ARC Advisory Group developed its Asset Performance Management (APM) concept almost a decade ago to provide our clients with a framework to analyze their asset management needs, develop effective strategies, and ultimately optimize their asset availability and utilization.
The recent ARC India Forum in Bangalore provided delegates with a visionary look at the future of industry and automation, with a focus on smart, information-driven manufacturing. ARC Advisory Group Vice President, Dr. Valentijn de Leeuw's keynote presentation was entitled, "Smart Manufacturing Paves the Way for the Future of the Industry." In his keynote presentation, Mr. K. S. Viswanathan, Vice President, NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies), provided that organization's perspective on how information-driven manufacturing will transform industry.
India's information technology (IT) services sector continues its upward momentum, with most of the IT services companies covered in the report exhibiting above-average growth. In this report, we analyze the first quarter of financial year 2015-16 of India's IT sector and compare it with same period the previous year.
Thanks to relatively new technologies, such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, companies operating in the US shale formations brought over one million barrels per day of incremental oil to global supply over the last year. OPEC's decision not to play the role of "swing producer" meant that the market for oil would be oversupplied by greater than 1 percent relative to global demand. As a result, oil prices declined over 50 percent since June, despite making a temporary recovery a few months ago.
The worldwide enterprise software market continued to decline in the second quarter of 2015. The euro depreciated with respect to the dollar by more than 19.5 percent in 2Q 2015 compared to 2Q 2014. This exchange rate fluctuation had a substantial negative impact on the revenues of many European companies when translated to US dollars, and on the reported growth rate of the market overall.
Cybersecurity for industrial control systems (ICS) is currently a popular topic for discussion. Awareness of security-related risks and their relationship to process safety has increased dramatically in recent years. Many more end-users now know and accept the need to address the subject and meet the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders.
The predominant business case for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in the industrial machinery market centers on improving aftermarket services using remote monitoring and predictive maintenance algorithms. However, manufacturers can also realize improvements in production quality by leveraging the machine learning capabilities achievable with cloud analytics and connected machines.
This Insight captures the key points of the case studies and other presentations made in the Strategies to Achieve Business Performance Enhancement session at ARC Advisory Group's recent India forum in Bangalore.
According to the presenters, today's manufacturing trends/challenges include:
ARC Advisory Group conducted an extensive industrial cybersecurity program at the 2015 Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida. Keynotes, workshops, end user case studies, and an expert panel discussion about securing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) provided attendees with a variety of valuable learning experiences. Cybersecurity was also the focus of many suppliers in the Forum exhibition area.