Red alert: Increase in process automation heightens need for safety-related systems
-- Manufacturing Business Technology, 12/21/2007 8:29:00 AM
As process-oriented manufacturers look to boost efficiency by automating more of their operations, they also will be looking for automation solutions that incorporate safety features. That’s the prediction of Frost & Sullivan, the international consulting firm that just completed a study on the market for safety-oriented systems.In the report titled, World Safety Systems Markets for Process Industries, Frost & Sullivan notes that companies spent $1 billion on safety-related systems in 2006, and it expects the market to double, reaching $2.1 billion by 2013.
“With automation taking huge strides in process industries, safer working environments are inevitable,” Frost & Sullivan research analyst Muthuraman Ramasamy writes in the report. “In particular, significant investments have been made in key verticals such as oil and gas, chemical and petrochemicals, and power.”
Automation vendors can read the report for advice on what users are seeking in safety-related systems. It says users will welcome systems that address the underlying challenge of minimizing the trade off between process uptime and process safety. In addition, users will favor vendors that have significant technical experience in installing complex integrated safety solutions that monitor safety and non-safety functions while reducing the costly channels of diversified communication.
“Safety system vendors can respond to this growing need by rapidly developing total integrated solutions to capitalize on this market,” says Ramasamy. “Apart from offering integrated solutions with a superior value-cost proposition, market participants who have the ability to deploy solutions globally and introduce technologically advanced products that address market challenges will garner success in the safety systems for process industries market.
“Additionally, increasing the predictability of safety system failure would enable end users to prevent costly downtime, thereby strengthening a system’s value proposition. This predictability would have an indirect impact on process efficiency by improving the productivity, process uptime and output.”
In order to achieve greater market penetration, Ramasamy concludes, vendors must also educate users on the benefits of technologically advanced, packaged safety systems over homegrown solutions.
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