Battery manufacturer Flux Power Inc. will move to a larger facility in Vista, Calif., this week, the company said Monday.
The new 60,000 square-foot facility is triple the size of Flux's previous location, which was also in Vista. The company said the move is in response to growing demand for its full line of lithium-ion batteries for material handling equipment. Flux offers batteries for a wide range of forklifts as well as airport ground service equipment, according to the company.
Companies that integrate real-time data flows into their operations consistently outperform their competitors, an MIT professor said in a session today at a conference held by IFS, the Swedish enterprise resource planning (ERP) and artificial intelligence (AI) firm.
A real-time business is one that uses trusted, real-time data to enable people and systems to make real-time decisions, Peter Weill, the chairman of MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), said at the “IFS Unleashed” show in Orlando.
By adopting that strategy, they gain three major capabilities, he said in a session titled “Becoming a Real-Time Business: Unlocking the Transformative Power of Digital, Data, and AI.” They are:
And according to Weill, MIT’s studies show that adopting that real-time data stance is not restricted just to digital or tech-native businesses. Rather, it can produce successful results for companies in any sector that are able to apply the approach better than their immediate competitors.
While many companies are launching artificial intelligence (AI) products for use as generic “co-pilots” or consumer-focused gadgets, the Swedish enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor IFS says its “Industrial AI” version supports industry-specific processes in “hardcore” sectors based on assets such as power grids, cell phone networks, aircraft maintenance, elevator operation, and construction management.
“Industrial AI is at the very core the solutions we are powering for customers. They are pushing us for ready-to-use AI that they can adopt quickly to solve real industrial challenges like labor shortages, supply chain disruption, [and] stagnated productivity," IFS's Chief Customer Officer, Cathie Hall, said in a release.
In presentations at its user conference in Orlando today, known as "IFS Unleashed," the company said that its latest IFS Cloud 24R2 release supports more than 60 in-depth Industrial AI scenarios. They span generative AI examples like: content generation for training and reports; recommendations for sourcing and suppliers; and contextual knowledge for assembly instruction. The tools also include predictive AI applications like event forecasting; optimization of resources and capacity; and anomaly detection for proactive quality control.
In remarks from the keynote stage, new IFS CEO Mark Moffat—who was appointed to the top office in January—said the company may be less well known than ERP vendors such as SAP, IBM, Oracle, and Infor, but it benefits from a tighter focus on its core users. Instead of selling software across dozens of industries, IFS serves just six industries: aerospace and defense, construction and engineering, energy and utilities, manufacturing, service, and telecommunications.
Thanks to that tight approach, he said the company has earned top Gartner rankings for its software products in field service management (FSM), enterprise asset management (EAM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and enterprise service management (ESM). And to compound that advantage, Moffat said IFS continues to grow swiftly through acquisition, having bought up a handful of companies in recent months: Assyst, Ultimo, Boka, empowermx, Bolo, Tobin, Merrick, and Copperleaf.
“You need an AI business plan” Moffat told the room. “If you have an AI business plan, that’s terrific, but you can improve it. This area is just moving so fast.”
The top three corporate development priorities in consulting firm PwC’s current strategy are climate, artificial intelligence (AI), and business model reinvention (BMR), the company said in remarks today at an Orlando user conference for IFS software.
That approach meshes well with IFS, the Swedish firm which has added dozens of AI applications to its cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools in recent months, that firm said at its "IFS Unleashed" event in Orlando. And underlying the industry’s rush to AI is the growing availability of massive amounts of data, PwC analyst Matthew Duffy said in a session at the show.
According to Duffy, data drives all the major technology changes that PwC advises businesses to examine: subscription or as-a-service models, connected devices and sensors, and conversions between business to business (B2B0 and business to consumer (B2C) approaches.
“Data availability now is greater than it’s ever been, and that’s where AI comes into play,” Duffy said. “It’s not just about driving cost efficiencies in an existing business model, but understanding your customer and your customer’s customer, so you can create a whole new value proposition.”
In fact, he said that PwC is not just giving that advice to its clients but applying it to the firm’s own strategy as well. That can be seen in the firm’s move in recent years to build its “Connected Solutions” business unit.
Global business leaders are feeling optimistic, according to a report from business data analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet showing a 7% increase in business optimism quarter-over-quarter, driven by gradual easing of inflation rates and favorable borrowing conditions.
However, that trend is counterbalanced by economic uncertainty driven by geopolitics, which is prompting many companies to diversity their supply chains, Dun & Bradstreet said in its “Q4 2024 Global Business Optimism Insights” report, which was based on research conducted during the third quarter.
“While overall global business optimism has increased and inflation has abated, it’s important to recognize that geopolitics contribute to economic uncertainty,” Neeraj Sahai, president of Dun & Bradstreet International, said in a release. “Industry-specific regulatory risks and more stringent data requirements have emerged as the top concerns among a third of respondents. To mitigate these risks, businesses are considering diversifying their supply chains and markets to manage regulatory risk.”
According to the report, nearly four in five businesses are expressing increased optimism in domestic and export orders, capital expenditures, and financial risk due to a combination of easing financial pressures, shifts in monetary policies, robust regulatory frameworks, and higher participation in sustainability initiatives.
U.S. businesses recorded a nearly 9% rise in optimism, aided by falling inflation and expectations of further rate cuts. Similarly, business optimism in the U.K. and Spain showed notable recoveries as their respective central banks initiated monetary easing, rising by 13% and 9%, respectively. Emerging economies, such as Argentina and India, saw jumps in optimism levels due to declining inflation and increased domestic demand respectively.
"Businesses are increasingly confident as borrowing costs decline, boosting optimism for higher sales, stronger exports, and reduced financial risks," Arun Singh, Global Chief Economist at Dun & Bradstreet, said. "This confidence is driving capital investments, with easing supply chain pressures supporting growth in the year's final quarter."
The level of global supply chain spare capacity in September rose to its highest level since July 2023, revealing a trend of economic weakness, according to a monthly report from market data provider S&P Global and New Jersey-based enterprise software vendor GES.
The firms’ “GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index” tracks demand conditions, shortages, transportation costs, inventories, and backlogs based on a monthly survey of 27,000 businesses.
The rise in underutilized vendor capacity was driven by a deterioration in global demand. Factory purchasing activity was at its weakest in the year-to-date, with procurement trends in all major continents worsening in September and signaling gloomier prospects for economies heading into Q4, the report said.
According to the report, the slowing economy was seen across the major regions:
"September is the fourth straight month of declining demand and the third month running that the world's supply chains have spare capacity, as manufacturing becomes an increasing drag on the major economies," Jagadish Turimella, president of GEP, said in a release. "With the potential of a widening war in the Middle East impacting oil, and the possibility of more tariffs and trade barriers in the new year, manufacturers should prioritize agility and resilience in their procurement and supply chains."
