ARC Advisory Group attended the IOT Solutions World Conference (IoTSWC) on the grounds of the FIRA Barcelona last October and we were very impressed. The venue is modern and in contrast to automation fairs, there was an atmosphere of quiet and calm, that favored concentration and quality conversations. With over 300 companies and record attendance of over 16000 visitors this may seem counterintuitive, but that was our impression. The growth of both exhibitors by more than 40 percent and visitor numbers by 25 percent is impressive. Even though this was just the fourth edition of the event, the size was one of a grown-up world-scale fair.

ARC Advisory Group Europe and MESA EMEA join forces in providing quality presentations and a workshop on MES/MOM at the annual ARC European Industry Forum (EIF) for several years. Uwe Kueppers, chair of MESA EMEA said: "I believe as MESA we were able of adding valuable content and contributed to an excellent event organized by ARC. We are looking forward to continue our partnership in the future”.

Infor announced the acquisition of Alfa-Beta Solutions, a Dutch system integrator.  Alfa-Beta Solutions, a Gold Infor Channel Partner, specializes on mid-market and large enterprises in the food & beverage (F&B) industry across Benelux and Germany.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) was one of the buzzwords on the SPS/IPC/Drives 2018 at Nuremberg, Germany. ARC experts have been keeping an eye on this topic for some time as the topic has become a real hype over the last 12 months. Read our ARC blogs “Artificial Baby!” and “UK – Serious about AI” to get up to speed on recent developments and expect to see more insights from our side in the near future.

To navigate today’s tidal wave of digital transformation and to make disruptive technologies work, manufacturers, municipalities, utilities, and all other organizations need to roll out the right mix of technologies at just the right time. This means driving and managing change in processes, people, ecosystems, and technologies while keeping safety and cybersecurity at the forefront.

With the completion of the CC-Link IE TSN specification, the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) is setting the stage for a new development wave of industrial devices running on CC-Link IE that can now take advantage of Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) technology. TSN is a set of additional standards related to standard IEEE Ethernet. Initially developed for the automotive industry, TSN quickly became popular with industrial network consortia because of its ability to support determinism.

At our ARC European Industry Forum 2018, Chris Hazlewood, Senior Manager at MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC, gave an important Key Note speech about two key technologies forming the digital enterprise; Edge Computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) but it seems the company has been working in the background on a third: 3D printing.

The Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) reports that the September order intake in the German machinery and plant engineering sector only maintained its previous year's level; not enough to achieve the same rate of growth as in previous months.

Endress+Hauser has invested more than 10.4 million euros in a new production facility at its location in Nesselwang, Germany. The 4,800-square-meter building contains new production and office space, in addition to technology and common rooms. With the expansion, the Endress+Hauser Group is making further investments in sustainable growth.