Autodesk announced Forge, an initiative to accelerate a cloud connected ecosystem in support of the future of making things. The initiative consists of three major components – a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering, a developer program, and a $100 million investment fund – all geared toward advancing the next wave of innovative technologies that will transform how products are designed, made, and used.

​Siemens Industry Software India Pvt. Ltd. (SISW), a 100 percent subsidiary of Siemens product lifecycle management (PLM) Software (USA), inaugurated its state-of-the-art Siemens PLM Software Global R&D Center in Baner, Pune. With 1,500 employees, this is the biggest center among the 26 research and development centers spread around the world. The center will act as the Asia-Pacific infrastructure hub focused on cutting-edge software product development. The company also has R&D centers in Bangalore and Chennai.

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces major updates to its IFS Field Service Management (FSM) offering. The latest version of IFS Field Service Management (5.6.3) is now available and features a number of enhancements including:

ODVA made two announcements at the Exhibition Center Nuremberg concurrent with SPS IPC Drives show:

• Cybersecurity Volume Added to The EtherNet/IP Specification
• Major Enhancements for The EtherNet/IP Specification Underway in 2016

AVEVA announced the commercial launch of AVEVA Everything3D 2.1 (AVEVA E3D). The release builds on the software's proven ability to deliver time and cost savings for brownfield and revamp projects by increasing productivity for EPCs and Owner Operators. Enhanced capabilities, such as PointCloud demolition and displaying laser data directly on drawings, enable designers to interact with 3D models in ways that have not been previously possible.

Rockwell Automation released a new quality-management application that allows manufacturers to model and enforce in-process quality regimens. The Quality Management fit-for-purpose application is an out-of-box, stand-alone application that is scalable to include other fit-for-purpose apps within the company's FactoryTalk ProductionCentre manufacturing execution system (MES).

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced that it has received a Type 1 report on the internal controls that it employs in the provision of production control system secured remote solution services at its customers' plants. This report complies with the ISAE3402 international standard and the SSAE16 U.S. standard, both of which address the adequacy and effectiveness of the internal controls at service organizations.

Rockwell Automation has introduced a batch application toolkit to help manufacturers and solution providers reduce the risk, time and cost of implementing batch control systems. The toolkit contains a collection of application examples, videos, documentation, and ISA-88 compliant sample code to provide technical guidance when designing and automating a batch system using Rockwell Automation systems.

The first quarter of 2016 will see the opening in Singapore of Yokogawa's first ever Co-innovation Centre, a S$112 million (US$80 million) venture that will focus on jointly developing new industry solutions with clients and help boost next generation industrial automation process capabilities. The announcement took place during the Yokogawa Users Conference Asia Pacific 2015, held in Singapore, November 18-20, where the company also marked 100  years since its founding in Japan in 1915.

Rockwell Automation released the latest update of its FactoryTalk VantagePoint enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) v7.0 software, which now includes the addition of import and configure mobile-based work flows that enables the one-time configuration of a manufacturing intelligence solution.