A new market research study by the ARC Advisory Group delivers current market analysis plus a five year market and technology forecast. While the market for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and PLC-based Process Automation Controllers (PACs) is mature, it continues to re-invent itself.
The overall market development has followed past trends, but there are selected regional and vertical markets that are growing at above average speed. Regional development is closely linked to overall economic performance. Growth in vertical markets also depends on technological development; while some verticals are mature, increasing performance also enable the PLC based PACs to enter more applications in the process industries.
Over the last few years, integrated safety has become a key differentiator and is among the most important issue for PLCs. In the future, we see even more functions being integrated into PLC platforms. Integration makes life easier for end users as well as OEMs and is a significant competitive advantage. A clear trend is to integrate cyber security directly into the PLC platform. In the future, energy management functionality will also be integrated. This makes the PLC a platform for basically everything below the CPM layer.
While new features offer differentiation, ARC expects competition to increase. During the past crisis new entrants from emerging markets have gained market shares in developed economies, as price sensitivity increased. In addition, many companies enlarged their drives- or motion control-focused automation offering by adding PLCs. This creates pressure on established players to integrate even more.
The study can be acquired in the Market Studies section on the arcweb.com website.
