by Gary Mintchell | Oct 29, 2021 | Business, Commentary, News
Lots of news coming in recently. One definite trend we’re seeing concerns consolidation of the industrial software market. This is a drip, drip, drip of announcements. When will it reach a tipping point and a big player comes in with a major scoop? The other news coming in yesterday to note is this acquisition by NI. This exactly fits the profile NI has established for itself over the past five or so years. It’s a good move.
NI to Acquire NH Research, Enters into Definitive Agreement with Heinzinger
NI announced the acquisition of NH Research, LLC (NHR), a leader in high power test and measurement applications such as electric vehicles (EV) and batteries. The transaction closed on October 19, 2021. NI is also announcing that it recently entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the EV Systems business of Rosenheim, Germany-based Heinzinger GmbH, a European leader in high-current and high-voltage power systems and this deal is expected to close in Q1 2022.
These acquisitions will expand NI’s portfolio of electrification (EV), battery, and sustainable energy capabilities to provide customers with critical power level signal sensing, capture and analysis. NI, NHR, and Heinzinger serve highly complementary positions in testing components used in the automotive industry to rapidly innovate to electrify vehicles. We believe combining the strength of NI’s flexible EV test platform with these companies’ power conversion and power supply test systems expertise will optimize testing workflows and enable rapid responses to changing test needs, accelerating time to market for a broader range of customers.
The focus of the acquisitions is to accelerate NI’s opportunity in high growth EV applications. Due to the complementary nature of these companies to NI’s priorities of innovation and meeting customer needs, NI expects that there will be minimal cost synergies from these transactions. NI is funding both these transactions through a combination of its existing revolving credit facility and cash on hand. These two transactions will represent 3 percent to 4 percent of NI’s total revenue in 2022 and be accretive to earnings per share. Approximately 150 employees will be joining the company.
“We continue to be intentional with investments where we see high potential to accelerate our growth. The addition of expertise and complementary capability from these two leading technology companies will help strengthen and expand our systems offerings to shared customers in the fast-growing area of electrification,” said Eric Starkloff, NI President and CEO. “These companies demonstrate our continued commitment to delivering systems to our customers who are facing a once in a career technology inflection in electrification. We welcome the employees of NHR and Heinzinger as we collectively accelerate our long-term growth ambitions.”
Software Market Consolidation
Infor (recently acquired by Koch Industries) announced the acquisition of Lighthouse Systems, a leading provider of manufacturing execution system (MES) software for smart manufacturing. The company’s flagship product, Shopfloor-Online, helps manufacturing companies manage and improve manufacturing operations across production, quality, inventory, and maintenance.
Lighthouse Systems’ MES solution, which can be fully integrated into Infor CloudSuite ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, will help Infor address a critical customer requirement of 24×7 manufacturing operations. For those manufacturing companies that are looking to implement ERP and MES together, Infor anticipates that its ability to offer a fully integrated solution “out of the box” will significantly shorten time to value for customers.
“MES solutions are critical for manufacturing organizations that want to ensure data consistency and real-time visibility across all plant operations,” said Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson. “Integrating these capabilities with our industry-specific ERP systems will help us deliver even more powerful solutions to manufacturing organizations, as they look to digitize their operations and grow their businesses.”
Based in Crawley, UK, about 30 miles south of London, Lighthouse Systems has major offices in the UK, the United States and Singapore. Its approximately 100 employees serve customers worldwide in focus industries such as automotive, building & construction, food & beverage, life science, machinery & equipment, packaging, and sustainable energy.
Lighthouse Systems customers include Ball Corporation, Formica, Lucite International, Nissan, Benteler, and the Timken Company.
Tim Barber, company director at Lighthouse Systems, said, “We are delighted to join forces with Infor to further the operational excellence initiatives of our manufacturing customers. We have 30 years of experience delivering MES solutions to discrete and process manufacturers worldwide. These solutions are not only key to executing production efficiently, they also are essential building blocks for smart manufacturing and digital transformation.”
Lighthouse Systems’ Shopfloor-Online product enables smart manufacturing by bringing all manufacturing operations into one central software system, which is accessible 24×7. The system, which can be deployed in the cloud or on-premises, connects the factory with a single thread of critical data that is accessible at the shop-floor level and throughout the enterprise.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 28, 2021 | Personal Development
I learn so much from podcasts—both audio essays such as Seth Godin’s and conversations. One of my favorites is from Tim Ferriss. His latest is a discussion with former Google CEO and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. Schmidt is out with a new book, The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, co-written with Dr. Henry Kissinger (at 98-years-old!) and Daniel Huttenlocher.
If you are interested/concerned/desiring to go beyond hype about AI, I highly recommend the time investment to listen to this podcast. I have not read the book, yet, but I’m about to click the order link at Bookshop.org (supports local independent booksellers).
Schmidt paints a number of scenarios. But here is a tidbit to whet your appetite:
Just as math was to explaining physics; so AI will be to explaining biology.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 27, 2021 | Asset Performance Management, Operations Management
AI is perhaps the most overused buzz word in our market right now. On my drive down I-90 to Rosemont, IL for the Assembly show this morning, I listened to the first part of an interview on the Tim Ferris podcast with Eric Schmidt. This former Google CEO has written a book just released on AI. AI is short for Artificial Intelligence, a phrase which some of us refer to as neither artificial or intelligent. Schmidt defines it as software that learns. Feed it more data and it learns from it.
This news comes from ABB which has added AI to its launch of Ability Genix Asset Performance Management (APM) Suite for condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, and 360-degree asset performance insights for the process, utility and transportation industries. The quick look is:
- The launch of ABB Ability Genix Asset Performance Management Suite brings next-generation AI-based predictive maintenance, asset reliability and integrity insights to process and utility industries
- Genix APM is an enterprise-grade application to monitor assets, prescribe maintenance actions, improve equipment utilization, and support lifecycle analysis and capital planning
- Solution provides actionable insights into all aspects of asset performance, enabling customers to reduce machine downtime by up to 50 percent
The Genix APM Suite makes it easy to add asset condition monitoring to existing operational technology (OT) landscapes, enables prioritization of maintenance activities based on AI-informed predictions, and provides a comprehensive overview of asset performance.
Genix APM Suite also empowers significant improvements in operational sustainability. By assessing the remaining useful life of industrial assets, Genix APM generates a plan for preventive maintenance, which can extend equipment uptime by as much as 50 percent and increase asset life by up to 40 percent.
With reliable data insights, decision makers are provided with the information required in order to identify gaps and areas of improvement for energy efficiency and tighter control of operations, increasing asset availability and improving profit potential.
“Poor asset availability and reliability is a major problem that results in unplanned downtime and unexpected maintenance costs, and also impedes strategic planning and procurement,” said Rajesh Ramachandran, Chief Digital Officer at ABB Process Automation. “It’s not that industrial customers lack data; it’s that many lack effective ways to use their data to improve operational and business performance.”
Genix APM is built on the ABB Ability Genix Industrial Analytics and AI Suite. ABB Ability Genix is a modular, IIoT and analytics suite, which integrates IT, OT and other enterprise data in a contextualized manner, applying advanced industrial AI capabilities that support new insights to optimize operations.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 26, 2021 | News, Organizations
Congratulations to Steve Biegacki for becoming the new Managing Director of the FDT Group. Glenn Schultz has led the organization for 13 years overseeing advancement and adoption of the standard. Biegacki was executive leader of the CIP/DeviceNet/ControlNet/EtherNet/IP group of networking standards. He is knowledgeable in the area, knows about everyone, and a proven leader. This should be a win for the organization.
FDT Group, an independent, international, not-for-profit industry association supporting the evolution of FDT technology, today announced that Steve Biegacki has been named the Managing Director successor. Glenn Schulz, who has held the role for 13 years, had earlier this year announced his retirement with effect at the end of 2021. Mr. Biegacki will immediately begin the transition, joining the organization as Vice President of Marketing, commencing 1 November 2021, to undertake strategy, planning and collaborative work alongside existing leadership and working groups to ensure a seamless transition assuming the Managing Director role on 1 January 2022.
Biegacki’s 30+ year career has been in leadership roles working in and with manufacturing companies in the areas of sales, marketing, and business management developing and implementing strategies to deliver market awareness and growth. He was involved in the design, manufacturing, and delivery of technologies and solutions. Most recently, Biegacki has served as Director, Management Advisory Services for BDO, collaborating with industry clients to help them improve their business by helping them understand their market and opportunities, creation of goals and action plans, and KPI’s to measure progress and provide feedback, to ensure planned outcomes. Prior roles include CEO at Kramer Electronics, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Belden and Vice President of Global Commercial Marketing at Rockwell Automation. At Rockwell Automation he was also the Business Manager that led the creation, development and delivery of a single international networking standard known as CIP, the underlying protocol of DeviceNet, ControlNet and EtherNet/IP.
Biegacki resides in the United States. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from Electronic Technology Institute in Cleveland, Ohio and participated in the Executive MBA program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 26, 2021 | Automation, Technology
Twenty years ago this month an answer arrived to a problem I had been trying to figure out. Playing music on a portable device better than a Walkman. I had tried some of the early MP3 players, but they were awkward to use and unstable at uploading music.
Then the iPod appeared. I had one as soon as I could get my hands on it. This changed my life. Of course now the iPhone has absorbed all the iPod functions. I carry it almost everywhere not only for the phone part, but also to listen to podcasts and music. Om Malik reminded me of this in this week’s essay.
Not to be outdone. Today’s RAM Review from some friends in the reliability and maintenance technology area carried a reminiscence of the 100th anniversary—are you ready for this?—of the grease nipple. Another invention that saved me time and grief when I was scooting on my back under a car or other equipment.
Happy Anniversary!
