Executive Overview

Additive manufacturing (AM), often referred to as 3D printing, emerged several decades ago.  But only recently has the technology experienced rapid growth, expanding into many applications for a range of industries and businesses.  It has been interesting to follow the progression and scope of the technology as it has moved from small printing systems, producing small parts from papers and plastic materials, to larger printing platforms that can produce complex metallic-based parts.

Executive Overview
A company incurs capital expenditure (CapEx) – the capital utilized to buy fixed assets or to add to the value of existing fixed assets – to acquire or upgrade physical assets on plant and machinery, land and buildings, property, and such others.  ARC Advisory Group captures CapEx in this report in two separate segments: based on the money spent on acquiring and upgrading total fixed assets, and on the money spent on acquiring and upgrading the plant and machinery. 

For decades, upstream operating companies have been employing some sort of artificial lift technology to increase the production of mature wells, both onshore and offshore.  The technology is also being widely employed in newer, unconventional wells to help offset the steeper decline rates and maximize production over the life of an individual well. 

Twenty years ago, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued its Process Safety Management (PSM) of Highly Hazardous Chemicals standard.  The objective was to spell out the requirements for preventing or minimizing the consequences of catastrophic releases of toxic, reactive, flammable, or explosive chemicals that could result in toxic, fire, or explosion hazards.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently proposed new safety regulations that have received very little coverage.

The third-party logistics (3PL) market − encompassing non-asset-based transportation, warehousing, and integrated supply chain services − experienced a year-over-year growth of 1.8 percent in revenues in the third quarter of 2016.  The growth was mainly driven by acquisitions. Organic growth (without the effect of acquisitions) declined in all three quarters of FY2016 - by 8.9 percent in Q1, 6.9 percent in Q2, and 3.4 percent in Q3.

Arkema, a global chemical company headquartered in France, has decided to adopt a corporate approach to electronic document management for plant maintenance.  The process and associated software must support strategic asset management of the company with a high degree of innovation and continuous adaptation of its assets.

Globalization creates challenges for discrete product manufacturers to raise productivity, improve product quality and consistency, reduce energy consumption, lower product costs, reduce plant operating expenses, improve productivity and increase overall return on investment.  Additional challenges posed by global competition include energy volatility and scarcity and pressure to reduce environmental footprint for sustainability.  These cross a wide range of industries.  Clearly, if their going to have any chance of meeting these daunting challenges successfully, discrete man

The Industrial Internent of Things (II) is breathing new life into remote services.  Recent advances in data science, artificial intelligence, and computing power have converged to allow companies to take large amounts of plant and asset data and transfer it to the cloud for analysis.  This approach provides a cost-effective way for end users to outsource the predictive analytics of the often overwhelming cache of plant and asset data to the technology suppliers’ experts who, in turn, provide guidance on how to improve plant operations, increase maintenance effectiveness, and avoi

In an era when digital transformation often means a reduction in printed media or elimination of paper in favor of mobile devices or a virtual experience, manufacturers in the paper and print industry face the challenge to differentiate products and the customer experience.