According to a recent report by MarketsandMarkets, the Process Automation and Process Instrumentation markets will grow at a CAGR of about 5% to $125 billion and $37 billion, respectively, by 2018. The automation market includes SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition), PLC, DCS, and MES technologies; Profibus, Fieldbus, Wireless HART, and ISA100 communication technology; and Flow, Temperature Level Pressure transmitters.
The process industry provides advanced automation and instrumentation systems that improve production quality, time management, energy efficiency, process optimization, and more. Much of the expected growth over the next five years will come from companies in countries that heretofore have not widely adopted automation and may be operating antiquated equipment, mostly from developing regions like Brazil, India, and areas of Asia. Companies in these regions are investing heavily to migrate facilities or perform upgrades to plant processes.
The typical manufacturing set-up in developing regions is a collection of these connected or loosely connected systems. There has of yet been no set up to collect information from manufacturing operations that can be used in real time to improve productivity.
Part of the reason for the uptick in automation and instrumentation is the slowly expanding world economy, especially in developing regions. In coming years, manufacturing activity in these regions will be picking up and installation of automation and related systems will allow companies to meet increasing demand, improve productivity, increase capacity, and meet growing compliance, regulatory, and safety requirements.
As traditional manufacturing process automation increases and helps improve outcomes, companies will begin to adopt business process automation as well.
