ARC Advisory Group’s 12th India Forum for the process and discrete industries, took place on 10-11 July 2014 in Bangalore, India and attracted over 285 delegates.
Titled Industry in Transition: The Information Driven Enterprise in a Connected World, the forum’s theme is relevant in today’s business context because everything is interconnected and immediate – contact, communication, information and deliverables; and this builds pressure, as one weak link can break the information chain. When competition and markets are global, companies must become collaboratively networked enterprises, managing dispersed centres of technology, engineering, production and resources. Systems need to be flexible and ready for business change. In addition to a host of new and sometimes disruptive technologies entering the marketplace, companies must also face rapid changes in government regulations, energy and raw materials availability, markets, and competition. By deploying leading edge information technologies, today’s companies can thrive.
Today, industries are besieged with challenges due to fluctuating market conditions and increased competition. Industries are continuously looking for ways to improve their processes to deal with these volatile market forces. The major challenges confronting organisations are: how to improve their processes and infrastructure to compete on a global turf.
The buzzwords for success in today’s competitive market place are greater agility, flexibility, responsiveness, and innovation. Market forces, such as globalisation, resource constraints and environmental concerns, changing demographics, and IT trends are influencing manufacturing companies and their dynamic market ecosystems and value networks. India’s economic growth has temporarily decelerated due to the global headwinds and domestic rumblings, but industry analysts predict that it’s just a matter of time before the growth engine is back on track. However, for a successful transition it is imperative for industries to adopt new information technologies, such as cloud computing, mobility, social technologies, internet of things, big data/analytics, and 3D visualisation. Information-driven digital enterprises leverage new technologies to achieve agility and sustain a competitive edge. All these were discussed at the ARC forum.
This two day event was structured to disseminate information and technology effectively and provide end users, solution providers and decision makers with an opportunity and platform to network and understand the market requirements and dynamics. The forum’s focus was on maximising productivity and increasing return on investment by channelling relevant information and investing in technologies. The session topics covered automation and enterprise trends; advancement in control strategies; energy optimisation and factory of the future; strategies to achieve asset performance management, operational excellence and cyber security; and strategies for growth.
Sharada Prahladrao is editor and public relations manager at ARC Advisory Group, India
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