Operators in the process industries control complex industrial equipment and processes, often involving hazardous and/or explosive materials.  With today's sophisticated control systems, one or two operators can typically monitor and control an entire process unit.

Across the process industries many plants are still using paper-based procedures, or the digital equivalent, to guide employees through critical transitions, such as process startups, shutdowns, and product grade changes.  Often, the procedures have not been kept up to date, or even if they have, operators can miss or forget steps that could result in an incident.  It’s widely assumed that automation will eliminate the need for some of these operator-oriented procedures in favor of fully automated processes.  In reality, statistics show that there a

Modular force sensor designs are built on a standardized set of components and interfaces within the sensor, creating reusable subsystems that can be produced in large volumes and used across multiple product families.  These designs offer potential economies of scale and the opportunity to use a common housing for the sensors, while enabling them to benefit from common safety components.  For sensor suppliers, OEMs, and manufacturing end users alike, it is crucial to find the right balance between customized sensors on the one hand and large-scale production benefits on the other

The third-party logistics (3PL) market experienced a year-over-year growth of 2.8 percent in revenues in the fourth quarter of 2016.  This was primarily driven by acquisitions.  Organically, the 3PL market grew by 0.7 percent in Q4 2016 but declined by 5.3 percent for the entire fiscal year.

Categories of 3PLs
ARC’s scope of coverage for the 3PL market includes the following non-asset-based transportation and warehousing services (called “contract logistics” in Europe):

The programming software for DCS and PLC automation systems have been chronic pain points for end users.  What is the fundamental problem? Control configuration software lacks many of the capabilities found in the IT software world.