Keywords: Discrete Industries, Globalization, Automation, Medical Industry, Productivity, Energy Savings, Safety
According to a new ARC Advisory Group market research study, automation and related software expenditures for the discrete manufacturing industries experienced slight growth in 2014. Despite continuous recovery and expansion in North America, this growth was stifled by the sovereign-debt situation in Europe and the slowdown in China, which put a drag on capital equipment investments, lowering overall growth. Lower values of Euro and Japanese Yen against the US dollar translated into a negative market impact, resulting in lower growth.
However, the expanding middle class in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America creates increasing demand ranging from consumer electronics to automobiles to white goods. “The market will continue to expand despite the slower growth in China. The semiconductor, aerospace & defense, and plastic & rubber are some of the high growth industries that will lift the market,” according to Senior Analyst Himanshu Shah, the principal author of ARC’s “Automation and Software Expenditures for Discrete Industries Global Market Research Study”.
Globalization Trend
The globalization environment pushes industrial companies to invest in new automation equipment for various industries as companies face challenges to raise productivity, improve product quality, reduce energy consumption, eliminating product variability, lower product costs, reduce plant operating expenses, and increase return on investment (ROI) in order to compete in the global market.
Energy Savings Initiatives
Initiatives to save energy at various levels, ranging from local to national governments, industrial operations to consumer awareness, fuel growth for the use of automation equipment, to drastically reduce global energy consumption.
Automation and Safety
Integration of manufacturing automation and machine safety is now a major trend. Increasingly, more machines are integrating safety and motion, creating an opportunity for automation suppliers to increase their share of revenues in a machine.
Medical Industry Adopts Automation
Automation is beginning to penetrate the medical industry in both surgical and diagnostic environments. As more automated equipment is used in diagnostic equipment for minimally invasive surgery, cancer treatment radiation, and a whole host of other applications, the need for safeguarding increases.
Despite the overall positive forecast for automation expenditures for manufacturing processes in discrete industries, risk remains due to many factors, which are analyzed in the report.
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