A new report from MarketsandMarkets on the Industrial IoT forecasts growth from $113.71 billion in 2015 to $195.47 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 7.89% between 2016 and 2022. Industrial-equipment predictive maintenance is a key driver of growth, the firm says, with enablers including semiconductor and electronics technologies and the evolution of cloud computing.
In fact, cloud computing is a key manufacturing battleground, according to Christopher Alessi in The Wall Street Journal. He writes, “Germany’s Siemens AG and larger U.S. rival General Electric Co. are duking it out to develop the definitive ‘Internet of Things’ cloud platform for industry.”
Alessi adds, “GE, Siemens, and a constellation of other companies aim to reinvent manufacturing by letting firms of all sizes tap digital platforms linking each stage of the value chain—from design through production to maintenance.”
Competition will have to be tempered to allow openness. Alessi quotes Siemens CTO Roland Busch as saying that successful systems will require many “co-petitors.” One is Microsoft, which has deals regarding its Azure cloud platform with both GE and Siemens. Both GE and Siemens, Alessi writes, are racing to add partners in industries ranging from healthcare to power generation. He writes that according to GE chief digital officer William Ruh, GE’s Predix platform is the basis for more than 300 partnerships. Alessi adds that Siemens has officially announced six partnerships involving its MindSphere platform.
Rainer Kallenbach, the head of Bosch Software Solutions, emphasizes the importance of cooperation. Alessi quotes him as saying, ““You can’t do it alone. All these various platforms are currently more or less islands” and must merge to “create continents.”
Alessi concludes his article with a look at SAP SE, whose HANA analytic cloud database is used by many companies for functions like resource planning and supply-chain management. “Siemens built MindSphere directly on top of HANA’s architecture and uses some aspects of SAP’s IOT platform, while GE and SAP are working on making HANA interoperable with Predix to benefit shared customers,” he writes.
He quotes Nils Herzberg, who heads SAP’s global strategy for IoT, as saying, “Nobody can do this on his own. We all need to partner and depend on someone else’s capability.”
MarketsandMarkets report details
The MarketsandMarkets report covers devices, technologies, and software—including sensors, RFID devices and systems, industrial robotics, distributed control systems, autonomous haulage systems, condition monitoring systems, smart meters, camera systems, wired and wireless networking technologies, and PLM, MES, and SCADA software. In addition to manufacturing, it covers industry verticals including utilities, oil and gas, metals and mining, retail, healthcare, transportation, and agriculture.
Among verticals, the firm found that the manufacturing vertical accounted for the largest share of the IIoT market in 2015, and it is witnessing a transformation through the implementation of the smart-factory concept and factory automation technologies. In addition, government initiatives such as Industrie 4.0 in Germany and Plan Industriel in France are expected to promote the implementation of the IIoT solutions in Europe. Moreover, leading countries in the manufacturing vertical such as U.S., China, and India are expected to further expand their manufacturing industries and deploy smart manufacturing technologies to increase the contribution of this vertical to their national GDPs, the firm notes.
The IIoT market for camera systems is expected to grow at the highest rate between 2016 and 2022, the firm says, with camera systems mainly used in the retail and transportation verticals. In the retail sector, the camera systems are used for capturing customer behavior, people counting, and heat mapping. The benefits of surveillance systems include the workplace safety and the prevention of theft and other losses. Video analytics plays a vital role for security purpose in various areas of transportation sector including airports, railway stations, and large public places. Also, intelligent camera systems are used for traffic monitoring and incident detection and reporting.
The MarketsandMarkets report also examines markets by geography. The firm says Asia-Pacific is a leading manufacturing hub and held the largest share of the IIoT market in 2015. The market in APAC is also expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period owing to the growing adoption of IIoT solutions across the manufacturing, mining, retail, and transportation sectors. China held the largest share of the IIoT market in APAC, whereas the market in India is expected to grow at the highest CAGR among all the major markets in this region.
In addition to GE and Siemens, the major players operating in this market, the firm says, include ARM, Cisco Systems, Intel, Rockwell Automation, ABB, Texas Instruments, Dassault Systèmes, Honeywell International, Huawei Technologies, IBM, Kuka, NEC, Robert Bosch, and ZIH. Read more about the report here.
