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2021 - 2022
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Defining the Automation Systems Integration Industry
Vance VanDoren – 12/15/1994
Systems integration is fast becoming a major element of most industrial automation
and control projects. Vendors, users, and automation systems integrators alike seem
to share that view, yet the exact meaning of the expression "systems integrator"
remains ill defined. To some, any collection of intelligent devices that can talk
to each other constitutes an integrated system, and the engineers that install them
qualify as systems integrators. To others, a truly integrated system must also include
factory floor equipment, process controls, automated manufacturing machinery, computers,
operators, managers, and the media by which they all communicate. There are control
systems integrators, computer systems integrators, information systems integrators,
manufacturing systems integrators, robotic systems integrators and more -- each
specializing in their own form of "integrated" automation system.
Time, talents, and technology
There is, however, a common feature uniting all of these seemingly disparate disciplines.
They all involve engineering companies that provide their time, talents, and technology
to automate some sort of industrial operation. Those that do so on behalf of clients
outside of their own company are the subject of CONTROL ENGINEERING's Automation
Register starting on page XXX. VDI Research (West Lafayette, IN) has surveyed the
621 companies listed in the 1995 edition of the Automation Register to determine
what other characteristics automation systems integrators may share.
The results of the survey indicate that the "average" automation systems integrator
was founded some time after 1975, earns less than $5 million annually, and serves
most of the United States with a slight emphasis on the OH-IN-IL-MI-WI area. See
Figures 1 and 2. Systems integrators typically work on process, batch, and supervisory
control projects either as independent contract engineering firms or as Allen-Bradley
authorized systems integrators. Their tool of choice is the programmable logic controller
(PLC), especially models by Allen-Bradley, GE Fanuc Automation, AEG Modicon, and
Square D. After PLC installations, automation systems integrators are most adept
at designing and implementing man-machine interface systems (MMIs) incorporating
software from Intellution and Wonderware. See Figure 3.
The most common form of systems integration work reported by survey respondents
involved interfacing PLCs to MMIs and field measurement devices. Ironically, these
integrated systems were 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. 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 systems
integrators surveyed.
Contract work
This result may reflect the increasing popularity of PLCs in the process industries
now that PLCs are being equipped with continuous control capabilities. On the other
hand, it may simply indicate that PC based automation projects are more readily
contracted out to systems integrators. DCS systems are often implemented for the
end user by the vendor's own in-house application engineering group, whereas PLCs
can be purchased and installed by an independent systems integrator with or without
the vendor's involvement. In the case of PLC vendor Allen-Bradley, for example,
more than two thirds of the systems integrators surveyed indicated some experience
with A/B's products yet only half of these indicated a corporate affiliation with
A/B. Overall, independent systems integrators in the survey outnumbered the vendors'
in-house engineering groups 15 to 1.
Perhaps systems integrators are better defined by the jobs that they can get rather
than the specific details of the work that they do. This possibility is further
supported by the close relationships that many systems integrators have with software
suppliers like Intellution, Microsoft, and Wonderware. Contract programming has
long been a staple of the contract engineering trade because computer programs are
often the most convenient portion of an engineering project to assign to a third
party. A computer program is relatively easy for the end user to specify apart from
the rest of the project, and it is cheap for the outside engineers to produce. Systems
integrators in the industrial automation industry seem to be following this trend.
More than half of those surveyed cited PC software vendor Microsoft as a brand with
which they have some experience, and more than a third of them cited a formal affiliation
with one or more of the leading suppliers of software designed specifically for
industrial automation and control applications.
Large and small companies alike
One characteristic that does not seem to help with the definition of "systems integrator"
is company size. Although more than half of the respondents reported less than $5
million in annual revenues, the remaining annual revenue figures span the financial
spectrum from $5 million to well over $50 million. Size did tend to determine the
scope of the services that a single systems integrator could provide. The larger
respondents cited more areas served, industries served, engineering specialties,
and product experience than the smaller companies in the survey. The smaller companies
tended to focus more of their energies on a narrower range of industries and engineering
specialties - industrial automation, continuous and batch processing, PLCs, and
systems engineering in particular.
The smaller respondents also cited fewer corporate affiliations. Companies reporting
annual incomes greater than $5 million averaged more than five affiliations each,
whereas those reporting annual incomes below $5 million averaged less than three.
The percentage of smaller systems integrators with no corporate affiliations at
all almost doubled the percentage of larger systems integrators in the unaffiliated
category. This would seem to indicate that the smaller systems integrators prefer
projects to which they can bring a product-independent point of view. For them,
open systems and compatible products from multiple vendors are critical. Larger
systems integrators, on the other hand, can afford to work with the more complex,
proprietary systems that require the vendor's involvement.
So?
Automation systems integrators are engineering companies that provide their services
to clients in the industrial automation and control industry. That much is clear.
Beyond that, however, the expression "systems integrator" defies a more precise
definition. Systems integrators serve a wide variety of automated industries and
engage in an even wider variety of engineering disciplines. There are one-man consulting
firms and multi-billion dollar corporations that provide systems integration services
of one kind or another. Automation systems integrators can be found working almost
anywhere in the country on any kind of project that is amenable to third party involvement.
The selection process
The systems integrators listed in the Automation Register and those surveyed for
this article were selected to represent a broad cross-section of the engineering
services available in the industrial automation industry. Prospective participants
completed qualifications questionnaires enumerating their engineering specialties,
product experience, and corporate affiliations as well as the industries and areas
that they serve. Qualified responses were selected from the questionnaires that
described companies capable of designing and implementing some sort of industrial
automation system.
Qualified respondents were then given the opportunity to submit more detailed information
for a listing in the Automation Register. Each received a PC disk containing an
interactive questionnaire program, complete with preliminary responses based on
the company's original submission. A total of 239 qualified respondents returned
their electronic applications this year. Those that elected to fund their listings
have been included in the FEATURED section of the Automation Register starting on
page XXX. All responses were incorporated into the survey's statistics.
The Automation Register's directory section starting on page XXX includes contact
information for all qualified respondents that have submitted either electronic
applications or qualifications questionnaires within the past three years. These
companies will automatically receive new applications next year.
© 2004 Reed Business Information, a
division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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