Industrial Transformation Blog

Commitment matters, whether it is in a romantic comedy, real-life dating, or Industrial Transformation (IX). In a relationship, it is imperative that there is a “real commitment” for the relationship to progress and succeed. To make romance hard, romantic comedies and scuttlebutt tell us that determining if your partner is committed to the relationship can be difficult. Despite their pronouncements of love, “real commitment” can be elusive.

On Wednesday, March 13, LNS Research hosted the webcast “Digital Readiness for Industrial Transformation: Success Lessons from Real-World Leaders.” The presentation covered the scope, scale, strategy, budget, and organization of Industrial Transformation (IX) programs globally. The session also investigated the technology choices made in the IX programs, and how these new technology choices balance against Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT).

We recently conducted a global survey on Industrial Transformation (IX) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).  These are topics that we have been studying for quite a while.  In fact, LNS Research was the first to coin the term “IIoT” in the 2014 report, “What is an IIoT Platform?”  This new report examines the year-over-year trends in industrial corporations’ plans, projects and outcomes around IX generally and IIoT specifically.  The research and trendlines demonstrate the continually growing interest in and maturity of the IIoT and IX markets.

Forty-five percent of companies globally are executing an Industrial Transformation (IX) program, according to recent LNS Research survey data.  Before we can really understand the journey companies undertake, we need to know where they’re headed.  That requires a solid definition: what is Industrial Transformation, and how should companies execute it?  LNS Research defines Industrial Transformation simply as:

A proactive and coordinated approach to leverage digital technologies to create step-change improvement in industrial operations.

LNS’ Industrial Transformation Framework, has at its center, the Operational Architecture (OA) process where organizations align people, process, and technology at the convergence of IT and Operational Technology (OT). Ideally, OA efforts occur after a company defines its strategy and determines how technology should drive Industrial transformation.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology has become one of the supposed underlying drivers of Digital Transformation in manufacturing, along with predictive analytics and enhanced data presentation tools like augmented reality (AR)/ virtual reality (VR). Most of the focus has been on how the vastly increased amount of information and data about manufacturing processes in IIoT equipped plants will drive analytics and AR/VR visualization tools to accelerate decision making at what is generally considered “level 3, 4 or 5” systems.

The #MondayMusings Industrial Transformation blog series provides insight and analysis for executives from the previous week’s briefings, events, and publications @LNSResearch.

2018 was a year of much change and progress in the world of environment, health and safety (EHS) management; especially the software and digital technologies that enable it. This made for an exciting year for EHS management research here at LNS. The primary focus was on expanding our market-leading EHS 4.0 research on the Digital Transformation of EHS management. We released our full agenda of research on topics such as Big Data and predictive analytics, the impact of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) on safety, integrated risk management, the connected industrial worker, and the convergence of safety, quality, and risk in plant operations, among others.

Research analysts from LNS attended the Plex Systems Analyst Day in early November at the company’s headquarters in Troy, Michigan. In an unusual move, Plex hosted its Customer Advisory Board (CAB) concurrently, giving customers and analysts a chance to interact directly. This level of direct access is rare among software vendors and demonstrates a strong show of confidence by the Plex executive team. The Plex CAB includes representatives from companies in automotive, metal forming, food and beverage (F&B), aerospace and defense (A&D), and other discrete and batch manufacturing industries.

LNS Research attended the Rockwell Automation Fair in Philadelphia, PA on November 14 and 15, 2018. Rockwell Automation® (NYSE: ROK) is an industrial automation and information company with $6.7 Billion in sales and 23,000 employees. This was the 27th annual Rockwell Automation Fair hosted to demonstrate their products and those of their ecosystem partners. Rockwell Automation noted there were over 8,000 customers at the event making it the largest Rockwell Automation Fair ever held outside of Chicago. They also hosted “Automation Perspectives” for the media and analysts on November 13.