Birst, a vendor of cloud-based business intelligence and analytics, has added collaboration and real-time capabilities to its Networked BI & Analytics platform.

Vizient Inc. has developed Vizient Savings Actualyzer, a supply-chain analytics platform for the healthcare industry.

Traditional Lean and Six Sigma practices are insufficient to address the complexities of modern industrial manufacturing, and companies are turning to "smart operations," which use pervasive data collection, advanced analytics, technology investments and deeper collaboration with partners to prepare their value streams for the next industrial revolution.