ARC Advisory Group has just completed fresh market analysis research on Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and PLC based Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs). This ARC market research explores current and historical market performance and related technology and business trends, identifies leading technology suppliers, and provides five-year forecasts for the PLC and PLC based PAC market. This new research is based on ARC’s industry-leading market research database, extensive primary and secondary research, and proprietary economic modelling techniques. The research includes competitive analysis, plus five-year market forecasts by region, industry, machinery segmentation, sales channels, and customers.
It was a very interesting year in the PLC and PLC based PAC market. PLC and PLC-based PACs are essential to manufacturing and are found in nearly all vertical markets. Overall, their dynamics mirror the global trends in manufacturing. After a boom year in 2014, the market was only growing by 1 percent in 2015 (in real terms, in nominal terms, there has been a strong downturn). Responsible for this downturn, was the slowdown in China, which continued in 2016 and developed into a sharp drop in the local market. Western Europe enjoyed a healthier growth throughout 2016, but the strong negative pull effects from China up to Q3 2016 also impacted this market. North America was down overall, mainly due to the downturn in oil & gas.
While economic factors impact the short run trends, the long-term trends are shaped by technology and manufacturing trends. Overall, PLCs are starting to become a commodity. Differentiation is increasingly found in software and services and not in traditional hardware features, such as cycle time, longevity, etc. However, with IIoT impacting purchasing decisions, PLCs also continue to develop. They are becoming a hub between the manufacturing space and the MES layer. In order to do so, they not only need data processing capabilities and Ethernet connection. They need to be able to communicate with the cloud via OPC UA, they need to run apps within the PLC to enable fog computing and connect to cloud platforms. Suddenly, these are the new (hardware-) features many users and OEMs are looking for.
ARC’s new PLC and PLC based PAC Global Market Research is available in a variety of formats to meet the specific research and budgetary requirements of a wide variety of organizations. These include:
- Market Intelligence Workbook (Excel) - personalized spreadsheet includes up to five years of historical data in addition to the current base year market data and five-year market forecast. This workbook enables licensed users to freely manipulate the data to make it easier to analyze the latest data for business intelligence and generate custom reports.
- Concise Market Analysis Report (PDF) – provides an executive-level summary of the current market dynamics, market forecasts, and competitive analysis, plus an overview of strategic issues. The PDF is available with or without detailed charts.
For more information on this and other available ARC market research, please visit our Market Data & Studies section.