Engineering Design Software for Plants, Infrastructure, and Building Information Modeling

The Engineering Design Software for Plants, Infrastructure, and Building Information Modeling (EDS/BIM) global market research delivers current market analysis plus a five year market and technology forecast. It is available in multiple editions including worldwide, all regions, and most major countries.

Engineering Design Software/BIM Markets Continue Strong Growth

ARC’s research on the Engineering Design Software and Building Information Modeling (EDS/BIM) market includes engineering design, analysis, and project management software and associated services used for the design and construction of physical plants and infrastructure. The EDS portion of the report includes power, process, and marine industries. The BIM market includes infrastructure. The market had surprisingly strong growth in 2021, considering the impact of the pandemic on the overall economy. After 2021, it is expected to continue to experience high market growth globally. Suppliers of EDS/BIM software have for the most part, converted from selling upfront perpetual licenses to subscription services. Despite the pandemic, the EDS/BIM market added new users in 2021. Subscription services have many benefits to the user, including converting CapEx to OpEx, nearly eliminating dependencies on IT support, no more upgrades, and reducing the first-year acquisition cost (including the servers) by over 60 percent.

Engineering Design Software Market Trends

In addition to providing a five-year market forecast, the Warehouse Management Systems market research provides detailed quantitative current market data and addresses key strategic issues as follows.

EPCs and AECs

EDS/BIM solution providers now offer solutions that address the information management issues resulting from siloed business processes and related inefficiencies. They have extended their solutions to span the various stakeholders, including designers (front-end engineering design and detailed design), construction contractors, and owner-operators (operations and maintenance). 

Digitalization and Business Process Management: Digitalization reduces dependence on paper documents and ad hoc business processes. It enables improved and automated business processes and business process management throughout the asset lifecycle with EDS/BIM software. EPCs and AECs can provide better information management during and after the handover process.

Asset Management: Information and document management solutions provide the owner-operators with access to engineering models, operations and maintenance documents, and information that supports their asset management solutions. This trend will continue as owner-operators realize the benefits of having comprehensive and well-organized operations, maintenance, and asset information available to them on single-source platforms.

Owner-operators    

For new and expensive CapEx greenfield projects, plant owner-operators are increasingly using engineering design solutions at earlier stages in the project to enable continuous handover. This handover provides faster time to production for improved revenue and high operational performance for improved margins and profitability. This extends to subsequent upgrades and for improving the operations and maintenance phase of the asset’s lifecycle.

Owner-operators pressure EPCs to become involved in the initial stages of plant design. The owner-operators can then submit requirements for handover, including operational and maintenance information and documentation. In this way, owner-operators can take a proactive part in defining handover content and avoid “surprises” when the actual handover occurs.

After handover, owner-operators are increasingly utilizing engineering design solutions along with their asset reliability and asset performance applications for digital twins to optimize operations, improve uptime, and prevent onerous unplanned downtime. The benefits involve:

• Optimized processes and production for improved operational efficiency and financial performance
• Maintenance processes that avoid unplanned downtime and extend the life of assets for improved return on assets (ROA) 
• Fewer safety and environmental incidents