IFS Acquires IoT Solution Provider & Trouble in Mining [Roundup]

Robots: What About Our Jobs?

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania recently published an article, “The Robots are Coming…to Take Your Job,” where the capabilities of robots and job security were brought into question. Since robotics, automation, and smart connected operations have become more profound in manufacturing plants, jobs have decreased according to the article. Commenting on the up rise of robots and smart connected assets used on the plant floor is LNS Research Principal Analyst, Dan Miklovic.

“Smart connected assets may employ robots, but there are also lots of other aspects of smart connected assets where the points made in this Wharton Business School article are applicable. Automation can replace any activity, white collar or blue collar, that is repetitive, predictable, and routine. As the power of predictive analytics grows, the predictability of many activities will become ever more automated, and hence replaced by automation,” said Dan. To read more click here.

IFS Acquires MainIoT Software

Earlier this week IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announced its acquisition of MainIoT Software, an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Enterprise Service Management (ESM) software solutions provider. IFS will pay cash for 100% of MainIoT’s shares.

With the acquisition in place, IFS will gain MainIoT’s 200-company customer base. The existing customers will gain usage and benefit from IFS’s solutions. Speaking on the acquisition, IFS’s Group Senior Vice President Business Development Fredrik vom Hofe said, “With the acquisition of MainIoT, IFS can be seen as executing on its stated strategy for growth. MainIoT is very well positioned within our focused high growth segments of Enterprise Asset & Service Management…In addition, IFS will be able to leverage on MainIoT’s capabilities within “Industrial Internet of Things-an area where we actively work on developing our offerings.” To read more about the acquisition click here.

Joy Global Takes a Hit in First Quarter

Weakening Chinese and emerging market demand coupled with the continued U.S. coal industry slump results in a bigger than expected loss at Joy Global. The maker of giant shovels, conveyor belts and drills recorded a $26.7M charge this quarter and expects $20-30M more this year. Commenting on Joy Global’s status is LNS Research Analyst, Jason Kasper.

“Although this is bad news as the mining sector continues to hit lows with commodity pricing, particularly in coal and copper, more than likely we have hit bottom and expect to see improvements in customer orders going forward. One in particular is Joy Global's Smart Services. They are the forward thinkers in this new opportunity for enabling customer to improve asset performance by know when assets may fail, then deploy the resources in advance to ensure customers’ downtimes are improved.” To read more about the hard hits Joy Global experienced this year click here.

Getting to the Bottom of Takata Airbags

In another LNS Research favorite this week, we took a closer look at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an article posted on the defective manufacturing practices of Takata; causing the malfunctioning air bags. Returning to this topic that we've written about previously, LNS Research Analyst, Dan Jacob commented on the matter.

“LNS has long expounded an operational excellence-based view of quality, emphasizing the importance of a three-legged stool of people, process, and technology to accomplishing world-class quality. Takata is a case study in a failed operational excellence model that highlights the importance of true organization-wide quality leadership and quality culture that put quality before cost. This is not a condemnation of those at Takata that were not involved in the unethical decision-making. I’ve worked with Takata engineering and manufacturing, and found a healthy focus on quality in its manufacturing organization. However, leadership must foster a culture of quality across the company,” said Dan. To read more on this click here.

NEW Research Spotlight on strategies and recommendations for minimizing risk through a migration away from monolithic, single-plant MOM architectures through exploration of Cloud and IIoT technologies that are advancing in manufacturing today.