The recent ARC India Forum in Bangalore included a number of interesting and insightful sessions about the latest trends in manufacturing. This Insight covers three such presentations. Lokesh Payik Head of Smart Manufacturing (General Manager), Bosch, discussed that manufacturing company's journey to Industrie 4.0; Chandrashekar Bharathi, Managing Director, Ace Micromatic, spoke about his company's advanced manufacturing decision support system; and Jeetendra Bhavrani, Additional Deputy Manager (MQA) and R.S.

Alarm management and process safety are closely intertwined. Your alarm management system and associated operator intervention are often the last line of defense before a safety system trip. However, the role of alarm management is also important when you consider other layers of protection, such as the process control system. The ISA 18 and IEC 62682 standards govern alarm management for the process industries, while the ISA 84 and ISA 61511 standards cover safety instrumented functions (SIF).

In recent quarters, the automation markets have experienced continuing decline. While exchange rate fluctuations were responsible for much of the downward movements in 2015, the softening business conditions in the process industries have had the most significant impact. The decline started in the upstream and midstream oil & gas sectors, but has now begun to affect the downstream refining and chemicals sector. On the positive side, discrete manufacturing automation markets are still in comparably good shape.

Much has been talked and written about the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) due to the great promise it holds for the industrial community and its potential to disrupt traditional operations and business practices. The IIoT has moved beyond the conceptual, "blue sky" stage; ARC Advisory Group is starting to see numerous products, solutions, and use cases.

Modern warehouse logistics systems, an essential portion of today's manufacturing and commercial warehouse and distribution center operations, can increase productivity, increase accuracy, and reduce logistics costs. Generally speaking, modern logistics systems can be divided into two categories: those for manufacturing logistics and those for fulfillment logistics in commercial (retail) operations. Both are seeing rapid growth in China.

Today, manufacturing generates and accounts for a full third of all data involved in business and industry. As more industrial companies move to the digital enterprise model, this percentage is likely to increase significantly. The role of data in manufacturing has been typically understated, if not misinterpreted or underutilized. This is changing rapidly, as data and the actionable information derived from data form the backbone of the digital enterprise, which represents the future for advanced manufacturing.

Venture capitalists are pouring money into startups looking to revolutionize the freight market with Uber-type business models. How will these developments impact both transportation management system (TMS) suppliers and shippers? Despite the hopes of the venture capital community, ARC sees a relatively small market opportunity for the new startups. ARC further believes these are niche solutions and not likely to benefit many shippers.

In an increasingly complex global competitive environment, real-time information is vital to help people at both the plant and enterprise levels make decisions that improve efficiency and effectiveness. This means being prepared to embrace disruptive technologies to acquire the needed information, even if it can potentially cause radical changes to current manufacturing processes.

The growing awareness and interest in the emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has implications for the industrial automation profession. Standards development organizations (SDOs), technology suppliers, and end users each have a role to play in interpreting this concept to separate the hype from the practical opportunities and applications. This has to start by examining the implications for the many standards that form the basis of industrial automation today. The objective is to identify the areas where new or revised standards may be required.

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 2016-17 of India's IT sector and compare it with same period the previous year.