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Technavio Announces Top Three Emerging Trends Impacting the Global Manufacturing Execution Systems Market in Discrete Industries Through 2020

June 15, 2016 | By Business Wire News

LONDON

Technavio’s latest report on the global manufacturing execution systems (MES) market in discrete industries provides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

Bharath Kanniappan, a lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on automationsector, says, “Growing investments in factory automation, especially in developing countries such as India and China, in the automotive, aerospace and defense, and medical equipment technology industries, is leading to a steady growth of the global MES market in discrete industries during the forecast period.”

The top three emerging trends driving the global MES market in discrete industries according to Technavio industrial automation research analysts are:

  • Cloud-based MES gaining traction in discrete industries
  • Growing popularity of open-source MES
  • Integration with IoT for smart manufacturing and field operations

Cloud-based MES gaining traction in discrete industries

Cloud-based MES-as-a-service is likely to be the next logical step in the evolution of automation technology in discrete industries. End-users are becoming more comfortable with the concept of service-based technology architecture. Automation providers and end-users can significantly reduce costs, achieve greater flexibility, and enhance functionality by shifting toward cloud-based environment. SMEs operating in discrete industries face budget constraints and cuts that make it difficult to afford the initial investment in MES. Therefore, they are reluctant to incorporate MES.

Many cloud vendors, such as the German-based ITAC Software, provide their cloud-based MES solutions in public cloud that enable the SMEs to benefit from the advantages of implementing MES solutions. This involves the software being managed and operated at an external data center and provisioned via the Internet. The user only needs the standard Internet access, while the responsibility of installation, configuration, maintenance, and updating lies with the cloud service provider. In addition, traditional MES providers offer MES as different modules.

Growing popularity of open-source MES

Open-source MES refers to independent platforms that provide a set of tools, which can be combined in different ways. They offer interface applications, development libraries, mass configuration tools, and front and back-end applications. The open platform MES provides an alternative to expensive in-house design. These systems support discrete industries that are pressurized to reduce large upfront development costs or quick introduction of new features in connected embedded designs.

The existing software modules of open MES also help developers to avoid time-consuming and low-level processes. These modules enable vendors to remain focused on customization of their application and introduce their product in the market as early as possible. Many MES vendors can take advantage of the cutting-edge solutions from the open-source community, reap the benefits of crowdsourcing, and avoid costly development efforts.

Open-source MES lower project lifecycle costs and increase the operational efficiency compared to traditional MES packages. The Poland-based Qcadoo MES project is a community supporting free open-source MES software. It is modular in nature and targets SMEs. Manufacturers can choose to implement as much or as little of it as they want. The commercial version is available online as a full system for less than USD 12 per month.

Integration with IoT for smart manufacturing and field operations

Manufacturing companies are increasingly moving toward IoT to increase the efficiency and productivity of the plant. The devices and systems are connected by installing sensors in the factory and retrofitting older equipment to pull in information. These devices are connected to the MES for multiple plant connectivity from the device to the enterprise level and to assist in high level decision-making. The MES based on IoT implement real-time monitoring throughout the manufacturing process and help enterprises implement integrated management and control.

By leveraging IoT technology through MES, organizations can collect, integrate, analyze, and contextualize the data from multiple data sources, plants, field units, which can be used for faster decision-making. Accurate data analysis and the availability of information instantly across the enterprise leads to efficiency improvements such as reduced raw material waste, improved quality and energy management, and less downtime. This method of smart manufacturing will blur the boundaries among plant and field operations, supply chain, and demand management. Smart manufacturing will give enterprises full visibility, which will help to streamline business processes and optimize supply and demand.

Cisco offers virtual manufacturing execution systems (VMES) that can provide real time visibility of production operations. The tool leverages technologies, including big data analytics and the IoT to connect and gather real-time data from machines, enabling predictive quality capabilities to a manufacturing environment.

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About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

Technavio Research
Jesse Maida
Media & Marketing Executive
US: +1 630 333 9501
UK: +44 208 123 1770
www.technavio.com

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