by Gary Mintchell | Dec 15, 2020 | Automation, Business, Robots
More collaborative robot, also known as cobot, news emanating from Denmark. Cobot market pioneer Universal Robots (UR) has sold its 50,000th UR cobot, which was purchased by a German manufacturer to enable higher productivity and better employee safety. The company expects cobots to remain the fastest growing segment of industrial automation, projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30.37% during 2020–2025.
The 50,000th cobot came in a special delivery as Jürgen von Hollen, president of Universal Robots, personally handed over the cobot to VEMA technische Kunststoffteile GmbH and VEMA Werkzeug- und Formenbau GmbH located in Krauchenwies-Göggingen, Germany, at a ceremony held at VEMA.
“We have worked very hard in the past 15 years to develop an entirely new market segment with a mission to enable especially small- and medium sized companies to automate tasks they thought were too costly or complex,” says von Hollen, emphasizing how UR has created a new global distribution network, a new ecosystem of developers, and ultimately a completely new business model. “As a pioneer in this market, we put a lot of work into creating awareness, influencing standards, and changing customers’ perceptions influenced by their experience of traditional robots.”
VEMA’s new collaborative robot will join a fleet of three other UR cobots already deployed in pick and place tasks in end-of-line applications at the company.
Christian Veser, managing director at VEMA GmbH, is thrilled to be the recipient of the milestone cobot and explains how the cobots have enabled the company to add a third shift, now operating around the clock. “We have enhanced our productivity remarkably and also achieved better quality,” he says. “Our employees are freed from ergonomically straining work to focus on quality testing. In navigating Covid-19 challenges, it has also been a great advantage that the cobots don’t need to keep a safety distance or undergo quarantine. They can always work,” says Veser, adding that his company appreciates the cobots so much that they gave them names.
“The first three cobots are named Elfriede, Günther, and Bruno. We will name our new cobot Jürgen to honor the fact that UR’s president came here in person to deliver it.”
Jürgen von Hollen will be leaving UR at the end of the year after a four-year tenure at the helm of UR. “It is such a privilege to end my time at the company by marking this milestone,” he says. “We have come far, but there is still an immense potential in the market both for well-known and completey new cobot applications. With our unrivaled installed base, we are constantly learning from our customers, leveraging a very data-driven approach in the development of our cobots. This is an approach I believe will help keep us leading the field in the years to come.”
Gregory Smith, president of Teradyne’s Industrial Automation Group, will step in to fill the role of UR president on January 1, 2021 until a new leader is named. “I thank Jürgen for his leadership over the past four years in growing Universal Robots from start-up status into the undisputed global leader in industrial collaborative robots,” says Mark Jagiela, president and CEO of UR’s parent company Teradyne. “He leaves behind a strong platform for the next level of growth with a talented workforce, an engaged ecosystem of distribution and technology partners as well as an expansive worldwide customer base.”
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 14, 2020 | Business, News, Software
Combination of Onshape and Arena to Enable PTC to Deliver Complete CAD + PLM SaaS Solution
PTC Reaffirms Cash Flow Targets for FY’21
PTC announced Dec. 14 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Arena Solutions, Inc. (Arena Solutions) “the industry’s leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) product lifecycle management (PLM) platform provider”.
I am not particularly surprised by this announcement. PTC needed to do something interesting with cash from some past investments. Jim Heppelmann, PTC CEO, clearly stated last year the company’s direction toward becoming a complete SaaS provider. In the IT world, HPE first and then Dell Technologies and Hitachi Vantara later, companies are rapidly moving to pretty much “everything-as-a-service”.
This may not be a market disrupter in itself, but the move definitely applies pressure to other PLM suppliers to change business models. Responses will be telling.
The acquisition will further PTC’s strategy to be the leader in the rapidly growing market for SaaS-based product development software, enabling the company to deliver a complete CAD + PLM SaaS solution. Under the terms of the agreement, PTC will acquire Arena Solutions for $715 million in cash. Subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review, the acquisition is expected to be completed in PTC’s fiscal Q2 2021.
“A year ago, PTC entered the SaaS world for product development software with our acquisition of Onshape,” said Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC. “That move reflected our strong conviction that our market is nearing a tipping point in its willingness to adopt SaaS technology, following the trend seen in many other software markets. The effects of COVID-19 have dramatically accelerated this inevitable shift, with PTC customer surveys indicating a 25% increase in readiness for SaaS PLM since the pandemic started. We expect the acquisition of Arena will significantly extend our leadership position as we continue to redefine the future of our industry.”
With headquarters in Foster City, California, Arena Solutions serves more than 1,200 customers across the electronics, high-tech, and medical-device industries, including world-class innovators such as Nutanix, Peloton, Sonos and Square. In addition, Arena will broadly extend PTC’s presence in the attractive mid-market, where SaaS solutions are becoming the standard.
“As the SaaS PLM pioneer, we were first to see that engineers and product developers would benefit from a new paradigm in the way they collaborate and drive product innovation,” said Craig Livingston, Arena Solutions president and CEO. “We were ahead of the market in the early days, but in the past several years we’ve seen an acceleration of market receptivity and demand. This acquisition validates our original vision, and we are pleased to be joining an established leader in CAD and PLM capable of hastening the movement of our market to SaaS.”
The Arena Solutions product realization platform unifies PLM, quality management, and requirements management, allowing every participant throughout the product design and manufacturing process – as well as across an extended supply chain – to work together in a secure, high availability cloud environment.
“This acquisition is the logical next step in PTC’s strategy to be the industrial SaaS leader,” continued Heppelmann. “A big first step was the acquisition of Onshape, the SaaS leader in CAD and collaborative design capabilities. Arena will enable us to round out the solution with full PLM capabilities and deliver the only complete CAD + PLM SaaS solution in the industry.”
Financial Impact
Arena Solutions is expected to end calendar year 2020 with approximately $50 million in annualized recurring revenue, reflecting double-digit growth over 2019. The transaction is expected to be neutral to PTC’s FY’21 cash flow from operations target of $365 million and free cash flow target of $340 million (which reflects the deduction of approximately $25 million of capital expenditures from cash flow from operations) and accretive to FY’22 and beyond. The transaction will be funded with cash on-hand and amounts borrowed under PTC’s existing credit facility.
PTC management will provide additional details about the transaction at its Investor Day virtual meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 15.
Advisors
Centerview Partners LLC is the exclusive financial advisor to PTC and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is acting as its legal counsel. Barclays is the exclusive financial advisor to Arena and JMI Equity, and Goodwin Procter is acting as their legal counsel.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 13, 2020 | Automation, Robots
The months of November and December were filled with online conferences, trade shows, and interviews. So many were there that I had more information than time to write. Here we are in a time of pandemic and no travel except for grocery and hardware (we moved to a new state in March, so it seems there is a weekly run for some tool or supply).
The Danish collaborative robot ecosystem does much innovating, although there seems not to be exponential growth in the market. There are two aspects of innovation. The first lies in the robot itself. The second concerns end effector advances that I had given up hope on seeing.
One December conference and trade show (by the way, the trade show technology keeps improving, maybe they can reach a critical mass online) came from OnRobot. This company’s product range features a wide assortment of tools for collaborative applications, including: electric, vacuum and magnetic grippers, the award-winning Gecko gripping technology, force/torque sensors, a 2.5D vision system, screwdriver, sander kits and tool changers.
These offerings from OnRobot make it quicker and simpler to automate tasks such as packaging, quality control, materials handling, machine tending, assembly, and surface finishing. Headquartered in Odense, Denmark, OnRobot also has offices in Los Angeles, Dallas, Soest (Germany), Barcelona, Warsaw, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and Budapest.
One draw for me was a panel discussion featuring robot investor (and Shark Tank star) Mark Cuban who joined OnRobot CEO Enrico Krog Iversen and Hirebotics CEO Rob Goldiez to discuss benefits of collaborative robotics applications.
“Manufacturers of all sizes are facing serious challenges in 2020 and, as a result, many are turning to collaborative applications to stay competitive and resilient,” says Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot. “We created OnRobot Expo to help manufacturers learn about collaborative applications and automation from their manufacturing peers and thought leaders from business and academia.”
In his keynote address on how Amazon develops, tests and deploys robots, Camilo Buscaron discussed how the cloud simplifies the development and deployment of robotics applications. He talked about the Robot Operating System (ROS) and AWS RoboMaker, a cloud service that helps customers build, simulate and manage robotic applications.
During a press conference, OnRobot executives discussed how value creation from robotics lay in application and solution, not just in robot or tooling. The robots plus modern end-of-arm tools provide new levels of flexibility for manufacturers. An intelligent gripper can handle a number of applications. The combination also solves labor shortages in manufacturing, enhances quality and productivity, helps enable social distancing as a Covid solution, provides fast return on investment, and allows manufacturers to rethink their supply chain risks.
Some statistics, OnRobot has:
- 800+ product combinations
- 18 supported Robot brands
- 500+ partners globally, 130 in Americas
- 32 new products released in 2020 versus 17 in 2019
OnRobot targets small to midsized companies finding that market still growing.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 11, 2020 | Commentary, News
Everyone is imagining a post-Covid time, most likely coming by May or June 2021, wondering how many changes we’ve made this year to meetings, conferences, church services, and other gatherings. I have been receiving a steady stream of announcements for 2021 technology conferences. All of them up until May will build upon the tech foundations pioneered this year.
Many of the conferences have been well put together. They have packed information in a succinct package. I could actually attend several conflicting conferences without the hassle of either trying to travel to each or blow some off. There are benefits. As the year went on, some of the trade shows got interesting by adding Zoom or other technology to allow “booth chats” or “booth appointments” where a visitor could discuss products and questions in real time with a live engineer.
I’ve talked with many people about their reactions to church (for the Christian among you). Even Roman Catholic ladies were quite satisfied to watch church from home. The many varieties of Protestants seem to have adapted to staying home, as well, except for a small portion of the more conservative evangelicals who needed to brave exposure to Covid-19 due to the need for companionship (and many people I know did that and became infected, but that’s another story for another blog site).
This is an ideal time to leverage all of these experiments and experiences and look at the second half of 2021 and beyond as a time to do things differently. I would still like to see some in-person gatherings. I miss the conversations, meeting new people, personal contact that you get from being together. It has gotten to the point, though, that conversations have taken the place of actually going to sessions. I’d love a blend of learning online and meeting in person.
What triggered this post was this announcement from PTC about its LiveWorx conference. It is moving toward a continuous model strung out over the year rather than one shot at one time. Interesting. We’ll see how that works for it.
This upcoming year, LiveWorx is going to be a little bit different.
LiveWorx 2021: The Limited Series is a year-round high-impact digital program. Each episode will take its own approach to delivering fresh and relevant insight on digital transformation for the industrial enterprise in a TV show-style format. Throughout the year, viewers will hear perspectives from thought leaders, subject matter experts, technology practitioners and familiar faces from PTC as well.
There are two ways to watch: episodes will air live on key dates and will also be available afterwards on-demand, so viewers can pick and choose whichever is more convenient.
More details will be announced soon, so be sure to subscribe for LiveWorx 21 updates to learn more as 2020 turns into 2021.
Registration for LiveWorx 2021: The Limited Series will get underway in early 2021. The first episode is scheduled for early spring, with more to come afterwards throughout the rest of the year.
Zoom fatigue is very real at this point, and it’s worth noting that these episodes will be delivered through concise and high impact TV show-style broadcasts, each with a run time of less than two hours.
For a comprehensive rundown of general information about LiveWorx 21, visit our FAQ. If there’s anything additional that you’re curious about, you can always ask us here as well.
2020 has been a year unlike any other. Get ready for a whole new LiveWorx! We can’t wait for you to join us for this unique program in 2021.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 11, 2020 | Internet of Things, News
In the interest of lateral thinking, try these innovative ideas on for size. When Qualcomm called with an invitation to a press event, my first thought was, “Me??” I attended, and I was glad I did. Many ideas worthy of pondering.
Qualcomm Technologies Inc. today announced the Qualcomm IoT Services Suite, which delivers comprehensive, end-to-end, IoT as a Service (IoTaaS) solutions to enable the digital transformation of smart cities and smart connected spaces globally. The Qualcomm IoT Services Suite also demonstrates the continued momentum of the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program, which has brought together ~300 members since its launch in April 2019 and showcased a tangible example of what can be achieved with the launch of the Qualcomm Smart Campus in San Diego.
Adopting smart connected spaces often requires sourcing, developing and integrating a variety of fragmented technologies. In response, the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program offers streamlined, comprehensive solutions that address the complexities and challenges around developing secure, smart, connected spaces across industries worldwide. Qualcomm Technologies’ newly announced Qualcomm IoT Services Suite is engineered to deliver a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for plug-and-play deployment, from silicon to modules to devices to software and platform integration.
When companies and municipalities utilize the Qualcomm IoT Services Suite and other solutions offered by members of the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program, they can bypass common fragmentation –making it easier, quicker and more cost-effective to manage and deploy smart connected spaces.
“The Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program was designed for plug-and-play deployment of connected devices to enable the proliferation of smart cities and smart connected spaces,” said Sanjeet Pandit, senior director, business development and global head of Smart Cities, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “To directly address the fragmented nature of the IoT industry, our Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program and Qualcomm IoT Services Suite bridge the gap for IoT service providers and entities looking to quickly deploy smart solutions. We’re confident that our unique ecosystem of innovative program members will continue incorporating emerging IoT partners to accelerate the transformation of city infrastructure and services to help enrich people’s lives.”
Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program ecosystem member Infinite Computer Solutions provides support for the Qualcomm IoT Services Suite platform layer with its Zyter SmartSpaces Platform. This platform seamlessly integrates Qualcomm Technologies’ chipset-enabled subsystems to support middleware, data operations, cloud services, enhanced security, user experience, analytics, collective intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI). Commercial device enablement is then achieved through pre-integration and pre-certification on the platform.
With the comprehensive Qualcomm IoT Services Suite, Qualcomm Technologies enables ecosystem members to create and deploy smart applications as a service across verticals, including:
•Smart Cities and Spaces as-a-Service delivers solutions for smart lighting, signage, parking and more–all easily deployed with the Zyter Smart Spaces platform–for the accelerated development of smart cities and smart spaces.
•Education as-a-Service allows school districts across the United States direct access to ecosystem members, OneScreen and HoverCam, to enablesmart classrooms and hybrid learning settings.
•Construction Management as-a-Service prioritizes construction safety and digital management of construction sites, focusing on worker safety with ecosystem members Everguard and Guardhat.
•Logistics as-a-Service enables digital, end-to-end logistical chain management from teams to inventory with Cloudleaf, Inc. and Tag and Track.
•Healthcare as-a-Service provides direct access to ecosystem members Zyter, Lucid Act Health, VeeMed, and Ceiba for remote patient monitoring and tele-ICU capabilities.
To exemplify IoTaaS and bring to life a tangible proof point of the Qualcomm IoT Services Suite, today Qualcomm Technologies also launched the Qualcomm Smart Campus in San Diego, which exhibits a real-life use case of commercially available, end-to-end solutions. Replicating a city environment in a campus the Qualcomm Smart Campus includes a 5G network, and a variety of intelligent capabilities, including smart parking, lighting, transportation, logistics, trash cans, and edge-AI cameras for security. The Qualcomm Smart Campus is equipped with intuitive and user applications and corresponding command and control center that serves as the “nerve center” of the campus, providing complete operational visibility across entire networks of connected sensors and IoT devices in real-time –viewable from a comprehensive dashboard. These solutions can be reimagined and replicated across multiple industries to address challenges and needs for particular spaces and communities.
