business value. Companies must continue their digital transformation, adopting new business models and technologies, to achieve long-term business success.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the research and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes DELMIA (registration required).
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the report, please contact us.
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How can auto manufacturers improve process design performance in the face of increased complexity? We surveyed over 150 people involved with manufacturing engineering and found that modernizing processes and technology drives higher automotive manufacturing engineering productivity and performance. These improvements are crucial to profitability in the transportation and mobility industry as customers demand high quality, more personalized products at increasingly faster time to market; all despite rising product and manufacturing complexity.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes DELMIA (registration required).
For related research, please read our Transforming Manufacturing in the Transportation Industry eBook.
Challenges Reflect Lack of Information and Ability to Optimize
Manufacturing engineers must overcome significant challenges to design and validate production processes. The most commonly reported challenge is untimely product design data. This hampers accurate, timely process design because planners can’t access trusted product details in time to optimize production plans and provide feedback on manufacturability. They also share challenges optimizing complex processes, which is likely becoming more complicated due to vehicle electrification.
In addition, respondents report challenges predicting the impact of their decisions on sustainability, inaccurate design information, visualizing assembly processes, and the time required to build prototypes.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence holds the promise of entirely new insights for better decision-making. However, is it doing that in your company today? Manufacturers have long suffered from discipline-specific or “siloes” of data and information. Increasingly, those siloes have their own specific AI or analytics.
September 27, day 3 of Smart Manufacturing Now, Julie Fraser will facilitate the discussion. Attendees were asked to bring their questions, thoughts, and experiences for this interactive short-version of the MESA Smart Manufacturing Community Supply Chain Group discussion.
Note that the Smart Manufacturing Community had these mini-sessions each day of the conference:
Monday 9/25 was Smart Manufacturing, Robotics, and Internal Logistics for Smart Connected Factory
Tuesday 9/26 New Capabilities in Manufacturing Operations Software
Thursday 9/28 Design for Manufacturing with Digital Thread and Digital Twin.
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Nexus
I’m going to focus on Nexus because it’s new, it’s so important to the Hexagon vision, and it was one of my biggest takeaways from the conference. Why is it so important?
Two significant partners, NVIDIA and Microsoft, are already involved with Nexus. Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of long-term partner NVIDIA, shared his vision for how Nexus and their Omniverse platform will work together to provide the benefits of AI to the industrial metaverse. Microsoft’s VP of Customer Innovation, Andy Pratt, shared how Nexus will support digital twins. It’s clear that a lot of thought has already been put into these partnerships around Nexus.
Beyond these larger partners, Hexagon announced Nexus for Developers at the conference. This capability provides APIs, SDKs, templates, and training that allow partners to build native apps, custom workflows, and “powered by Nexus communities.” They shared that their partner Altium was the first to pilot Nexus for Developers by creating a new solution for the electronics industry.
By opening up the platform, Hexagon provides partners (and customers) the opportunity to innovate and do more with their solutions than Hexagon can offer on their own.
Path to the Future
Nexus is a significant part of Hexagon’s future technology plans and they are using it to build the next generation of their applications and create a path to the cloud. They’ve already launched a number of apps and are in the process of introducing more. In addition, they are developing more platform capabilities that can be leveraged by both Nexus and partner applications. There is more detail here than I can cover, I encourage you to look at their roadmap to learn more as it is growing rapidly.
One of the important things to recognize about Nexus is that it’s not a replacement for existing systems. EVP and Nexus GM Stephen Graham explained that Nexus is intended to complement enterprise systems. It’s focused more on agility than control and works more as a system of engagement as compared to a typical system of record (like PLM). Nexus will bring automation and enable new feedback loops that will make processes more automated, efficient, and flexible. It will enhance current solutions by adding AI and visualization and support integration across solutions. This allows Hexagon to leverage their current solutions more effectively while they build out future offerings. The introduction of systems of engagement is an exciting new trend that we’re following closely, and Hexagon looks well aligned to help customers get more from their systems of record.
Industrial Metaverse
There is a lot of hype around the industrial metaverse. Beyond all of the hype, there is also value. With Nexus, Hexagon’s solutions offer the ability to connect real-world performance from the physical world with the digital twin. Their goal is to leverage simulation and AI to improve designs and the real world. Beyond that, Nexus has a goal to automate decisions in real-time to increase value by acting in the real world. This is an area that we look forward to learning more about. Look for more autonomy from Hexagon and Nexus in the future.
It’s also an area where partner collaboration, for example with NVIDIA, offers the potential for a lot of future innovation. For example, VP of Omniverse & Simulation Technology for NVIDIA Rev Lebaredian explained how companies can combine and simulate designs earlier to save money, reduce waste, and increase sustainability. He shared an example where companies with complex factories could bring together digital twins of a variety of assets, such as buildings, conveyors, robotics, and other equipment from different suppliers to simulate and find problems earlier. The potential is compelling.
Wrapping Up
Nexus is a significant new direction for Hexagon. It’s still relatively early, but their vision is strong and they’ve demonstrated real progress.
There was a lot more to the conference, but I hope this is a start in understanding what’s new with Hexagon. Thank you Robin Wolstenhome and Fiona Batchelor for your help coordinating schedules and customer discussions as I navigated my first Hexagon Live experience, and to countless Hexagon leaders who helped me learn more about Hexagon and their solutions.
How can machine builders improve the way they work with the companies that use their products to create more collaborative, mutually valuable relationships? This eBook explores five practical steps manufacturers can take to improve machine builder – operator collaboration and increase value for both themselves and the customers operating their machines.
Please enjoy the summary below and visit our sponsor Siemens to learn more about digital manufacturing solutions machine builders. You can also download the full eBook to learn more.
For related research, please read prior eBooks, The Machine Builder Digital Twin, Increasing Equipment Design Velocity, and Increasing Performance Engineering Performance.
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How can a Center of Excellence (CoE) prevent common challenges with manufacturing operations management (MOM)? In this new book published by ISA, long-time consultant Grant Vokey explains the functions and structure of successful CoEs. This solid book has sections to support data-driven management, continuous improvement (CI), Industry 4.0, manufacturing execution system (MES) implementations, and strategic planning and management.
Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser reviewed this book in draft form and provided input on an excellent manuscript. The Tech-Clarity survey eBook The Manufacturing Data Challenge research is cited several times to illustrate common challenges and show the keys to success.
This CoE book builds logically from background materials into more specific whys, hows, and keys to success. The book includes information about standard ISA topics such as MOM, ISA-95, and ISO 9000. It has valuable illustrations to support deeper understanding. Julie's favorite parts are the easy-to-follow examples and real-life experiences from Grant's career that bring home the value of a CoE.
Thanks to Grant Vokey and the ISA publishing team for providing us the opportunity to support this work. We believe many manufacturers will benefit from the logical flow of this book and the range of topics it covers for a CoE to support excellence in operations.
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How much do disconnected tools cost your business?
Historically, most companies have relied on multiple disconnected tools to get the job done, particularly in product development and manufacturing. IT then invests significant effort to integrate them. Interestingly, Top Performing companies say that reducing manual efforts and non-value-added work is most important for successful product development and manufacturing software. To achieve this, they point to solutions that easily integrate. This leads to the question, should companies invest in best-of-breed solutions they must integrate or adopt an integrated platform? Do the benefits of adopting best-of-breed point solutions outweigh the cost of working with disconnected tools?
Based on a survey of 187 IT, product development, and manufacturing professionals, this research study examines these questions. It looks at what IT needs to be successful in their job and how they can provide the most value to their company, including product development and manufacturing teams. It reveals best practices for overcoming the costs of disconnected tools and how to empower IT to focus more energy on the tasks that offer the most corporate benefit and make them even more successful.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor SOLIDWORKS (registration required).
IT Is Critical to Business Strategy ExecutionTop IT Strategies
The role of IT has evolved from a tactical “order-taker” delivering on requirements provided by business leaders to a more strategic one. Now IT is more likely to collaborate with business leaders to help identify and define business problems.1 The top IT strategies reflect this more strategic focus.
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation has enabled many companies to achieve efficiencies that are hard for competitors to match.2 As such, Tech-Clarity's research finds that 41% of executives attribute digital transformation as a top business factor driving long-term success.3 Consequently, many executives place high importance on digital transformation, making it a priority for IT.
Successful digital transformation relies heavily on implementing the right technology. However, it is a considerable undertaking as true digital transformation impacts all business processes and requires a deep understanding of company processes, bottlenecks, and optimization opportunities. Implementation requires a significant IT investment. It is also a journey, requiring continuous improvement to realize the highest levels of efficiency.
Enable the Business
IT must ensure its strategies align with business goals. They must meet today's business needs and consider future needs to ensure that whatever they implement doesn't limit the business and will scale as it grows. They also need to ensure that what they implement provides value so the company realizes the expected return on the investment (ROI). Finally, they need to ensure that they can support a variety of environments across all company locations, including those working from home or on the road.
How much do disconnected tools cost your business? Historically, most companies have relied on multiple disconnected tools to get the job done, particularly in product development and manufacturing. IT then invests significant effort to integrate them. Interestingly, Top Performing companies say that reducing manual efforts and non-value-added work is most important for successful product development…
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What’s the right amount of PLM for small to midsized manufacturers? We had a briefing with Office PLM to understand their offering. I spoke with Philip Thurman and he explained that Office PLM has all of the features a PLM system needs, but is affordable and installs in a couple of hours. I’m sure we…
Michelle Boucher and I joined a group of industry analysts for an annual visit to Dassault Systèmes headquarters for an update on their business performance, product progress, and corporate strategy. This year did not disappoint. We had a lot of great conversations with company leadership and heard some really interesting updates. I’m going to try…
How do companies prioritize the business strategies that drive their long-term success? What’s driving their strategy as they face constantly shifting global market disruptions? How do they balance initiatives like digital transformation, ESG, developing their workforce, and adopting new business models to ensure business sustainability in 2023 and beyond? Read our 5th annual survey to…
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Artificial intelligence holds the promise of entirely new insights for better decision-making. However, is it doing that in your company today? Manufacturers have long suffered from discipline-specific or “siloes” of data and information. Increasingly, those siloes have their own specific AI or analytics. September 27, day 3 of Smart Manufacturing Now, Julie Fraser will facilitate…
Takeaways from Hexagon Live 2023 I attended my first Hexagon Live user conference this year. It was a well-attended, high-energy, polished event. I have to say, the content reminded me of my first conversation with Hexagon at a COFES industry conference a few years ago where I was overwhelmed with the scope and depth of…
How can machine builders improve the way they work with the companies that use their products to create more collaborative, mutually valuable relationships? This eBook explores five practical steps manufacturers can take to improve machine builder – operator collaboration and increase value for both themselves and the customers operating their machines. Please enjoy the summary…
Can lithium-ion and other specialty battery manufacturers keep up with the growth potential in the new world fueled by electrons rather than heat? That all depends on how well they can master manufacturing. Lithium-ion batteries are inherently complex. It is an enormous challenge to make them at consistently high quality. Compounding the challenge are the…
How can a Center of Excellence (CoE) prevent common challenges with manufacturing operations management (MOM)? In this new book published by ISA, long-time consultant Grant Vokey explains the functions and structure of successful CoEs. This solid book has sections to support data-driven management, continuous improvement (CI), Industry 4.0, manufacturing execution system (MES) implementations, and strategic…