Discrete Automation Market Analysis, Market Size, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies, And Segment Forecasts, 2015 To 2022

The global discrete automation market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period owing to growing demand for manufacturing in emerging markets. Rising demand for custom configured products along with several asset lifecycle management initiatives.

Growing focus on efficiency improvement and energy saving is expected to drive market growth. Discrete automation offers a control platform for increasing productivity, enhances ease-of-use along with reducing costs which are expected to accentuate the industry growth.

Increasing population along with urbanization is creating a strain on infrastructure which is projected to offer lucrative growth opportunities for the discrete automation market by 2022. This automation finds its application across various industries including pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, mining, and pulp manager among others.

Significant potential from the renewable energy sector coupled with heavy investments in infrastructure for sectors including water and wastewater, oil and gas, and power industry is projected to trigger industry growth over the forecast period. Varied government initiatives across the globe facilitating the usage of energy-efficient systems are anticipated to boost the industry demand over the next six years. However, high cost of ownership is projected to act as a restraint for discrete automation market growth.

The discrete automation market can be segmented on the basis of products into robotics, manufacturing execution system (MES), product lifecycle management (PLM), distributed control system (DCS), SCADA, distributed control system (DCS) and programmable logic controllers (PLC). DCS solutions help in enhancing the power generation speed along with avoiding human errors that occur during the process. Rising demand from food processing industries is estimated to drive the DCS solutions industry demand. MES act as a bridge between enterprise resource planning and machine level operations for centrally controlling the manufacturing operations. It is further used to analyze report status and availability along with collecting detailed execution data such as process parameters, labor, and material usage. PLM represents systematic data management related to production support, design combined with ultimate disposal in product development in the organizations.

The market can be classified on the basis of end-use industry into, automotive, packaging, food processing, and textile industry. The food processing industry is projected to witness significant demand owing to increasing population in the developing countries.

North America is expected to dominate the discrete automation industry. Recently released new industrial policies in the U.S. to elevate the investments in the automation industries are further expected to drive the market demand in this region.

Asia Pacific is anticipated to emerge as a prominent region owing to increase in industry control system implementation and factory automation. Huge customer base, low manufacturing costs, along with availability of cheap labor is estimated to positively elevate the industry demand in this region. Several industry players are merging or collaborating with regional players for setting up their facilities in this region.

Key players in the discrete automation market include Siemens AG, Rockwell Automation Inc., ABB Ltd, Invensys plc, Schneider Electric Co. Rising competition along with product homogeneity is propelling companies to differentiate with customer support and service. The discrete companies are less automated and are prioritizing initial visibility into manufacturing, data from production assets, finances, and key performance indicators.

In January 2011, ABB Ltd acquired Baldor Electric, whose motors and drives can be applied in robots and other applications within the discrete automation division of ABB. Further, the company invested close to USD 10 billion to acquire more than 25 firms from 2010 to 2014 to strengthen its industry presence. Schneider Electric offers integrated energy management solutions along with energy automation and control solutions. In January 2014, Schneider Electric acquired Invensys plc, to enhance its position in the industry. Siemens AG’s Energy Management offers low and high voltage transmission systems along with energy automation and smart grid solutions.

Market dynamics in the industrial space have led to the creation of a hyper-competitive industry. Discrete automation is expected to contribute to process and manufacturing plants, focusing on prominent issues of energy efficiency along with reducing the carbon footprint.