Analyst Insight: With companies reshoring their manufacturing facilities back to North America in today's market and in the future, leading industrial manufacturing companies are striving to enhance factory performance and improve plant productivity to maintain a competitive edge. Industrial manufacturing is in the midst of a technological renaissance that is transforming the systems and processes of the modern plant. Companies can't afford to ignore these advances or they will be left behind. – Brian Neuwirth, VP of Marketing and Sales, UNEX Manufacturing

Analyst Insight: Customer-focused initiatives are increasing the requirements placed on global supply chains, and companies are struggling to develop supply-chain organizations and capabilities with the speed, flexibility and cost control to meet these needs. There is opportunity for companies to drive greater efficiency, both internally and externally, through the use of emerging digital capabilities, advanced data analytics, and new collaboration models in their supply chains. – Andrew Prinz, associate partner, supply chain management, Infosys Consulting

Analyst Insight: The Internet of Things (IoT) was originally the concept of "things talking." In the early days we envisioned RFID tags on everything, helping to identify and locate any object in the universe. The RFID tag would uniquely identify the item, determine its location, and put a time stamp to the transaction. It was a straightforward concept. It was either there, or it was not. It was all about identity and location. – Eric Peters, executive vice president, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: When people talk about the Internet of Things, they can mean many different things, even within one industry. For a manufacturer, there are four major areas where IoT may have an impact: the manufacturing plant, the supply chain, service and the product. – Bill McBeath, chief research officer, ChainLink Research