International Data Corporation (IDC) has unveiled a new report, IDC TechScape: Worldwide Digital Twins, 2019, which focuses on the transformational, incremental, and opportunistic technologies necessary for successful digital twin implementation and operation. While there are multiple existing enterprise technologies available within organizations today that are necessary to support digital twins, this study focuses on the new, digital technologies and platforms that make digital twins essential entities for enterprisewide processes, including design, development, supply chain, manufacturing, service, and customer experience.

According to IDC’s 2018 IDC PlanScape: Digital Twins for Products, Assets, and Ecosystems, digital twins are the extended application of simulation and visualization throughout a digitally transformed organization for better communication and collaboration. The starting points and use cases for digital twins of product and assets will differ by company size, industry, and need, but the value derived by all manufacturers will be similar — clarity of communication; rapid collaboration; holistic visibility; accurate, efficient response to demand; monetization of IoT data; predictive, proactive service; and closer collaboration with customers. Digital twins can be applied throughout the modern, digitally transformed business, within R&D and engineering workgroups, extended to business and technical domains from business line management to product management, sales and marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, and service.

“The value of digital twins lies in flexible data visualization. That is, the complex data model that is a digital twin should be synchronous and secure, enabling different domains across the organization to view the level of information and knowledge they want to see, whether that is a lightweight model or a detailed, complex view. Digital twins have been in use within manufacturing engineering and R&D workgroups for years — the difference today is, due to 3rd Platform technology, these flexible models can be deployed across the value chain of the digitally transformed organization as a decision support enabler,” said Jeff Hojlo, program director, Product Innovation Strategies.

There is a set of fundamental 2nd Platform technologies (enterprise applications) that provide foundational data and business process support to digital twins, which are already in place in most organizations today. As companies digitally transform and deploy 3rd Platform technologies, digital twins can be deployed throughout the organization, inside and outside, as an accelerator of planning, design, development, collaboration, communication, and operation. This new IDC TechScape defines the technology that manufactures can use to build digital twins of varying complexity, including product, asset, supply chain process, and production process twins, and outlines three technology adoption curves: transformational, incremental, and opportunistic, which shows rate and time to adoption of each digital twin technology.

The IDC TechScape is an evaluation model based on a comprehensive framework and a set of parameters that assess a technology’s adoption progress relative to one another and to those factors expected to be most conducive to success in a given market over both the short term and long term. In breaking technologies into three major adoption categories — transformational, incremental, and opportunistic — the IDC TechScape aspires to provide IT buyers with an industry snapshot as to where specific technologies lie today relative to current industry best practices. In addition, the IDC TechScape identifies technologies likely to become best practices in the future and their current state of adoption maturity relative to each other. Within the discussion of individual technologies, IDC also identifies an analysts’ best opinions regarding key momentum factors — highlighted as IDC TechScape Markers of Momentum, where technologies are rated based on adoption speed, risk, and market interest.

About IDC TechScapes | IDC TechScapes mitigate technology risk by helping organizations align their tolerance for risk with the anticipated maturation of a technology.

About IDC Manufacturing Insights | IDC Manufacturing Insights assists manufacturing businesses and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing asset intensive, brand oriented, technology oriented, and engineering oriented manufacturing industries. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market.

Eighty-seven percent of businesses plan to expand warehouse footprint over next five years

Zebra Technologies Corporation has announced the results of its 2024 Warehousing Vision Study, analyzing IT and operations decision makers’ current and planned strategies for modernizing their warehouses, distribution centers and fulfillment centers.

The study reports on the forward-thinking fulfillment strategies companies are focusing on to keep up with the growth of the on-demand economy. Both automation and worker augmentation solutions will be a key focus for decision makers’ plans during the next five years. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents agree that augmenting workers with technology is the best way to introduce automation in the warehouse, but only 35 percent have a clear understanding of where to start automating. Eighty-seven percent of decision makers are currently in the process of or planning to expand the size of their warehouses by 2024, with 82 percent anticipating an increase in the number of warehouses during this timeframe.

KEY SURVEY FINDINGS

By 2024, automation will enhance worker performance rather than replace workers.

• Sixty-one percent of decision makers plan to enable partial automation or labor augmentation with technology in the warehouse.
• Three-quarters of respondents believe human interaction is part of their optimal operational balance, with 39 percent citing partial automation (some human involvement) and 34 percent citing augmentation (equipping workers with devices) as their preference.
• Decision makers anticipate using robotics/bots for inbound inventory management (24 percent), outbound packing (22 percent) and goods in/receiving (20 percent) by 2024.

Rethinking fulfillment strategies and operations to meet emerging challenges across the warehouse remains a top priority.

• Fifty-nine percent of respondents cited capacity utilization as a significant expected challenge and plan to address it by expanding the size of their warehouses.
• Sixty percent of organizations cited labor recruitment and/or labor efficiency and productivity among their top challenges, with 63 percent of respondents noting an immediate focus on individual or team productivity outcomes.
• IT/technology utilization was identified both as the most anticipated operational challenge (61 percent) of the next five years and a desired long-term outcome for increased asset visibility, real-time guidance and data-driven performance.
• As warehouses expand, so will the volume of stock keeping units (SKUs) and the speed items need to be shipped. Decision makers will seek increased visibility and productivity by implementing more robust returns management operations (81 percent), task interleaving (80 percent), value-added services (80 percent) and third-party logistics (83 percent).

 The investment and implementation of new technologies is critical for remaining competitive in the on-demand economy.

• Almost half (46 percent) of surveyed respondents cited faster delivery to end-customers as the primary factor driving their warehouse growth plans.
• More than three-quarters (77 percent) of decision makers agree that they need to modernize operations across the warehouse to remain competitive in the on-demand economy but are slow to implement new mobile devices and technology.
• Seventy-three percent of companies are currently modernizing their warehouses by implementing or refreshing mobile computers, tablets and barcode scanners.
  • By 2024, modernization will be driven by Android-based mobile computing solutions (83 percent), real-time location systems (RTLS) (55 percent) and full-featured warehouse management systems (WMS) (54 percent).
• Sixty percent of respondents cited mobile barcode label or thermal printers as a key area of investment as part of their plans to add, expand or upgrade devices in the next three years.

KEY REGIONAL SURVEY FINDINGS

Asia-Pacific

• By 2024, 87 percent of respondents plan to implement a mobile execution system to better manage workers on the warehouse floor.
• Seventy-three percent of decision makers plan to invest in smart watches, smart glasses and hip-mounted wearables in the next three years.

Europe

• The square footage of the average warehouse is projected to increase by 26 percent—more than in any other region—in the next five years.
• By 2024, RFID and locationing technology usage is anticipated to increase for outbound operations with more than one in five planning to use them for packing (25 percent), inventory management (20 percent) and picking (19 percent).

Latin America

• Latin American decision makers identified labor efficiency or productivity (71 percent) as the top operational challenge of the next five years.
• Ninety-five percent of organizations plan to implement Android-based mobile computers in the warehouse by 2024 to help improve worker productivity and efficiency.

North America

• Almost half (49 percent) of North American decision makers identified outbound packing, staging and loading as a challenge.
• Ninety-four percent of respondents will have implemented or plan to implement trailer load optimization and/or load compliance solutions by 2024.

SURVEY BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

The 2024 Warehousing Vision Study included 1,403 IT and operational decision makers in the manufacturing, transportation & logistics, retail, post and parcel delivery and wholesale distribution markets in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe who were interviewed by Qualtrics.

ABOUT ZEBRA  | Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA) empowers the front line of business in retail/e-commerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and other industries to achieve a performance edge. With more than 10,000 partners across 100 countries, we deliver industry-tailored, end-to-end solutions that intelligently connect people, assets and data to help our customers make business-critical decisions. Our market-leading solutions elevate the shopping experience, track and manage inventory as well as improve supply chain efficiency and patient care. Ranked on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers for the last four years, Zebra helps our customers capture their edge. For more information, visit  www.zebra.com 

The 2019 Online Apparel Report details the current state of online apparel, including data on the fastest growers, largest players, Amazon’s share of sales, investment funding rounds, store closures, the rental clothing market, how to combat returns and the surge in the lingerie category.

E-commerce now represents more than a third of all apparel sales—at 34.4% penetration in 2018, up from 30.6% in 2017, according to Internet Retailer’s 2019 Online Apparel Report.

Apparel is the largest and one of the most competitive retail categories in e-commerce, with more than 250 apparel retailers and 20 subcategories in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 1000. Overall, including apparel-focused retailers and mass merchants that sell clothing, U.S. online apparel sales grew 18.5% in 2018 over 2017, far faster than total apparel retail sales growth at 5.3%.

But growth only skims the surface of what is going on in apparel.

For example, of the 15 fastest-growing apparel merchants in the Top 1000 based on 2018 sales, only two are retail chains, five are web-only retailers, eight are consumer brand manufacturers and zero are catalog/call center merchants. The report digs into why there is such a disparity between these merchant types that are selling similar products.

The 75-page 2019 Online Apparel Report dives into what is happening now with online apparel merchants including the current state of opening stores, closing stores, investment funding rounds, the current trend of rental apparel, why there is a surge in undergarment retailers and what retailers are doing to combat the heavy volume of returns that plague online apparel sellers.

The report has 15+ charts quantifying the state of the online apparel industry, including data on the 15 fastest-growing and 15 largest online apparel retailers, including web sales, growth rates and how they rank among the Top 1000 based on 2018 online sales. Also included in this are estimates on Amazon’s share of the online apparel market and its growth in this area over the years. In addition, the report includes interviews with executives at leading and fastest-growing online apparel retailers and exclusive consumer survey results on how shoppers browse and buy apparel online.

The 2019 Online Apparel Report is available here.

About Internet Retailer/Digital Commerce 360 Research | Digital Commerce 360 Research provides data and information about e-commerce that helps retail companies, investors and technology providers prosper. The team tracks hundreds of metrics on roughly 6,000 online retail companies around the world, including such sought-after data points as web sales and traffic, conversion rates, average order value and key technology partners used to power their e-commerce businesses. We sell this data in its raw format in our multiple online databases, and we dig deeply into these numbers in our custom research division, and to help inform our 30+ exclusive analysis reports we publish each year on key e-commerce topics, including online marketplaces, cross-border e-commerce and omni-channel retailing. For more information, click here.

Report also reveals the majority of job seekers are willing to work two or more jobs and want more hours

Bluecrew and Toluna today announced the results of the Bluecrew 2019 Holiday Hiring Report, which revealed that job seekers looking for holiday hourly jobs would prefer to have flexible schedules and as many hours as possible over the highest pay rate. The survey of more than 800 holiday job seekers was conducted jointly by Bluecrew, the on-demand staffing platform exclusively for flexible W-2 work, and Toluna, a leading consumer intelligence platform that delivers insights on demand.

The key findings showed that hourly workers this season are prioritizing flexibility over jobs with the highest pay – in fact, highest pay ranks among the least popular criteria for holiday job seekers this year. Following access to a flexible schedule they control, seasonal workers cited “as many hours as possible” and “a good company and/or great atmosphere” as other top criteria. These three priorities accounted for the majority of responses over other considerations including: perks and/or discounts, opportunities to stay on as permanent employees, benefits and worker protections like overtime, and good locations.

The report also showed that the majority of job seekers (63%) began looking for holiday employment before October. Some workers started as early as July (15%) and August (25%), while an additional 34% started searches in September. Nearly a quarter of respondents (21%) will begin to look in October.

“As the competition for quality workers continues to increase, employers that want to attract the best and brightest need to understand how the employment landscape is changing and what workers are really looking for,” said Adam Roston, Bluecrew CEO. “The Bluecrew 2019 Holiday Hiring Report reveals that above all else, holiday workers want the flexibility to work when they want and as much as they can.”

Key Findings on the Changing Worker Landscape

• Flexibility matters most – Respondents prioritized a flexible schedule and the ability to work more hours over getting the highest pay rate when looking for a holiday job.
• Demand for seasonal work is strong – 38% of the total surveyed population and 66% of 18 to 34-year-olds are looking for a seasonal or holiday job.
• Multiple jobs are common – 55% of respondents plan to work two or more jobs during the holiday season compared to 40% that will only work one job as their only source of income.
• Workers want hours – 55% of respondents would like to work 26 hours or more per week, but a majority (63%) expect to be given 25 hours or less per week by their employers.

“Brands benefit immeasurably from direct contact with the people who matter most to them. Whether they be millennials, doctors or seasonal workers, Toluna can tap a panel community 30 million members strong for candid feedback that results in high-quality insights into what these audiences think, feel and do,” said Jay Rampuria, EVP of Global Business & Corporate Development at Toluna. “The results of the Bluecrew 2019 Holiday Hiring Report indicate that employers and economists promoting short-term gigs might not understand the needs and expectations of seasonal employees.”

Additional Findings on Worker Plans and Expectations 

• 32% of respondents expect their hourly rate to be $13.26 or higher, nearly double the federal minimum wage.
• 58% of holiday workers are taking on a holiday job to earn extra money while 40% plan to use the money to cover their monthly expenses.
• Retail stores were the top pick for job seekers according to 25% of respondents, followed by restaurants (16%), customer support (15%), and warehouse/logistics (14%).
• 63% of respondents feel it will be easy to land a holiday season job compared to 28% who feel it will be difficult.
• The primary sources for respondents to look for a seasonal job are online job marketplaces or job boards (30%), social media (23%), and mobile apps (16%).
• More than half of those surveyed prefer traditional W-2 employment versus working as a gig contractor.
• The survey was conducted by Toluna QuickSurveys between August 27 – September 3, 2019 of over 800 respondents looking for seasonal holiday jobs across the U.S.
• Check out the infographic for a visual guide to the survey findings.

Survey Methodology: All figures are from consumer insights provider Toluna. Total sample size was 839 American workers, aged 18 years or older, from the Toluna US panel community so no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Fieldwork was undertaken from August 27–28, 2019. The research was carried out online as an independent survey. Figures for age, gender, education, race/ethnicity and region were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the online population. In addition, the percentage of holiday job seekers was weighted to their proportion in the online population.

About Bluecrew | Founded in 2015, Bluecrew is an on-demand staffing technology platform exclusively for flexible W-2 work. Job seekers turn to Bluecrew for sustainable and reliable employment that fits their schedules across a broad range of industries including warehousing, logistics, e-commerce, events, delivery, and hospitality. Bluecrew is disrupting the traditional staffing model (an industry worth $130 billion which is almost exclusively offline) with a mobile-first platform that offers workers control, flexibility, and protection, while instantly connecting them to high quality, short and long-term employment opportunities. Unlike gig economy platforms, all Crew Members are W-2 employees of Bluecrew, receiving benefits and protections like minimum wage, overtime, sick pay, and workers’ compensation. Bluecrew is headquartered in Chicago with a presence in markets nationwide and is owned and operated by IAC (NASDAQ: IAC). Learn more at www.Bluecrewjobs.com.

About Toluna | Toluna, an ITWP Company, provides consumer insights designed to empower success in today’s on-demand, global economy. Powered by the perfect fusion of technology, expertise, and the largest global community of influencers at the ready, Toluna delivers rich, reliable, real-time insights to individuals, and companies of all sizes. Our automated consumer insights platform, TolunaInsights™ underpins everything we do. Clients can access the platform directly, leverage Toluna’s managed services, or create fully-customized digital consumer insights programs via our engineered services. TolunaInsights was built to complement QuickSurveys, Toluna’s on-demand platform designed for quick-turn, automated research. For more information, visit www.toluna-group.com.

Of the 205 companies surveyed in ABI Research’s latest Location Technologies Supply Chain and Ecosystem Tracker, 24% of them are currently offering solutions covering both indoor and outdoor location services, according to ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm providing strategic guidance on the most compelling transformative technologies. The growing need for seamless indoor and outdoor integration and supply chain visibility is expected to force more companies at the lower layers of the technology supply chain to create more flexible technology offerings.

Computing the position of a person or asset outdoors is usually done via Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology, although in some cases auxiliary technologies like cellular networks or to lesser extent Low-Power Wide Area (LPWAN) solutions may also be used at lower tracking accuracy.

However, for indoors, GNSS signals do not penetrate well and suffer from interference issues. For this environment, infrastructure based on short-range wireless anchor points are the best option for tracking end-devices in the vicinity. These anchor points can use a variety of location technologies, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Ultra-Wideband (UWB), RFID, or Wi-Fi.

“As things stand, there is a hard line between the indoor and the outdoor technologies and services used for location use cases. Offering seamless tracking between these two environments raises the possibility of having unprecedented visibility into the supply chain, as any item can be tracked end-to-end between factories, warehouses, and retailers up to the point-of-sale,” remarked Henrique Rocha, Research Analyst at ABI Research. Some of the benefits from acquiring visibility into the supply chain include more efficient planning and less asset shrinkage, which quickly revert to business owners in the form of ROI.

Yet, 63% of location companies featured in ABI Research’s Ecosystem Tracker are involved with indoor solutions only. Indoor tracking is still more demanding than outdoor tracking in the industrial and logistics spaces as it often requires high accuracy and real-time tracking capabilities of individual assets, as well as on-site dedicated infrastructure. With a consolidating location ecosystem, however, it is expected that more companies will turn to offering full supply chain visibility solutions, which require seamless indoor/outdoor tracking.

While several companies offer both indoor and outdoor location solutions separately, only few have managed to offer a single end-to-end solution providing seamless indoor/outdoor tracking capabilities. Examples of companies that have already taken the integration step and now offer seamless location sensors across indoor and outdoor environments include Estimote and Roambee. These sensors can be attached to individual assets or pallets or to a vehicle. One of the most common combinations for seamless asset tracking involves BLE communication for indoor tracking and GNSS for outdoor tracking, with an LPWAN like LTE-M used to relay location data.

Because different location technologies are often designed to operate in specific environments and address specific needs and use cases, an increasing number of technology suppliers are now opting for designing solutions compatible with multiple technologies to give their clients the flexibility to deploy these solutions across varied use cases and applications. Ubudu and Ubisense are examples of companies working with horizontal technology offerings or digital platforms compatible with different location technologies. This approach will also enable technology suppliers to generate scale, which will in turn help location infrastructure to be deployed at lower price points.

“Manufacturing and warehousing verticals are some of the most technologically demanding in the asset tracking space. In this ecosystem, companies stand out only through scalable business models. One way of achieving scale is by implementing seamless indoor and outdoor tracking. Solution providers are not oblivious to this and by this time next year, we anticipate an approximate 30% growth in the number of companies offering indoor/outdoor location services,” Rocha concluded.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Location Technologies Supply Chain and Ecosystem Tracker market data report. This report is part of the company’s Location Technologies research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Based on extensive primary interviews, Market Data reports present key data and forecasts for specific market verticals or technologies.

About ABI Research | ABI Research provides strategic guidance for visionaries needing market foresight on the most compelling transformative technologies, which reshape workforces, identify holes in a market, create new business models and drive new revenue streams. ABI’s own research visionaries take stances early on those technologies, publishing groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms. ABI analysts deliver their conclusions and recommendations in easily and quickly absorbed formats to ensure proper context. Our analysts strategically guide visionaries to take action now and inspire their business to realize a bigger picture. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com.

Sources:

• 1 NAM MANUFACTURERS’ OUTLOOK SURVEY – Q4 2018
• 2 DELOITTE – 2018 SKILLS GAP IN MANUFACTURING STUDY 
• 3 2018 INDUSTRYWEEK SALARY SURVEY
• 4 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS’ 2018 MANUFACTURERS’ OUTLOOK SURVEY
• 5 DELOITTE INSIGHTS – GEN Z ENTERS THE WORKFORCE
• 6 PEW RESEARCH CENTER – DEFINING GENERATIONS: WHERE MILLENNIALS END AND GENERATION Z BEGINS

Siemplify has released the 2019 Security Operations Maturity Report, revealing critical insights and trends into the state of SecOps, from size and structure of programs to key challenges and growth initiatives.

Based on a survey of more than 250 security operations practitioners working at enterprises and managed security service providers (MSSPs), who were asked to assess a litany of subjects related to their responsibilities, impediments and needs, the report presents a comprehensive portrait into the nexus of cybersecurity infrastructure – the operations – and the personnel responsible for ensuring their efficiency and effectiveness.

Arguably most notable is that the study includes perspective into where respondents see their SecOps programs – and the individual functions that constitute them – stacking up in terms of maturity, as well as what defines success and how to forge a path forward.

“The results of this report present the story of security operations and how it is still a long way from being fully written,” said Wade Baker, founder of Cyentia Research, commissioned to conduct the study. “A number of factors – some more obvious than others – are influencing the success of SecOps programs and the practitioners who work within them, and we sought to quantify those and help shed some light on where they see things now and where they may go from here.”

Of the respondents surveyed, only 20% indicated that their SecOps programs have reached the highest maturity level. The majority reported that they are just starting their maturity journey or only midway through it. Of verticals, MSSPs expectedly ranked highest in terms of SecOps maturity, while not-so-predictably the traditionally regulated industries of healthcare and finance rated near the bottom.

Other key security operations trends revealed in the report include:

Not all SecOps programs are created equal: For example, over half of financial firms report having 10 or more SecOps staff, but only 14% in the health care sector have that level of resources.

Tiered structure tapering: A little over half of respondents work in traditional ‘tiered’ security operations centers (SOCs), which are comprised of different analyst levels. The rest form teams of mixed roles and experience.

Structure influences strategy: Programs with a ‘tiered’ structure stress optimizing and managing tools. Those organized by ‘teams’ emphasize improving people and processes.

Teams are busy and broadly tasked: The average SecOps staff member handles 3.5 major functions, with some taking on as many as 12. Counterintuitively, those in larger firms wear more hats than their SMB counterparts.

Coding matters: 25% of staff in lower-maturity SecOps programs possess coding or scripting skills compared to 40% in higher-maturity programs.

Functions not evenly distributed: SecOps use cases like event monitoring, vulnerability management and incident response are experiencing the widest adoption among functions. Meanwhile, specializations such as threat hunting are four-times less common in SMBs.

Challenges span people, processes and technology: The most common SecOps challenge experienced by respondents was lack of trained staff. Poor correlation and orchestration among processes and technologies was a close second.

Overall, the responses yielded one clear message: SecOps maturity is about robust, documented, repeatable processes that tie technology, teams and their respective functions together to drive success.

“We already know that an overload of security alerts, reliance on manual processes and – of course – the global skills epidemic are all combining to cause chaos within IT and security departments,” said Nimmy Reichenberg, chief marketing officer at Siemplify. “But this report goes deeper and gets more personal to help us understand what security operations professionals are feeling, how their programs are being challenged and what the future holds.”

The complete report is now available for download.

About Siemplify | Siemplify, the leading independent security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) provider, is redefining security operations for enterprises and MSSPs worldwide. The Siemplify platform is an intuitive workbench that enables security teams to manage their operations from end to end, respond to cyberthreats with speed and precision, and get smarter with every analyst interaction. Founded in 2015 by Israeli Intelligence experts with extensive experience running and training security operations centers worldwide, Siemplify has raised $58 million in funding to date and is headquartered in New York, with offices in Tel Aviv. For more information, visit www.siemplify.co.

With no international alignment on how to regulate the digital environment, companies are managing an increasingly complicated set of conflicting rules in key markets. At the same time, fears are growing about a new “digital cold war” and the “splinternet,” where the Internet becomes more balkanized. This is forcing companies around the world to shift strategies on everything from procurement to customer engagement.

According to a new report by A.T. Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council, Competing in an Age of Digital Disorder, we are descending into a period of digital disorder. Companies can no longer be passive observers of the digital revolution, the authors argue. Instead, they must actively adapt to the present disorder while also preparing for the future digital order by embarking on strategic end-to-end digital transformations.

Much attention is focused on the “techlash” nature of new policies on key issues such as consumer privacy, data protection, and anti-competitive practices. But many governments are now seeking to strike a balance in policies that both maximize digital’s upsides and mitigate its downsides as they prepare to regulate the digital environment for the first time. Whether those governments are able to deftly strike such a balance will influence companies’ ability to use digital technologies effectively in the coming years.

“This cycle of innovation, adoption, and then regulation is consistent with previous waves of technological change,” says Paul A. Laudicina, founder and chairman of A.T. Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council and co-author of the report. “Today, the intense regulatory debate regarding digital technologies is creating a high degree of uncertainty about how the policy environment will evolve.”

After providing a richly researched background on the opportunities and pressure points facing societies, governments, and businesses in this period of digital disorder, the study then offers four scenarios for the digital order that will emerge. The scenarios are based on two political uncertainties that are unfolding:

• Regulatory activity. The extent to which governments in key markets around the world impose new regulations on technology companies and the use of digital technologies more broadly
• Digital environment. The extent to which the digital economy is a globalized whole, characterized by extensive cross-border digital flows, or an islandized environment, fragmented into different country-level or regional blocs

“These scenarios are designed to be compelling and plausible visions of the future that challenge and test executives’ capacity to anticipate and plan for their companies’ digital strategies in the coming years,” says Erik Peterson, managing director of the Global Business Policy Council and co-author of the study. “In fact, some aspects of these scenarios, such as the emergence of a digital ‘cold war’ between major global powers and early indications of a ‘splinternet,’ are already playing out in various markets around the world.”

Finally, the study argues that companies cannot be simply spectators of the ongoing digital revolution. Instead, executives will need to guide their organizations through strategic digital transformations across a variety of business functions. “Companies must adapt to the emerging digital order across strategy, customer experience, operations, risk management and compliance, and employees and culture—our SCORE framework,” says Courtney Rickert McCaffrey, manager of thought leadership for the Global Business Policy Council and co-author of the study. “To compete in the 21st-century digital economy, companies must embark on end-to-end digital transformation in all SCORE areas.”

Read the full report here.

About A.T. Kearney | A.T. Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries. Since 1926, we have been trusted advisors to the world’s foremost organizations. A.T. Kearney is a partner-owned firm, committed to helping clients achieve immediate impact and growing advantage on their most mission-critical issues. To learn more about A.T. Kearney, please visit www.atkearney.com.

About the Global Business Policy Council | The Global Business Policy Council is a specialized foresight and strategic analysis unit within A.T. Kearney. Since its first CEO Retreat in 1992, the Council has been a strategic service for the world’s top executives, government officials, and business-minded thought leaders. Through exclusive global forums, public-facing thought leadership, and advisory services, the Council helps decipher sweeping geopolitical, economic, social, and technological changes and their effects on the global business environment. The Council consistently ranks near the top of the University of Pennsylvania’s list of best private-sector think tanks and currently holds the 4th spot globally. To learn more about the Global Business Policy Council, click here.

Tight Alignment Between Sales, Product, and Fulfillment Processes Emerge as Game Changers to Meet Customer Expectations

Tacton, a provider of Configure Price Quote (CPQ) and design automation solutions for the manufacturing industry, has announced the results of a new survey on the state of manufacturing which shows how Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing trends are impacting businesses today and shaping future plans.

The survey findings, explained in Tacton’s annual report “The Current State of Manufacturing,“ indicate a shift in mindsets and adoption of sales enablement and production technologies as manufacturers strive to embrace the digital revolution and leverage big data and AI to innovate faster and respond quickly to customer demands.

Based on responses from 100 large and mid-sized manufacturers worldwide with more than $250 million in revenue, the survey uncovers some of the largest challenges in implementing Smart Manufacturing strategies, explores how far manufacturers are along the Industry 4.0 adoption continuum, and offers a glimpse into how manufacturers are leveraging technology advances to reshape the industry.

Industry 4.0 Rising

The majority of manufacturers surveyed believe that Industry 4.0 is important, and want to implement strategies to remain competitive, but a lack of understanding and technical skills hinder adoption. 70 percent of respondents said that Industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing is very important to companies. Yet, when asked how well industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing are understood in their organizations, 41 percent responded they are aware but not aware enough, 23 percent responded there is a decent level of awareness and understanding, and only 21 percent felt they have a very good understanding and already have a smart manufacturing strategy in place.

This gap between desire to implement and actual progress is further reflected in responses about progress toward smart manufacturing goals. Close to 60 percent of respondents said they’ve made average or decent progress toward their goals, but more than 30 percent said they’ve made limited progress and significant action is needed. 47 percent of organizations think there is a lack of knowledge on industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing.

These findings suggest that given the overall awareness of Industry 4.0 trends, most manufacturers still feel they are coming up short in creating and implementing a strategy. Manufacturers that are unable to catch up to the first movers risk facing strong competitive challenges that may impact business revenues and long-term business viability.

Technologies for Transformation

To help manufacturers turn interest into action, the report provides details on how manufacturers are starting to use various technologies to improve their businesses, and which technologies will be most important for future success.

• Business intelligence and big data analysis are being used by firms to understand the market, forecast revenues, understand the customer buying process, and optimize pricing.
• Sales enablement and production technologies are helping connect smart manufacturing to the front line and the top line. 60 percent of respondents have already started digitizing their sales processes to better facilitate individualized buying experiences. IoT and Big Data analytics were the technologies most often cited for success (50 percent), while production technologies such as machine to machine communication and advanced robotics dominated the next tier of responses.
• Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) technologies to digitize the sales process. When asked to specify the most important capabilities CPQ brings to manufacturing organizations, the top three capabilities were ease of use for sales reps, partners and customers, rapid quote generation, and accuracy of configurations (zero order errors).

Looking Forward

So, what’s next? 56 percent of respondents surveyed believe that meeting customer demand for highly configured and customized products will drive the most value. 33 percent feel that increasing the speed of innovation and time to market will be extremely important. Both of these top answers are closely aligned with Industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing trends. Perhaps more importantly, both require tight alignment between sales, product and fulfillment processes in order to meet customer expectations.

To learn more about the survey findings: Download the report: The Current State of Manufacturing

About Tacton | Tacton is a design automation tool for visualization and a SaaS software solution for Configure Price Quote (CPQ) that helps manufacturers reach an entirely new level of accuracy in quickly pricing custom parts for manufacturing. For more information, visit www.tacton.com.

AIA statistics show 4.5 percent decline in sales over same period in 2018, down to $674 million

North American sales of machine vision (MV) components and systems that provide vision intelligence to robots and other machines declined 4.5 percent over the same period last year. According to statistics from the AIA, the industry’s trade group part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), financial transactions for the entire market contracted to $674 million, with sales of MV components down 12.6 percent to $93 million and sales of MV systems down 3.1 percent to $579 million.

“Based on what we were hearing from our member companies at the end of last year and into the new year, we expected the statistics to reflect fewer sales for the quarter,” said Alex Shikany, vice president of membership and business intelligence at A3. “The semiconductor industry, which is a leading indicator for machine vision, showed signs of contraction at the end of last year, which led us to believe lower sales figures might’ve been ahead to begin 2019. Fortunately, machine vision technologies are still becoming smarter and smaller to fit within in-demand automation applications such as AI-driven bin picking, autonomous vehicles, and advanced inspection technologies, which is a positive indicator for the future health of this industry.”

Mixed Expectations Predicted for Future MV Sales   

According to AIA’s latest survey of industry experts, 41 percent believe machine vision component sales in total will increase, 39 percent believe they will remain flat and 21 percent are bracing for further declines. There is more consensus for machine vision systems markets with 71 percent of respondents expecting flat performance, 23 percent expecting increases and only 6 percent bracing for declines. Overall, two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents believe the overall machine vision market in North America will remain flat in the next six months.

About AIA | AIA was established in 1984 to advance the understanding and use of imaging and vision technologies and to drive global expansion and growth through education and promotion. Today, AIA continues its mission and represents some 380 vision suppliers, system integrators, users, researchers, and consulting firms from 32 countries. For more information, please visit www.visiononline.org

About Association for Advancing Automation (A3) | The Association for Advancing Automation is the global advocate for the benefits of automating. A3 promotes automation technologies and ideas that transform the way business is done. A3 is the umbrella group for Robotic Industries Association (RIA), AIA – Advancing Vision + Imaging, Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA), and A3 Mexico. RIA, AIA, MCMA and A3 Mexico combined represent more than 1,200 automation manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users, research groups, and consulting firms from throughout the world that drive automation forward. For more information, visit www.a3automate.org.