Automation is ticket to the flat world

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 10, 2007

The worldwide market for process automation systems is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.6% over the next five years.

Process industry automation continues to experience solid worldwide growth as plants must continue to improve performance.

End users facing globalisation are driving plant performance at a level that would be inconceivable without modern process automation systems and business processes.

As a result, automation systems for process industries will experience healthy growth.

The worldwide market for process automation systems is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% over the next five years.

The market was nearly US $30 billion in 2006 and is forecasted to grow to over $47 billion in 2011, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.

Process automation technologies help achieve industry business objectives for improved plant utilisation, yields, product quality, availability, safety, flexibility, and delivery performance.

"Constant cost pressure in process industries leaves no alternative but to improve plant performance, and process automation technologies play a key role in achieving this", according to Senior Analyst Himanshu Shah, the principal author of ARC's "Automation systems for process industries worldwide outlook".

Many trends are emerging as a result of globalisation, which means more markets, more products, and more partners.

Opportunities expand, but so do the challenges for global manufacturers.

Companies are selling their products around the world and they are facing competition from a growing number of global players.

One reason the automation systems business will do so well over the next few years is the huge list of challenges and changing conditions in the global business environment to which manufacturers must respond.

These challenges include globalisation, the need to act quickly and with agility to emerging market opportunities, dealing with a shrinking base of educated and well trained personnel, and increasing pressure to improve financial performance.

These challenges are driving a significant change in the way that end users approach everything they use to control production, engineering, operations and maintenance across the manufacturing enterprise.

Automation is a ticket to be a participant in this flat world, and therefore, process automation products are expected to have robust growth as they are used across industrial segments, ranging from food and beverage and metals and mining to chemical and water and waste industries.

ARC takes a look at the leading indicators shaping the growth of the global automation marketplace, from capacity utilisation to productivity and industrial production, and how these will affect the market in the coming years.

Despite troubles in the USA and Canadian economies, the global outlook for automation and manufacturing remains bright.

Higher energy prices continue to contribute to increased capital investments and large project backlogs for oil, gas and refining companies.

The pharmaceutical and bio-tech industries remain strong, and growth in Asia and other developing regions remain high.

Asia remains the centre of growth, but the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America continue to show strong growth as well.