by Gary Mintchell | Jul 30, 2014 | Automation, Data Management, Internet of Things, M2M, News, Operations Management, Technology
A client recently discussed the impacts of the Internet of Things on its business. I mentioned that if you look at the entire system, you have to consider both all the inputs from the huge variety of sensors and the data collection, analysis, and presentation that make sense of the whole thing.
Add that idea to GE’s emphasis corporate-wide on what it calls the “Industrial Internet,” and you can understand the basics behind this partnership agreement. I expect to see many more acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations around the IoT in the next two years. If you are a small and innovative company (think ThingWorx and Axeda, for example), this is going to be an ideal time to position yourself for a sweet buy out.
GE’s Measurement & Control business announced a minority equity investment in Meridium. The companies intend to enter into a joint development and distribution agreement that will integrate Meridium’s asset performance management (APM) software and GE’s Bently Nevada System 1 Asset Condition Monitoring (ACM) technology.
From the press release:
GE’s System 1 ACM technology is part of the Bently Nevada product line that produces machine condition sensors, data acquisition hardware and software. Meridium’s APM aggregates data from System 1 and other plant maintenance systems to provide plant engineers with a dashboard of reliability metrics. This new Industrial Internet software offering will enable condition-based maintenance with pinpoint precision, in near real-time, resulting in an estimated 10-30 percent in maintenance cost reduction. This is a critical capability for customers in the Oil and Gas, Power Generation, Hydrocarbon Processing and other asset intensive industries.
“The way we do business is being dramatically altered in the era of the Industrial Internet. We are realizing the increased productivity and efficiency gains from big data and analytics delivered in real-time. The partnership with Meridium will increase value for our customers, allowing them to quantify risk in a near real-time manner. We are unlocking the value of condition-based maintenance, which will lead to reduced maintenance costs, increased mechanical availability and less downtime for our customers,” said Art Eunson, General Manager of GE’s Bently Nevada product line.
“Working with GE across mutual clients over many years taught us that together we could produce additional significant tangible value through collaboration and interfaces,” said Bonz Hart, Meridium’s Founder and CEO. “As we looked at the strengths of each company and our rapidly expanding global markets, working closer together made sense for our clients and to better serve our markets. GE’s Bently Nevada operates in a multi-OEM and multi-system world, as does Meridium, so we’re also tightly aligned on strategy. GE’s minority investment allows Meridium to stay focused on innovation and support our global growth.”
The investment aligns closely with GE’s focus on leading the Industrial Internet by connecting intelligent machines, advanced analytics, and people at work. The combination of ACM and APM will allow customers to derive more value from big data through contextually relevant insight into asset performance and plant operations. By connecting sensors to maintenance management systems, customers also gain the ability to better manage their reliability strategy and operational risk.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 30, 2014 | Automation, News, Operations Management
This is just a quick post to call out some recent apps (I have them on iPhone/iPad, not sure about Google Play).
Profibus/PI North America has an app that is news centric. You are greeted with blocks of news content relative to Profibus and Profinet technologies and applications.
ISA has a new magazine app named Intech Plus. I really like the interface. That reminds me of the interface of Productive magazine (which I highly recommend–that’s personal productivity, not production) which is easy to navigate and read. The interactivity embedded in the magazine is excellent.
Automation.Com known basically as a Web Portal for automation news (and also loosely affiliated with Intech) released Pulse, its iPhone (and I presume Android) app, as its venture into the world of online publishing. Once again, the interface is outstanding–not just the old “flip book” replica of a print magazine, but an attempt to make a truly digital product.
Check them out and let me know in the comments what you think. Do you like reading in that format for a “magazine”? Would you pitch print for that format? Or, do you like both? Or still just print?
While I’m asking questions–what do you think about subscription models? This blog is free. My friend Walt Boyes bought the Industrial Automation + Process Control Insider which is pretty much subscription-based. Anything that does go on the Web is posted after the newsletter goes out. What do you think?
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 25, 2014 | News, Operations Management, Software
There is definitely something interesting brewing in the PLM (product lifecycle management) space. There have been several acquisitions. Here’s another one.
Dassault Systèmes, the self-proclaimed “3DEXPERIENCE” Company, developer of 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, signed a definitive share purchase agreement for Dassault Systèmes to acquire Quintiq, a provider of on-premise and on-cloud supply chain and Operations Planning & Optimization software, for approximately €250 million. With 800 employees, Quintiq, whose offerings include production, logistics and workforce planning applications, is rated as a leader in the market by top industry analysts and its solutions are used today by 250 customers, at 1,000 sites, in more than 90 countries.
The acquisition of Quintiq, headquartered in Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, extends Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to business operations planning and further enables its longtime goal of harmonizing product, nature and life.
“3DEXPERIENCE is about the entire breadth of a business, beyond design, engineering and production. With today’s acquisition, thanks to Quintiq’s highly talented team, we expand our capacity to provide a strategic business experience platform to our customers.” said Bernard Charlès, President & CEO, Dassault Systèmes. “3DEXPERIENCE provides our customers a comprehensive environment to model, simulate and optimize their business from strategic goals to the delivery of memorable experiences.”
“Quintiq has been central to our business operations planning since 2005. As one of Europe’s largest broadcasters, we have a wide array of resources to optimize, including 3,000 people, 900 different production resources, 30,000 stocked items, across 17 sites,” said Dr. Andreas Bereczky, Production Director and Member of the Board at ZDF, the German television broadcaster. “Quintiq technology and expertise will be a great asset to Dassault Systèmes and we look forward to the new innovation that will emerge.”
Quintiq solutions are also used to plan and schedule the most complex production supply chains at such manufacturers as Novelis, ASML, Lafarge, AkzoNobel, and ArcelorMittal. They also plan and optimize some of the most complex logistics operations, including DHL, Walmart, DB Schenker and TNT. Quintiq is enabling full operations planning at Brussels Airport, KLM, Canadian National and the Federal Aviation Administration. Quintiq is differentiated by leading optimization technology; a platform approach to covering long-term strategic to day-of-operational planning; and capabilities which go beyond supply chain to encompass full operations planning and optimization.
“The Quintiq team is excited and proud to join Dassault Systèmes,” said Dr. Victor Allis, Co-founder and CEO of Quintiq. “Quintiq brings record-breaking decision support and optimization technology to the most complex global business planning challenges. Now, in combination with Dassault Systèmes’ leadership in the Experience Economy, we will bring our customers new levels of innovation, operational efficiency and performance.”
“As one of the leading producers of premium steel in Europe, maximizing efficiency across facilities and meeting high delivery performance expectations of customers is core to our business model at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. For nearly a decade, Quintiq has been a trusted partner and our chosen supplier for operations planning and optimization,” said Sudhakar Sivaji, Head of Corporate Planning, Strategy, Markets & Development, ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. “We hope Quintiq, together with Dassault Systèmes, will be a complete solutions provider in the business operations market and we look forward to the innovations that will follow.”
Quintiq will expand Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA brand, adding the new product line of Operations Planning and Optimization to the existing ones of Digital Manufacturing and Manufacturing Operations Management. Quintiq provides a new reach into industries such as metals, mining, oil & gas, rail, delivery and freight.
Dassault Systèmes B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, and the shareholders of Quintiq have entered into a definitive share purchase agreement on July 23rd, 2014. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust clearances in Germany and Austria.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 24, 2014 | Automation, Internet of Things, M2M, News, Operations Management, Technology
The Internet of Things conversation for industrial/manufacturing application is certainly picking up steam.
Meanwhile, I’m really intrigued by what PTC is up to. It recently acquired ThingWorx, now it has announced acquisition of Axeda.
PTC is a company usually identified as “product lifecycle management” which is usually a term referring to design. The major players include Siemens PLM and Dassault Systemmes. I’ve tried covering each, and I’ve somehow always been impressed but failing to see great relevance in the market areas I typically cover.
This PTC foray into IoT is intriguing. Does this mean it will become more of a factory floor player, as well as encroaching into IT?
From the release:
PTC has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Axeda Corporation, a pioneer in the development of solutions to securely connect machines and sensors to the cloud, for approximately $170 million in cash. “Axeda’s technology innovation, extensive customer base, and powerful partnerships directly complement the PTC ThingWorx business, and will accelerate PTC’s ability to deliver best-in-class solutions across the entire Internet of Things technology stack.” Subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions and certain regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to be completed in PTC’s fiscal Q4 2014.
Secure connectivity, and the ability to leverage machine data to create new business value, are critical components of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology stack and are in increasing demand as more companies pursue a smart, connected product strategy. An innovator in the IoT technology market, Axeda currently serves more than 150 customers, processing hundreds of millions of machine messages daily across multiple industry sectors. The company has a broad partner ecosystem that includes leading mobile network operators, edge device and design-in device makers, systems integrators, and business systems/analytics providers and its technology leadership lead to several strategic OEM agreements with leading IoT technology and solution providers.
“The world we live in is changing around us, and the pace of that change is accelerating as more and more machines, sensors, and products connect via the Internet to their makers, to their operators, and to each other,” said PTC president and CEO Jim Heppelmann. “In recent years, products have become tremendous sources of intelligence as they have been increasingly instrumented with sensors. Until now, manufacturers have been constrained in their ability to securely collect that data and make sense of it all. Axeda’s innovative approach to machine connectivity delivers exactly what manufacturers need to capitalize on the massive amounts of data now available from their smart, connected products.”
Core to Axeda’s IoT technology is the ability to enable companies to establish secure connectivity and remotely monitor and manage a wide range of machines, sensors, and devices. The Axeda Machine Cloud Service includes machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT connectivity services, software agents, and toolkits that enable companies to connect their products to the cloud using virtually any communication channel (e.g. cellular networks, the Internet, WiFi, or satellite). Axeda’s end-to-end security strategy covers all levels of the IoT technology stack, including network, application, user, and data security. Axeda has attained ISO 27001:2005 certification, supporting the company’s focus on delivering the highest levels of security, performance, and availability.
In addition, the Axeda Connected Machine Management application set empowers companies to remotely monitor and service products, including the ability to deliver over-the-air software updates.
“Axeda was early to see the potential of the IoT space and we consider ourselves a true market innovator,” said Todd DeSisto, president and CEO, Axeda. “Our technology solutions enable companies to connect to, and manage machines and the data they generate to create new business opportunities. We share PTC’s vision for the transformative power of smart, connected products and are excited to contribute to PTC’s leadership position in this fast growing market.”
In the IoT era, PTC’s customers are developing increasingly smart and connected products which can generate value in new ways as streams of real-time operational data are captured, analyzed, and shared to deepen a company’s understanding of its products’ performance, use, and reliability. PTC intends to leverage the Axeda technology portfolio to complement its existing ThingWorx® rapid application development platform and its existing service lifecycle management (SLM) and extended product lifecycle management (PLM) solution portfolio.
“In less than a year, PTC has quickly scaled to a position of leadership in helping manufacturers seize the opportunity presented by a smart, connected world,” concluded Heppelmann. “We believe the combination of ThingWorx, Axeda and our existing SLM and PLM solution portfolio, will establish PTC as the only provider of true closed-loop lifecycle management solutions for the Internet of Things.”
The acquisition is expected to add $25 million to $30 million of revenue in FY’15. PTC expects to draw on its credit facility to finance the transaction. Axeda has approximately 160 employees primarily located in the United States.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 24, 2014 | Automation, News, Organizations, Process Control
I realize that this is the last minute, but I promised Kevin Patel that I’d publicize this event again–and promptly lost the email in a flurry of changes around here.
The ISA Water/Wastewater Symposium (and Automatic Controls) is less than two weeks away, but if you can get to Orlando for August 5-7, you won’t regret it. I’ve been told that this is one of the best ISA Symposiums you can attend. I recommend it.
