Global Smart Factory Market

Description

Introduction:

A smart factory represents a flexible environment wherein systems can run autonomously by themselves and self-optimize performance. It is being touted as Industry 4.0 where the backbone of this trend would be networking and internet. The 4 design principles of a smart factory would be interoperability, information transparency, technical assistance and decentralized decisions. A smart factory would include cyber physical systems, Internet of Things, cloud computing and cognitive computing. The concept of smart factory visualizes that every step of the manufacturing process can be interconnected. It would include entire technical integration of systems across product lifecycles, supply and value chains, functional hierarchies and geographic boundaries.

Market Dynamics:

Factors like technology, optimization and sustainability are shaping the manufacturing industry. On the technology front, the enabling and advancement of technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, cloud based application infrastructure and middleware, smart robotics, additive manufacturing, integrated product-product simulation is primarily driving the smart factory market. Tracking multi geographic and multi plant operations and the growing need for centralization is also shaping the growth of this market.

The critical challenges facing the evolution of the smart factory market are the design of the process landscape, identification of new employee profiles, re-skilling of the employees and the complexity and the expense of the networking subsystems. The associated cyber risk and the lack of proper cyber security infrastructure can also dampen the growth of this market. 

Market Segmentation:

The Global Smart Factory market can be segmented on the basis of technology, component and end user industry.

1. Technology:

1. 1. 1. Programmable Logic Controller
      2. Distributed Control System
      3. Human Machine Interface
      4. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System
      5. Enterprise Resource Planning
      6. Plant Asset Management
      7. Product Lifecycle Management
      8. Manufacturing Execution Systems

1. Component:

1. 1. 1. Industrial robots
      2. Sensors
      3. Machine vision systems
      4. 3D Printing

1. End user industry:

1. 1. 1. Process Industry
         1. Food and Beverages
         2. Oil and Gas
         3. Chemical
         4. Pharmaceutical
         5. Pulp and paper
         6. Mining and Metals
         7. Energy and Power
         8. Cement and Glass
      2. Discrete
         1. Aerospace and Defence
         2. Automotive
         3. Semiconductor and Electronics
         4. Medical devices
         5. Machine Manufacturing
         6. Printing and Fabrication
         7. Packaging

Geographical Analysis:

Geographically, the market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and South America. Enhancement of digital technologies in emerging markets like China and India have made the Asia Pacific region the fastest growing market. The development of manufacturing sector and favourable government regulations have made APAC a very lucrative market. Geographically, North America is the largest market for Smart Factory because of the presence of already established multinational corporations. Europe is the 2^nd largest market after North America as it is the origin of Industry 4.0.

Key Players:

Some of the key companies in Global Smart Factory market are ABB, Siemens AG, General Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Cisco, IBM, SAP, Honeywell, Bosch, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric and Yokogawa Electric Corporation.