Blog

What is operating in the field today may be very different from what was originally designed and built. This article explains why asset data becomes fragmented across the lifecycle, why an accurate as-maintained view is so difficult to maintain, and how PTC Orbit helps connect engineering, manufacturing, service and operational data around the actual physical asset.

Industry 4.0 use cases pay off when each project targets one production problem and one KPI. This guide covers 13 proven use cases with real examples, from OEE monitoring to predictive maintenance at Finsa, Lacroix and ESAB.

Digital transformation in manufacturing stalls when the OT/IT foundation is skipped. This roadmap sets out five phases, from assessment and connectivity to AI-driven scale, with realistic timelines, budget bands and the mistakes to avoid.

i3X is CESMII’s open, vendor-agnostic API for querying contextualised manufacturing data. Learn what i3X 1.0 includes, how it fits alongside OPC UA and a Unified Namespace, and how to adopt it on top of your existing Kepware connectivity.

Predictive AI forecasts outcomes such as equipment failures, quality defects and demand shifts from historical production data. Generative AI creates new content, from standard operating procedures to synthetic training data, and powers the operator copilots built on top of it.Manufacturers get the most value by matching each technology to a specific factory use case, not […]

Introducing AI into the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) is no longer the challenge. Most engineering organizations already use tools such as GitHub Copilot, AI-powered testing solutions, documentation assistants, and operational support agents. The real challenge today is understanding whether these investments are creating measurable business value. Many organizations have mature Cloud FinOps practices that provide […]

Migrating data to a new PLM system rarely comes down to a simple process of exporting the data, transforming it, and importing it into a new environment. In fact, the most complex projects often begin where standard migration scenarios end. This is particularly true for PLM Carve-Outs & Mergers, where organizations separate part of their […]

NIS2 gives you 24 hours to report an incident that industrial networks often take weeks to detect. We look at which obligations reach control systems, who inside the organisation should own them, and where transposition currently stands across Europe.

The IoT Gateway plug-in streams plant floor data to any MQTT broker or REST endpoint, but AWS and Azure each enforce their own rules. This guide covers the exact agent settings for both, the errors that cause most failed connections, and four architecture patterns that hold up in production.

Business context For many companies, SaaS has been the default answer to almost every software need. Need a CRM? Buy SaaS. Need customer support? Buy SaaS. Need project management, time tracking, marketing automation, finance workflows, HR service desk, contract management, or knowledge management? Buy SaaS. This approach made sense for years because SaaS software reduced […]

On 12 August 2026, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will start to apply. For manufacturers, this means new obligations related to packaging, but also something much broader: the need to effectively manage data, documentation, product versions and changes throughout the entire product lifecycle. And this is exactly where regulation meets PLM. A great […]

Artificial intelligence has become impossible to avoid. Every major PLM vendor is adding AI capabilities to its portfolio, analysts are predicting a new wave of productivity, and manufacturers are looking for practical ways to apply AI across engineering, manufacturing and service.  It is tempting to see this as the next chapter of Product Lifecycle Management, but I think the picture is […]