Danfoss has been named the Silver Winner for the 2011 Global Awards for Excellence in Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow. This award is given to industrial organizations in recognition of improvements in business processes. The program is managed by Future Strategies Inc. and sponsored by BPM.com, Object Management Group and Workflow Management Coalition.

_{Members of the Danfoss' team accept the award.}

This is from the release:

"Danfoss Power Electronics received the award in the competitive North American region. The judges recognized the company’s skilled management of interdisciplinary competencies with basic technology applications in order to springboard a process management program. As a result of the BPM project the company significantly reduced workload in several areas; for one, the master data on shipping information, price points, discounts and other variables is now far more accurate and no longer needs to be manually checked and entered, resulting in a 25 – 35% improvement in productivity for customer service personnel. The company also introduced a new, team-oriented culture aligned with the organization’s value stream and developed a competency toolbox for process management.

This project was a result of an industrial research program between the two entities, aimed at solving business problems while advancing theoretical knowledge in the BPM area. Danfoss was nominated for the award by its research partner, Center for Industrial Production, Aalborg University, Denmark."

Use of Ethernet-based technologies in industrial communications will grow faster than use of fieldbus, especially in the Asia-Pacific region; according to IMS Research. This is largely driven by the need to improve efficiency as currency and wage pressures sound warning bells, threatening the cost advantage that has fueled the meteoric growth of manufacturing in the region. The company says that  worldwide growth in the installation of new Ethernet based nodes was forecast to be 13% CAGR from 2010 to 2015; regional growth rates were 11% in EMEA, 10.4% in the Americas, 18.6% in Asia Pacific.

John Morse, company representative, said “...the rate of growth seems to be gathering pace in the recovery from the 2008/9 recession. The Asia-Pacific growth rate is high despite the pressure on local manufacturing costs from increasing wages in the growing economies of Asia, most notably China. In addition, the demand for products from both America and Europe is currently slowing, adding an additional threat to the economies of scale needed to maintain profitability.”

Morse added “The market in Japan is somewhat different and has been much slower to adopt Ethernet-based communication technologies in industry. Even there, this is changing with the introduction of CC-Link IE, a Gigabit technology form Mitsubishi Electric; and with extensive promotion by other organizations including ODVA and Profibus International promoting Ethernet/IP and PROFINET respectively”.

Following initial reports of a strong first quarter for industrial automation electronics equipment market, IMS Research has upgraded its forecast to 12.9% market growth in 2011. The global IAEE market is now projected to be worth $97 billion in 2011, according to a new report, “The World Market for Industrial Automation Electronics Equipment”.

Growth in the market relies heavily on machinery production, which performed exceptionally well last year. The strongest performances will again come from Eastern Europe and China, leading to global growth of 9.8% for machinery production during the year.

In contrast, key process equipment markets dependent upon capital investment declined in 2010, due to continued tight lending conditions. In addition, order books were strong on entering the downturn, creating a lag in recovery. An impressive first quarter suggests that capital expenditure levels will be strong in 2011.

IMS is going so far as to suggest that opportunities from machinery production and capital investment will lead to 2011 to be a peak growth year for the market, doubling the historic annual average of 6.2%.