{"id":9124,"date":"2019-03-04T21:06:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T02:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/enabling-the-industrial-revolution-4-0-ptcs-thingworx-platform\/"},"modified":"2019-03-04T21:06:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T02:06:23","slug":"enabling-the-industrial-revolution-4-0-ptcs-thingworx-platform","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/enabling-the-industrial-revolution-4-0-ptcs-thingworx-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"Enabling the Industrial Revolution 4.0 \u2013 PTC\u2019s ThingWorx Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere is a fundamental disconnect between the wealth of digital data available to us and the physical world in which we apply it.\u00a0 While the reality is three-dimensional, the rich data we now have to inform our decisions and actions remain trapped on two-dimensional pages and screens.\u00a0 This gulf between the real and digital worlds limits our ability to take advantage of the torrent of information and insights produced by billions of smart, connected products (SCPs) worldwide.\u201d \u2013 Michael Porter and James Heppelmann[i]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The world around us as we know it is changing.\u00a0 We are living through a convergence of the physical and digital worlds that is taking place at an exponential pace.\u00a0 According to the research firm IDC, businesses were projected to have spent approximately $1.1 trillion in 2018 on digital transformation technologies \u2013 hardware, software, and services.[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 Much of this massive spending has taken place within industry and manufacturing, and has ushered in an era now being called the Industrial Revolution 4.0 \u2013 or just Industry 4.0, to represent the fourth revolution that has occurred in manufacturing.\u00a0 Industry 3.0 witnessed the adoption of computers and automation and the enhancement of smart and autonomous systems fueled by data and machine learning.\u00a0 Industry 4.0 optimizes this revolution and allows for the cyber-physical systems, the internet of Things (IoT) \u2013 within Industry it is coined the Industrial IoT (IIoT), the Internet of Systems and smart connected products (SCPs).[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 The digital world is based on 1s and 0s.\u00a0 The physical world is full of winners and losers.\u00a0 The current winners are making the necessary strategic changes to take advantage of this revolution and figuring out how to harness those 0s and 1s to lift the world around them and usher us into this new era.<\/p>\n

We learned that any company that provides the necessary tools to enable a revolution will likely be successful and profit nicely.\u00a0 One shining example of a company doing exactly this is PTC.\u00a0 Now located in Boston\u2019s innovation district, PTC is winning in the digital age and exemplifies what a company needs to do to survive.\u00a0 Originally founded in 1985 as a tech company that created Computer Aided Design (CAD) software using a unique set of algorithms to design and describe a physical object in the digital world.\u00a0 While witnessing several years of success, PTC expanded their offerings to include product lifecycle management (PLM) software and other various complementary services.\u00a0 During this time, PTC began facing increased competition and lost its dominance in the market.\u00a0 However, in 2010, Jim Heppelmann \u2013 who had been serving as the CTO for the past 10 years, was announced as the CEO and he sets course on a mission to revitalize the company after a \u201clost decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Value Creation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through a series of strategic acquisitions focused at developing a product suite spanning across the full digital spectrum, making the physical world more productive and efficient.\u00a0 PTC\u2019s strategy and products team sought to develop a product suite, while still rooted in CAD and expanding on PLM, that brought the necessary tools to engineer\u2019s desk and manufacturing floor.\u00a0 These software products developing an end-to-end IoT application enablement and cloud-based platform as a service (ThingWorx), IoT connectivity (Axeda), analytics (ColdLight), augmented reality (Vuforia), and industrial automation (Kepware).\u00a0 Additionally, several recent partnerships such as Rockwell Automation \u2013 including a $1 billion investment in PTC in 2018[iv]<\/a>, Microsoft \u2013 bringing in Azure and Hololens technologies, and Ansys \u2013 providing real-time simulation in a design environment, brings together capabilities only found in PTC\u2019s software suite[v]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through their Industrial Internet of Things platform \u2013 ThingWorx, and AR software, PTC is enabling the millions of front line workers to be trained quicker and more productive.\u00a0 Additionally, plant floor managers can now conduct real-time analysis of various machine\u2019s operating metrics, allowing the plant to conduct predictive maintenance only when needed and not wasting the hundreds of man-hours and millions of dollars on conducting maintenance that doesn\u2019t need to be done.\u00a0 PTC also offers support for the various cloud providers, and so it is aware of each unique environment but is not beholden to one service.<\/p>\n

The key component of PTC\u2019s ability to be a winner with their ThingWorx IoT platform, and other products, is in their executive team.\u00a0 As we all know, creating and marketing a platform isn\u2019t an easy task and takes a capable and competent team to support it.\u00a0 PTC has built itself around a task to create products that enable the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and beyond.\u00a0 As such, PTC shifted its business model to provide a subscription-based software service, allowing them to continually capture the value of their services.<\/p>\n

Some Struggle to Survive<\/strong><\/p>\n

One example of a platform that has struggled to compete with a digital IoT platform is General Electric\u2019s subsidy GE Digital\u2019s Predix platform.\u00a0 Similar to ThingWorx, Predix is a cloud-based PaaS but has failed to garner the market share (outside of likely forcing the other GE subsidies to adopt Predix) required to provide the necessary return of capital to GE.\u00a0 This failure resulted in the shopping of Predix on the market during the summer of 2018 and eventual spin-off of GE Digital (to include the Predix platform).[vi]<\/a> The article also notes that the CEO of GE Digital, Bill Ruh, also left the company.<\/p>\n

GE Digital\u2019s Predix is not alone in facing stiff competition and difficulty in capturing market share and creating value for its customers, as noted with many of GE\u2019s jet-engine customers (and the airlines who buy these engines) resisting to pay the premium for the added value Predix (and other IIoT platforms) may provide.[vii]<\/a>\u00a0 Of the companies that recognize the need to make the transition involved with Industry 4.0, Predix is just one example of a likely failed attempt.\u00a0 However, since the late 1980s, and Industry 3.0, the manufacturing industry continues to have difficulty in embarking upon the digital transformation journey and ushering in new technologies, making them obsolete organizations.[viii]<\/a><\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Porter, Michael and James Heppelmann.\u00a0 \u201cA Manager\u2019s Guide to Augmented Reality.\u201d 性视界 Business Review, Nov-Dec 2017.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Gagliordi, Natalie.\u00a0 \u201cDigital transformation technology and services spending is on the rise.\u201d www.zdnet.com, Jun 2018.<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> Marr, Bernard.\u00a0 \u201dWhat is Industry 4.0?\u201d Forbes.com, Sep 2018.<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> \u201cRockwell Automation and PTC: Industrial IoT-Driven Innovation.\u201d www.ptc.com<\/a>, 2018.<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> \u201cInnovate. Collaborate. Capitalize.\u201d www.ptc.com<\/a>, 2019.<\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a> \u201cGE Sells ServiceMax; Spins Off GE Digital and Predix.\u201d www.channele2e.com<\/a>, Dec 2018.<\/p>\n

[vii]<\/a> \u201cGE to Sell Predix?\u00a0 What\u2019s Happening, Why, and Who\u2019ll Get It?\u201d www.altoros.com<\/a>, Aug 2018.<\/p>\n

[viii]<\/a> \u201cManufacturing\u2019s Crisis: New Technologies, Obsolete Organizations.\u201d www.hbr.org<\/a>, Sep 1988.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PTC's Internet of Things (IoT) ThingWorx Platforms, coupled with their unique suite of software products, creates an incredible amount of value for any company looking to embark upon the Industrial Revolution 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9983,"featured_media":9129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[1460,304],"class_list":["post-9124","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-augmented-reality","category-iot","hck-taxonomy-organization-ptc","hck-taxonomy-industry-technology","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/dig-it-blog-post-assignment-i-innovative-platforms\/","yoast_head":"\nEnabling the Industrial Revolution 4.0 \u2013 PTC\u2019s ThingWorx Platform - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/enabling-the-industrial-revolution-4-0-ptcs-thingworx-platform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Enabling the Industrial Revolution 4.0 \u2013 PTC\u2019s ThingWorx Platform - 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