Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

Overview

The smart factory and industrial automation market is expected to be valued at $187.8 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% between 2019 and 2025. This market growth is due to the impact of evolution and adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), industrial robots, smart automation solutions, and increasing emphasis on regulatory compliances. Industrial and commercial developments in the growing economies are also responsible for the growth of this market.

Industrial automation is defined as the automation of industrial processes through computers, communication systems, and process operators. Industrial automation minimizes human intervention in the industry and ensures a superior performance as compared to humans. Moreover, whereas, smart factory connects people, processes, and machines to enable advanced manufacturing with the optimized process reduced errors, improved quality, and eliminate waste.

Both smart factory and industrial automation enhance the productivity and quality of products and simultaneously decrease the production cost. Smart factory and industrial automation meet the demand for mass production with providing nominal human intervention, better quality, and less labor expenses, significantly reduce overall operational cost.

Report Coverage

The report: “Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market – Forecast (2019-2025)”, by IndustryARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market

Key Takeaways

· Key drivers of the market are; reduction of energy consumption and increasing factory efficiency. All the Industries are adopting smart factory concept to ensure that every component of the value chain is connected for providing informed manufacturing with no-time lags and zero defects.

· The automotive manufacturing sector has been one of the largest adopters of automated robots and is the largest the revenue-generating end-user in the market. Smart factory and industrial automation play an important role in connecting and automating the operations of these robots.

· Industrial Automation in China has increased the uptake of smart manufacturing. As per the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China initiated around 100 smart manufacturing pilot projects in 2018.

By Application - Segment Analysis

Material handling application generated 38% of the smart factory and industrial automation market revenue in 2018. Robotics and automation system is helping in business according to their growing demands and making it cost-efficient, and these advances in technology are a material handling system more affordable and effective. This high-speed automation technology can load and unload the truck at the pallet and cartoon level. Over the next decade, material handling is expected to immerse with the automated system highly.

Various advancements have been made in the automation of the multiple activities that were formerly carried out manually (particularly in the labor-intensive manufacturing industry), with most of these being almost fully automated, with the help of the latest technologies. This has led to improved efficiency, high-quality products, and attendant savings in labor and costs.

By End-User - Segment Analysis

Automotive industry end-use accounted for the highest market share in the smart factory and industrial automation market in 2018. Smart factory solutions play a key role in the development and production of quality automobiles. The automobile manufacturing industry is the largest adopter of robots in 2018 (according to the international federation of robotics {IFR}). For enhance quality and increase factory productivity, while using these robots, smart factory and industrial automation solutions play a major role.

The fastest-growing end-use in the forecasted period is the energy and power sector. The sector consists of the gas industry, petroleum industry, coal industry, power industry, among others. The adoption rate of smart factory technology is expected to be the highest in the oil & gas industry due to the growing need for safety in oil and gas plants. The automation market has penetrated the energy sector in developed economies.

By Geography - Segment Analysis

APAC accounted for the largest share, of 34% in the smart factory and industrial automation market in 2018, due to technological innovation and adoption of automation technologies across several industries. Toyota, Honda, and Suzuki are working on developing smart factories. These smart and automated factories will be manufacturing robots, sensors, wireless technologies, and machine vision systems.

Drivers – Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market

·         GROWTH IN ADOPTION OF INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS:

The call for precision machining along with high production rates, has made use of robots an indispensable aspect of manufacturing units. Since the industrial operations are becoming complex amidst rapid technological advancements, the growth of the industrial robot is expected among such environment that is beyond the capacity of manual involvement. Smart factory and industrial automation play an essential role in connecting and automating the operations of these robots.

Almost all the processes in the production and processing plants have been automated in the past decade. This has also complemented the expansion of industrial robots integration into industrial operations.  

·         RISING LABOR COSTS TO BOOST THE SMART & AUTOMATED INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS DEMAND

The labor cost is significantly high in the total industrial operating cost, generally making 60%-65% of the total cost. In the majority of the cases, manual jobs typically consist of two categories of staff: direct and indirect. Direct staff is responsible for executing the procedure while the indirect staff is for the back-end support for direct staff.

The presence of both direct and indirect staff coupled along with department managers presents an essential cost in operating a warehouse.

The automation of industries has become a notable means to tackle the rising wages and workforce age. This has resulted in the industrial operators to rely upon the smart factories and automated robotics to provide a convenient and efficient way of reducing the operational costs while simultaneously maintaining the productivity at optimum levels.

Challenges – Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market

·         GROWTH OF CYBER ATTACKS

The history of the smart factory and industrial automation is always fascinating. Cybersecurity is one of the major issues of factory automation. Constant technological innovation has taken manufacturing processes from the Industrial Age to the information age as networking in process automation grows. These new information age factories have a great scope of cyber threats from various sources. These cyber-attacks can reduce the advantages of smart and automated factories and turn them into significant disadvantages.

For almost every minute, the global cybersecurity researchers discover threats to cybersecurity and try to solve them in real-time.

Market Landscape

Top 5 players of the smart factory and industrial automation market captured ~65% share of the market in 2018.

ABB Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric, Yokogawa, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, Omron, General Electric, Danfoss, FANUC, Schneider, Siemens, and Emerson Electric Company are some leading key players in the smart factory and industrial automation market.

Partnerships/Mergers/Acquisitions

Ø In July 2018, GE and Microsoft Corp. formed a partnership to bring together operational technology and information technology to eliminate hurdles in advancing digital transformation projects. In the partnership, GE Digital plans to standardize its Predix solutions on Microsoft Azure and will deeply integrate the Predix portfolio with Azure native cloud capabilities, including Azure IoT and Azure Data and Analytics.

Ø In June 2018, SAP and Endress+Hauser collaborated in the development of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications for the process industry. The goal is to fully integrate the Endress+Hauser field instruments as digital twins into the SAP cloud platform.

Ø June 2018, PTC Inc. and Rockwell Automation Inc. formed a strategic partnership that accelerated growth for both companies and enabled them to be the partner of choice for customers around the world who want to transform their physical operations with digital technology.

R&D Investment/Fundings

Ø In July 2019, Fetch Robotics raised $46 million in a Series C round of funding led by Fort Ross Ventures. Fetch Robotics creates autonomous robots, powered by cloud-based software systems, which operate in locations such as warehouses, factories, and distribution centers. The robots can be used to transport goods and materials around warehouses, gather data automatically.

Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market Research Scope:

The base year of the study is 2018, with forecast done up to 2025. The study presents a thorough analysis of the competitive landscape, taking into account the market shares of the leading companies. These provide the key market participants with the necessary business intelligence and help them understand the future of the Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market. The assessment includes the forecast, an overview of the competitive structure, the market shares of the competitors, as well as the market trends, market demands, market drivers, market challenges, and product analysis. The market drivers and restraints have been assessed to fathom their impact over the forecast period. This report further identifies the key opportunities for growth while also detailing the key challenges and possible threats. The key areas of focus include the offering type, robot type, end-users, and application of Smart Factory and Industrial Automation Market.