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ABB retains no. 1 global market position in Distributed Control Systems (DCS)

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Customer focus, digital innovation and remote services were drivers for ABB’s leadership position in Distributed Control Systems (DCS) for the 21st consecutive year, according to analyst

December 2020: A recent report published by the ARC Advisory Group confirmed that, in a highly competitive landscape, ABB remains the #1 DCS market leader for the 21^st year running.

Holding an overall share of 19.2%, ABB leads the field thanks to its domain knowledge in multiple industries, extensive service network and a continued investment in technology and digital solutions that meet rapidly changing customer requirements.This puts ABB more than two points ahead of the nearest DCS competitor.

The largest share of 2019 DCS market growth came from oil and gas, chemicals, mining, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, followed by food & beverage, metals, cement, and pulp & paper. With its two main DCS offerings, ABB Ability™ System 800xA and ABB Ability™ Symphony Plus, ABB has a strong presence in each of these segments. ABB is also a leader in several of the key DCS trends identified in the report, including Modular Automation, Batch, Characterizable I/O and Remote Services.

“I want to thank our customers for their longstanding support, helping us to shape ABB’s automation offering and expertise into what it is today,” said Bernhard Eschermann, Chief Technology Officer, ABB Industrial Automation. “Automation makes a difference in the world around us. The DCS is the backbone for much of the digitalization transforming our customers’ industries. It helps to provide many of the elements essential to modern society, such as the water we drink, the energy we consume or the materials used to build our homes.”

ABB Group press release 2020

ABB confirmed as #1 DCS market leader

Optimizing operations in an Industry 4.0 environment

A key focus of ABB’s annual $1.5 billion research & development investment is digitalization to help customers optimize operations in an Industry 4.0 environment. ABB has two new offerings that use DCS data with value-added applications to improve customer production availability, process performance and product quality. The ABB Ability^TM Edgenius Operations Data Manager gleans value from DCS data, while the ABB Ability^TM GenixIndustrial Analytics and AI Suite combines data from operations, engineering and information technology for multi-dimensional data analytics and decision support.

DCS plays a key role within Industry 4.0 and representing a global market valued at $15 billion.

Distributed Control Systems are the heart of plant-level digitalization. They ensur high availability of the production processes, thus maximizing asset utilization, increasing process efficiency and ensuring product quality. DCS is key to the energy and the fourth industrial revolution, enabling safe, smart and sustainable production of goods that enhance the day-to-day lives of people around the world.

“During more robust economic times, process industry producers often rely on new production machinery to increase output. In the current highly demanding economic environment, customers are squeezing as much value as they can out of existing assets, running as efficiently as possible to protect profit margins. Maximizing assets and efficiencies is what DCS do,” said Bernhard Eschermann, Chief Technology Officer, ABB Industrial Automation. “We see it as our duty to continue to develop solutions that offer these benefits and more for our customers.”