Analyst Insight: The Internet of Things (IoT) was originally the concept of "things talking." In the early days we envisioned RFID tags on everything, helping to identify and locate any object in the universe. The RFID tag would uniquely identify the item, determine its location, and put a time stamp to the transaction. It was a straightforward concept. It was either there, or it was not. It was all about identity and location. – Eric Peters, executive vice president, Tompkins International
Analyst Insight: When people talk about the Internet of Things, they can mean many different things, even within one industry. For a manufacturer, there are four major areas where IoT may have an impact: the manufacturing plant, the supply chain, service and the product. – Bill McBeath, chief research officer, ChainLink Research
Analyst Insight: Variously called Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet, or simply digitization, the emergence of machine-to-machine interactions, human-to-machine interactions, robust data and analytics capabilities, and cheaper, more ubiquitous sensors is pushing the Internet of Things (IoT) into the core operations of more and more companies. Among the business operations especially ripe for transformation by digital and IoT capabilities is the "smart" supply chain. – Eduardo Alvarez, Principal, PwC, and Rodger Howell, Principal, PwC
Analyst Insight: The number one challenge to making predictive and prescriptive analytics succeed is data cleanliness and completeness. Until that is solved, predictive analytics programs will struggle to provide value. The problem is made more acute by the amount of new data coming online each year. – Bill McBeath, Chief Research Officer, ChainLink Research
Analyst Insight: The Internet of Things (IoT) is the topic du jour. Some estimates predict that in 2020 there will be close to 50 billion connected devices. What will all these connections mean for supply chains? First and foremost, it will shine light on what was once dark in supply chains. However, the true excitement for IoT lies in the new business processes that could emerge from these newfound insights. – Guy F. Courtin, Vice President, Industry and Solutions, GT Nexus
Business transformations that leverage digital technologies may sit atop most CIOs' priority lists, but the reality is that digitization is far from mainstream. Industries remain less than 40 percent digitized on average, according to research McKinsey & Co. released earlier this month.
FLEXcon was founded in 1956 when Myles McDonough saw an unmet need. "My father was an adhesive salesperson with a chemistry background, helping customers throughout New England learn how to run and where to use newly developed acrylic based adhesives," notes his son, Neil. "He noticed that his customers frequently turned down small orders. If the order was for less than 3,000 yards, then it was not worth setting up the adhesive coating machine. He believed, and subsequently proved, that there was a good business in small custom orders, if you organized yourself effectively and priced the order appropriately."
After several high-profile breaches over the past couple of years, the healthcare industry plans to increase its spending on IT security more than other sectors.
When a component in a chiller or compressor starts to fail, the machine may continue to operate, but the reduced efficiency will cost a user in power consumption. Managing the health of mechanical parts can be a difficult task for buildings and industries, despite being an important way to ensure that machines are operating effectively.
