INTERNATIONAL REPORT:

ARC: China developing strategic strength in PLC market

China’s favorable business environment is providing ample investment opportunities for manufacturers from all around the world to set up facilities there.The China market for PLCs is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4% over the next five years. www.arcweb.com/res/plc-chi ).

“The manufacturing sector’s search for sustainable competitive advantages through continuous productivity improvements will lead to the application of plant level automation across all vertical industries in a major way. hshah@arcweb.com ), co-author of the study.

China is poised to become the world’s third biggest economy in 2007.onal manufacturing capacity.  China also continues to attract huge amounts of foreign direct investment.

China’s economic growth trajectory is unabated.tion suppliers.  Suppliers, however, need to follow well-planned strategies to outperform market growth and gain market share, even during boom periods.  Himanshu Shah adds, “Suppliers in China are adopting strategies, such as including CPM in their solution portfolios, fostering and expanding strategic relationships with OEMs, pricing their products competitively, and others, to exploit the growing opportunities.”

IFS earns top ERP award

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, has won its second consecutive annual award from the Center of Enterprise Research

CER experts named IFS Applications 7‘ERP System of the Year’ in the service industry category, further strengthening IFS’ position as a market-leading ERP provider. CER evaluated the competing products according to the following criteria: implementation time, ergonomics, technology, integration, support concept, customervalue and communication.

The award recognizes how the SOA-based architecture, which IFS Applications 7 is based on, reduces total cost of ownership and enables companies to maintain a competitive advantage by reacting with agility to changes in the market. With a combination of industry-specific and functional components, IFS Applications is an efficient and cost-saving ERP solution for the service and other industries.

“Naturally, we are very pleased to be named‘ERP System of the Year’ by CER,” IFS North America president and CEO Cindy Jaudon said. “Winning this award again demonstrates that we have firmly established our innovative product line in the service industry. Receiving this honor in the German market is especially noteworthy because our competitor, SAP is headquartered in Germany.” In addition to this year’s distinction by CER, IFS has recently been recognized as‘Company of the Year’ by Construction Computing magazine in the UK.

Hannover Fair to showcase subcontracting

In an age of global competition, subcontractors assume an important role as competent supply chain partners. Hannover Fair 2008 (April 21—25 in Hannover, Germany) will showcase subcontractors in a number of industrial sectors, focusing on their versatile share in the value creation process. The Subcontracting trade fair at Hannover Fair will feature a new special display entitled “System Partners — Mechanical Engineering/Automotive”, at which two major exhibits will serve to illustrate today’s innovative structures in the cooperation-intensive subcontracting industry.

The exhibit for the automotive sector will consist of a cutaway model of a VW Golf — used to illustrate the way system subcontractors are tied in to the manufacturing process.

The exhibit for the mechanical engineering industry will be provided by members of the Dutch subcontracting association NEVAT. Several NEVAT members who work together as part of a cooperative supply chain will present complete, fully functional machines. These supply-chain partners will use the show to highlight their specific strengths and reveal their general knowledge and competence. NEVAT executive board member Gery Morssinkhof of the Aegide Group

Go to www.hannovermesse.de for more information.

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