In a growing market expected to reach $17.4 billion globally by 2023, a market analysis report by the ARC Advisory Group, a leading industry analyst firm, confirms that ABB increased its share of the Distributed Control System (DCS) market to 20.0 percent, retaining its leadership position for the 20th year running.
According to the report, ABB’s strong presence in many end-user industries for DCS was a major factor in this success. The DCS market saw its main growth in oil & gas, chemicals and refining, where also ABB has a strong footprint.
“I want to thank our long-standing customers for their cooperation and loyalty over decades,” said Dr. Peter Terwiesch, President, ABB Industrial Automation. “Partnership and collaboration with our customers have shaped ABB’s automation offering and domain expertise into what it is today. I am also pleased that new customers, in traditional and new industries, are finding value in ABB’s DCS solutions.” The company grew its market share by 1.8 percent since 2008.
“Being independently verified as the global market leader in DCS for 20 years is an outstanding moment of pride for ABB, and a testament of our technology leadership and the strength of our long-term customer relations. We continue to invest in developments that extend the power of the DCS, to combine electrical and process automation, and help our customers leverage the era of digitalization with cloud and edge-based applications and services,” Terwiesch said.
“In dynamic, digitalizing industries, it’s challenging to maintain consistency with the fast pace of technology development and rapid market changes,” said Harry Forbes, Senior Analyst, ARC Advisory Group. “As analysts, it’s interesting to observe how ABB manages acquisitions, maintains installed bases and addresses the Internet of Things with consistency in DCS and other automation market spaces.”
In the process and hybrid industries, DCS are the heart of plant-level digitalization. They strongly influence the energy and the fourth industrial revolutions. The systems enable safe, smart and sustainable goods production, power generation and water purification, enhancing the lives of people around the world. They automatically control production processes, thus assuring high production availability, maximum asset utilization, increased process efficiency and optimum product quality. DCS are key to helping process industries producers become more productive and profitable.
As an integration platform, ABB’s DCS is also an electrical control system, a safety system and a collaboration tool that connects to enterprise and plant assets to promote real-time decision-making. The ABB system improves engineering efficiency, operator performance and asset management, and integrates electrification, instrumentation, automation and telecommunications.
ABB’s DCS enables ABB AbilityTM Collaborative Operations, in which plant and enterprise data is gleaned from the DCS and other data sources, and automatically analyzed to derive predictive maintenance and performance enhancement actions that customer and ABB experts employ to improve operations. A recent ABB DCS development that exploits the latest digital technology to facilitate project engineering is the best-in-class single-channel Select I/O. With its digital marshalling capability, Select I/O allows DCS users to engineer large capital projects with maximum flexibility and resilience to late changes, thus reducing cost, schedule and footprint.
ABB is actively involved in industry bodies and user associations such as the Open Process Automation™ Forum, NAMUR, and OPC Foundation, to develop and promote open standards and interoperability that increase optionality for customers, and ensure customer-focused technology development and collaborative industry leadership.
Looking ahead, emerging countries continue to be a key focus for market development. A resurgence of the global oil & gas upstream industry, expansion of the chemical and petrochemical industry in Asia, and development of the global Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) market are a few of the industrial trends driving growth forecasts for the DCS market.
The report also suggests that services are likely to be the fastest growing segment of the DCS market. Supporting the largest installed base, DCS-related services are already a priority for the company. ABB AbilityTM remote-enabled, software-assisted services such as myControlSystem web portal, Automation Sentinel Lifecycle Management, and Performance Optimization for control systems are important contributors to DCS security, performance improvement and lifecycle evolution.
Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group is the leading technology research and advisory firm for industry, infrastructure, and cities due to its in-depth coverage of both operational technologies (OT), engineering technologies (ET) and associated business trends. ARC’s analysts and consultants have the industry knowledge and the first-hand experience to help clients find the best answers to the complex business issues facing organizations today. ARC provides technology supplier clients with strategic market research, and helps its end-user clients develop appropriate adoption strategies and select the best technology solutions for their needs.
ABB Industrial Automation offers a range of solutions for process and hybrid industries, including industry-specific integrated automation, electrification and digital solutions, control technologies, software and advanced services, as well as measurement & analytics, marine and turbocharging offerings. Industrial Automation is #2 in the market globally. With its deep domain knowledge and experience of delivering world-class products, systems and solutions, Industrial Automation helps customers to increase their competitiveness, improve return on investment and run safe and smart operations.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a technology leader that is driving the digital transformation of industries. With a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB has four customer- focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation, supported by the ABB Ability™ digital platform. ABB’s Power Grids business will be divested to Hitachi in 2020. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 147,000 employees.
