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Increasing popularity for plant asset management

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 18, 2005

Manufacturer needs, driven by economic and competitive factors, are creating unprecedented growth in the plant asset management systems market, says a new report.

Manufacturer needs, driven by economic and competitive factors, are creating unprecedented growth in the plant asset management (PAM) systems market.

The worldwide market for PAM systems is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate approaching 10% over the next five years.

The market currently exceeds $1.1 billion and is forecasted to exceed $1.8 billion by 2009.

PAM system segmentations in this study have been expanded to incorporate shifts in market demand for new solutions capable of managing a much broader set of plant assets.

This study includes analysis of PAM systems for automation assets and production assets.

Regardless of the type of asset being monitored, PAM systems use intelligence to predict asset health, optimise maintenance and plant operations, increase production availability, and enable a predictive maintenance and operations strategy.

"PAM systems are rapidly becoming the initiative of choice of manufacturers in today's competitive environment", according to Research Director Wil Chin, principal author of ARC's "Plant asset management systems worldwide outlook study".

Chin continued: "Improving management of capital assets is one of the best ways to increase productivity with little to virtually no production upsets, while meeting the goals and objectives of today's enterprise".

Leading suppliers in the PAM systems market continue to grow, buoyed by a number of factors contributing to a fertile climate for manufacturer investment.

These include an aging technical workforce, personnel reductions, a huge installed base of old equipment, and declining capital investment.

PAM systems are becoming one of the leading business strategies to manage changing business conditions and are increasingly garnering a larger share of business investments.

Because assets can, and do, fail, regardless of age, PAM systems are being deployed in new and old plants worldwide.

PAM systems can detect infancy failures of new assets as well as improve the efficiency of operations.

Manufacturers in nearly every process industry would benefit from PAM solutions.

Previously dedicated for heavy process industries that subject assets to extremely harsh conditions, such as the oil and gas and chemical industries, other industries are now recognising the benefits afforded by PAM systems.

The increasing popularity of PAM solutions for automation assets is also spurring demand for PAM solutions for production assets.

Manufacturers are increasing adoption of protection and predictive solution upgrades using better analysis software techniques developed in the predictive PAM automation space.

Leading suppliers have not ignored this paradigm shift and are expanding PAM product portfolios to address as many plant assets as possible.

Previous PAM solutions were designed to monitor automation assets or rotating and reciprocating equipment, commonly referred to as condition monitoring.

Enterprising suppliers, however, have developed PAM infrastructures that combine both classes of assets.

Combining information from intelligent field devices, sensors, and process information, in the right context, has proven to be a viable way of identifying problems and assessing the health and performance of any asset, regardless of type.

Easier implementations and lower cost solutions are further contributing to increasing demand and the release of a broad, diversified, set of PAM solutions from leading suppliers.