According to the latest research report released by the international market research agency Marketsand Markets, the global smart manufacturing market will reach US$214.7 billion in 2020. It is expected that this data will increase to US$384.8 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 12.4 %. The following will analyze the future trends of global smart manufacturing from the four dimensions of technical level, industry application, market area, and global enterprises.

The increasing adoption of Industry 4.0, the constant investment in industrial automation, the increasing involvement of the government in supporting industrial automation, the increased complexity in the supply chain and the surge in demand for software systems that reduce time and cost are all contributing to the market’s Rapid development.

From a technical perspective, during the forecast period, the Industrial Internet of Things technology will occupy the largest share of the smart manufacturing market. The Industrial Internet of Things changes the manufacturing plant by connecting a wide network of smart devices, thereby increasing the degree of factory automation. At the same time, the Industrial Internet of Things is expected to revolutionize manufacturing by enabling large amounts of data, which can be shared across the enterprise.

In addition, the Industrial Internet of Things provides the industry with better connectivity, efficiency, scalability, and saves time and costs. The continuous advancement of industrial automation is expected to bring huge benefits to end users in terms of increasing profits and improving efficiency.

From the perspective of the application industry, the energy and power industries will occupy the largest smart manufacturing market during the forecast period. Technological advancements in emerging markets (such as India, China, Brazil and the Middle East) are likely to create a large number of opportunities for automation in these markets. Therefore, many smart manufacturing solution providers have targeted the industry.

Due to the growing global demand for energy, the power industry is rapidly developing. This puts tremendous pressure on power manufacturing companies to provide cheap and reliable energy. Moreover, it is necessary for power manufacturing companies to effectively use available resources, reduce maintenance costs and further improve plant performance. In addition, PAM and HMI solutions can help power plant owners, operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make improved business decisions regarding asset performance and operational readiness.

In terms of market regions, the intelligent manufacturing market in the Asia-Pacific region will grow at the highest compound annual growth rate during the forecast period. China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and a global manufacturing center for the semiconductor and automotive industries. This has led to more and more people adopting advanced manufacturing technologies, such as HMI, MES, AI, AGV and WMS, to improve the overall performance of the manufacturing plant and increase production. In addition, the growing economic and technological development of various industries encourages the application of these technologies to monitor and control production processes.

From the perspective of global companies, during the forecast period, 3D Systems (USA), Cisco (USA), General Electric (USA), Honeywell (USA), IBM (USA), Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan), Schneider Electric (Europe ), Siemens (Europe), Oracle (United States), SAP (Europe), Yokogawa (Japan), etc. will become the world's leading providers of intelligent manufacturing solutions.

(Reprinted from: Laser Manufacturing Network)