Integrated Manufacturing Execution Systems Driving Process Automation to $94 Billion World Market in 2010 Says Report

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). "Automation is not going to explode forever", states a report on Process Automation Markets 2010 from Intechno Consulting based in Basel, Switzerland. The manless factory and plant will not materialize yet for many years. Highly automated plants are more flexible than totally automated plants. Moreover, the former have a higher availability as well as lower maintenance and investment costs, says the report.

According to the report, the global market for process automation is expected to grow from $61.3 billion in 2000 to around $73.3 billion in 2005, and to $94.2 billion by 2010. This, states the report, is equivalent to an average growth rate of 3.6% between 200 and 2005, and 5.1% between 2005 and 2010. The average annual growth over the decade is 4.4. %. If internal services (closed market) for the project and operation phases are included, the world market for process automation grows from $87.7 billion in 2000 to $135 billion in 2010.

The report notes that the demand for automation technology for power plants in the USA declines sharply between 2000 and 2005, because high surplus capacities were created in 2000 and 2001. Only by 2010 will automation demand reach the level of 2000 again.

The report does not count measurement and automation technologies for long distance transportation in pipeline and for exploration as these industries are considered to have individual needs for the processes and plants requiring automation.

In 2000, demand for measurement and automation technology products and external services split into 73.3% for core processes, 5.4% for filling and packaging machines, 6.2% for storage equipment and 14.7% for utilities and end of pipe environmental protection within the relevant process industries. For 2010, the share of the core processes in the total process automation market is forecasted to be 74.5%.

The report states that power plants and chemicals are the largest demand sectors for construction materials, equipment, software and services for plants in the process industries. Pharmaceuticals, with an annual growth rate of at least 6.4%, is the fastest growing process industry. In the chemical industry, increasingly fierce competition leads to more and more complex and highly automated plants, which are extensively integrated with logistics concepts of different plant locations and enterprises. The Intechno Consulting report says that the flexibility and availability of plants tends to keep growing.

In the raw materials sector, which covers mining activities including coal, uranium, ores, salts and construction materials as well as oil and gas production, the annual growth is the industry average of 4.4% and represents increased spending from $7.2 billion in 2000 to $11.1 billion in 2010. In highly industrialized countries mining can only be successful with constant rationalization and higher and higher finishing stages. Extraction and transport show a trend towards remote control.

The environmental protection sector is estimated to grow at an average rate of 6% from $4.1 billion in 200 to $7.4 billion in 2010. Growth in this sector will be driven by rising worldwide demand for drinking water and service/cooling water, stricter environmental legislation in industrial and fast developing countries which in turn drives the demand for modern sewage plants, solid waste treatment plants and exhaust air purification equipment.

The report forecasts an annual growth rate of 3.6% in the basic industries sector which will contribute to reducing pollutant emission, improve product quality and develop plant flexibility. There will be continued growth in surface control, image processing, thickness measurement and modern weighing technologies. In the decade up to 2010 this sector will grow from $10.9 billion to $15.5 billion.

The regional share of global growth for process automation through the decade 2000 to 2010 in % terms is:

Western Europe 27.5 to 25.9%
Eastern Europe 4.5 to 4.9%
North America 35.3 to 33.0%
South America 4.4 to 4.9%
Asia-Pacific 25.2 to 27.6%
Rest of World 3.2 to 3.7%

In the highly industrialized countries, process automation serves to enhance product quality, master the variety of products, and improve process safety and plant availability, to efficiently utilize resources and to lower emissions. In fast developing countries, the mastering of mass production is the main motive for process automation applications. Quality and environmental aspects are also gaining in importance.

With external engineering demand increasing worldwide, demand is expected to rise from 13.9% in 2000 to 15.5% of activity in the sector by 2010.

Intelligence, modularity and remote diagnostics are the trends of the future. Decentralized automation allows distributing intelligent automation components across the plant. New biotechnological processes represent new challenges for automation and minireactors and microreactors will bring new challenges for automation. Automation technologies will benefit from vertical integration with information technologies used for management processes, says the report. Growth is emerging where both worlds meet in Manufacturing Executive Systems (MES).

Hardware sales will continue to decline and the share of 'embedded' software will continue to grow. New product and service concepts should always include the established productions as exceptions so that user firms can continue to use prior investments. To maintain market leadership customer benefits rule. Product developers will have to compete with their own success.

Niche suppliers should anticipate the needs of customer's customers and implement systematic bottleneck analysis, which will result in innovative programs.

Online services and remote maintenance and service support, engineering cooperations across borders and time limits and innovative logistic concepts like supply chain management (SCM) lead to the benefits of customer relation management (CRM) will gain importance during the decade.

Study of this process automation world report suggests that truly productive synergies and the integration of the production to service chain and feedback loop are now in place and are set results delivery and strong growth.