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2021 - 2022
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Automation System Integrators Stay the Course
Vance VanDoren – 12/15/1996
According to a survey published in CONTROL ENGINEERING's 1995 Automation Register
(CONTROL ENGINEERING, mid-December 1994), the "average" automation system integrator
in the early 90's was less than 20 years old, earned less than $5 million annually,
and served most of the United States with a slight emphasis on the OH-IN-IL-MI-WI
geographical area. System integrators of that period typically worked on process,
batch, and supervisory control projects either as independent contract engineering
firms or as authorized system integrators for control equipment manufacturers such
as Allen-Bradley (Mayfield Heights, OH).
Their tool of choice was the programmable logic controller (PLC), especially models
by Allen-Bradley, Siemens Energy and Automation (Alpharetta, GA), and GE Fanuc Automation
(Charlottesville, VA). The Modicon and Square D brands from Schneider Automation
(North Andover, MA) were also quite popular. After PLC installations, automation
system integrators were most adept at designing and implementing human-machine interface
systems (HMIs) incorporating software from Intellution (Norwood, MA) and Wonderware
(Irvine, CA).
Little has changed
That profile of a typical system integrator in the industrial automation industry
remains fairly accurate today. A follow-up survey of the 800+ companies listed in
the last two editions of the Automation Register shows that automation system integrators
in the mid-90's have gotten older, but have not changed their focus much.
The most common form of system integration work reported by respondents to both
surveys involved interfacing PLCs to HMIs and field measurement devices. Ironically,
both surveys also showed that these integrated PLC/HMI systems have been most commonly
applied to continuous process control projects where distributed control systems
(DCSs) have traditionally been the computing platform of choice. Nonetheless, the
PLC was cited as an engineering specialty half again as often as the DCS in both
surveys.
Furthermore, the discrete manufacturing industries where PLCs have been traditionally
applied were not among the most frequently served industries. Only material handling
made it in to the top five industries served by the system integrators surveyed
in 1994. Today, material handling is tied with another process industry -- pharmaceuticals
-- as the fifth most commonly served industry. The top four remain food and beverage,
industrial automation and control, continuous and batch processing, and petrochemicals.
(See bar charts.)
PLCs remain popular
These results reflect the continuing growth of the PLC market, especially in the
process industries where PLCs are being equipped with continuous control capabilities.
PLC-based automation projects are particularly popular with system integrators since
PLCs are available off-the-shelf with a wide variety of standard features. DCS systems,
on the other hand, are often implemented for the end user by the vendor's own in-house
application engineering group using proprietary equipment.
As a control computing platform, personal computers (PCs) have yet to gain such
widespread acceptance among system integrators. System integrators still relegate
PCs to data acquisition and HMI chores. Of all the corporate affiliations reported
by respondents to both surveys, none of the PC-based control vendors made it in
to the top 20. On the other hand, three vendors of PC-based HMI and PLC programming
software -- Intellution, Wonderware, and Rockwell Software -- made it in to the
top 5 this year.
More variety
Although the nature of the services offered by automation system integrators has
not changed much since the 1994 survey, the demographics of the industry have shifted
slightly. More than 10% of the respondents to this year's survey now report revenues
in the over $50 million range. Of these larger companies, the most notable new entrants
into the system integration market include Honeywell Industrial Automation and Control
(Phoenix, AZ) and USDATA (Richardson, TX). Mergers have also accounted for some
of the increased revenue figures. Since August of 1995, TOPRO Systems Integration
(Denver, CO) has acquired Advanced Control Technology (Albany, OR), Vision Engineering
(Cypress, CA), and MDCS (Atlanta, GA) to form one of the largest automation engineering
firms in the country.
System integrators have also been developing more of an international clientele
in recent years. This year's survey showed that among geographical areas served,
"international" was cited more often than "United States". The biggest increase
in international sales of system integration services has been in Canada where half
of the provinces are now home to one or more system integration or automation engineering
firms.
Continued growth expected
The importance of system integration continues to grow as industrial automation
and control systems become more and more complex. This trend is likely to continue
so long as end users need help with their automation projects, and systems integrators
continue to provide their time, talents, and technology for such purposes.
© 2004 Reed Business Information, a
division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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