Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
Overview
With a strong return to the in-person format, ARC Advisory Group hosted close to 900 attendees at its recent Industry Forum in Orlando June 6-9. Attendees were able to learn about the latest successful digital transformation strategies 
from leading end user companies, take advantage of networking opportunities, and see many of the latest technologies and solutions in action.
While the worst of COVID appears to be over, the pandemic accelerated digital transformation strategies among both end users and suppliers. These companies are continuing their momentum as they deal with the ongoing challenges of supply chain disruption, the “great resignation,” and many other people, process and technology related challenges.
ARC has always strived to bring superior content to our Forum in the form of substantive end user-focused presentations that our attendees can learn from and apply this knowledge to their own operations. Attendees learned about successful digital transformation strategies, the convergence of IT and OT domains, industrial and critical infrastructure cybersecurity, and the future of open automation.
PureCycle Technologies on Being “Born Digital”
The first end user keynote speaker was Dustin Olson, CEO of PureCycle Technologies. PureCycle is a unique company that recycles polypropylene plastic, which is the most popular plastic in the world, but only about 5 percent of it gets recycled. Current methods of Polypropylene recycling typically produce a low value resin that can only be used to make things like park benches and other utilitarian applications. PureCycle’s mission is to recycle this polypropylene into ultra-pure recycled plastic through its own proprietary process that removes all dyes, odors, and other contaminants from the polypropylene, leaving a highly pure resin that can be used to manufacture a wide range of products and packaging.
With a completely new process for recycling at a company that is focused on sustainability with ambitious growth plans, adopting a digital strategy was a necessary step for meeting corporate objectives. As a new company without the legacy of an installed base of technology, Dustin spoke about how PureCycle was really “Born Digital,” incorporating digitalization concepts and technologies from its inception.
Bank of America: The Future Is Software
Andrew Obin, Managing Director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Equity Research gave his company’s take on the impact of digital transformation on markets. One of the key points brought out was the shift in manufacturing CapEx budgets from equipment to software. The manufacturing industry has always been asset intensive, but the statistics presented clearly illustrate a huge shift in CapEx spending to intellectual property versus equipment and structures in the manufacturing sector, and much of this intellectual property comes in the form of software investments.
The increased investment in software isn’t just on the end user side. Industrial suppliers are investing more than ever in software companies, with a huge jump in transaction volume starting around 2012 and continuously accelerating through 2021. Andrew provided examples of dozens of software acquisitions between 2019 and 2021 by most of the major automation and industrial suppliers. But there is still progress to be made. As Andrew pointed out, the oil and gas industry in particular has a long way to go before its overall investments in software approach the same level as those in the rest of the manufacturing sector. Intellectual property investment as a percent of revenue still lags significantly for the oil and gas industry as well, and Andrew pointed out that it still takes the same number of people to get a barrel of oil out of the ground today as it did 40 years ago.
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Keywords: ARC Industry Forum, Digital Transformation, Cybersecurity, Digital Workforce, ARC Advisory Group.