The 2025 ARC Industry Forum remained focused on the end user community, with close to 60 end user speakers and presenters sharing how they are applying enabling technologies like Industrial AI, digital twins, and industrial data fabrics to solve key business challenges such as sustainability, cyber resilience, supply chain resilience, and reduced risk.

To provide our Advisory Service clients with holistic coverage of the various industrial and automation markets we cover, ARC Advisory Group publishes indices of revenues from automation and machinery companies as well as indices of revenues and CapEx from end user industries on a quarterly basis. This Special Report is concise and focuses more on the quantitative than the qualitative aspects of the automation, end user, and machinery industrial markets. 

The rise of plastic circularity, driven by more stringent policies, is boosting demand for advanced solutions, opening new opportunities for automation companies to innovate in product design, plant optimization and green value chain.

UniversalAutomation.org (UAO) is an international community of users, vendors and academics, managing the implementation of an industrial automation shared-source runtime execution engine, based on the IEC 61499 standard.

AI affects many aspects of industrial cybersecurity, from AI embedded in supplier offerings to the need to keep AI models secure that are implemented by end users.

This Insight highlights the energy transition and the close relationship between AC and DC power. There is a need for efficient conversion to and from AC and DC and several factors are fueling this conversion.

In 2024, Siemens promised to provide long-term support for both of its DCS solutions, leaving customers free to make long-term automation plans based on their specific business needs.

Manufacturers and processors are all making progress on their digital transformation journeys, deploying smart manufacturing technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Edge, Cloud, Digital Twin, IT/OT/ET convergence, etc. In spite of that, operational challenges caused by geopolitics, tariffs, and increasing weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, tornados, etc. due to climate change, drive manufacturers and processors to leverage tools to ensure the resilience of their operations, especially the integrity of their supply chains.

The 75th NAMUR General Meeting brought together industry leaders and experts. The topics, presentations, and discussions reinforced the organization’s role as a driving force in shaping global automation standards for the process industries.

In this periodic report, ARC Advisory Group looks at several different manufacturing industries to identify the current CapEx trends in India. While ARC also publishes a separate global Capital Expenditures report, this report focuses exclusively on India’s capital expenditures for leading industries in the country, including automotive, cement, chemical & petrochemical, electric power, metals, oil & gas and refining, food & beverage, and pharmaceutical.

Modern day CMMS solutions offer opportunities to extend beyond maintenance into other asset management functions. The software as a service (SaaS) model has really pushed the CMMS adoption forward and helped end users easily improve key maintenance metrics, such as MTTR and MTBF.

A new open source specification is available that looks to securely automate, scale, and simplify IoT device onboarding. Technology end users such as ExxonMobil, as well as several top-tier IoT suppliers, are looking to leverage the new specification in their installations.

Software solution and platform service providers who serve utilities and critical infrastructure asset owners have a mix of solutions, and are seeing increasing value in the rise of cross-industry use cases that help improve the risk profiles of a much wider general customer base across asset-intensive industries and manufacturers.

While cybersecurity programs protecting traditional information technology (IT) systems have been well-established for decades, operational technology (OT) systems must also be protected by a comprehensive cybersecurity program. The nature and constraints associated with OT mean that some details, areas of emphasis, and selection and approval processes may differ. Product and service suppliers must adjust their response when proposing solutions in this environment.

Plastic circularity is becoming a key step towards a more sustainable future. This report explores the current and future value of this industry, the processes, challenges and the technologies enabling companies to move forward.