PLC market share
PLC market share
(OP)
I am looking for a source of market information on how manufacturers fit into North American industry in terms of installed units (not dollars). Allen Bradley salesmen continually throw around a figure of 40% of all PLCs in use in NA are AB. If that's true, that is a commanding number. But is it? The few who to which I have had access to challenge on that have said the number comes from NEMA, but I have my doubts. I found no such study readilly available from NEMA or any other commonly known industry organization. While I will not dispute their dominance, that sounds like an awfully high number given the number of competitors they have. The purpose of my question has to do with communication compatibility in future systems developemnt. I don't need suggestions on standards and alternatives, nor do I want to hear about your brand of PLC. I just want to know of a reliable source of data on installed base.
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RE: PLC market share
Frost&Sullivan has published lots of market studies. I would not be surprised if they have done a study on PLCs. They did one on encoders a few years ago.
Have a look at their Industrial Automation Portal at http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/vp.pag/6408708
Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
RE: PLC market share
Worldwide, the top 7 suppliers sell about 80 percent of the controllers.
The worldwide market share numbers I found in an excerpt from the Automation Research Corp (arcweb.com) for 2003 are:
Siemens 30.7 %
Rockwell Automation 21.6 %
Mitsubishi 13.9 %
Schneider Electric 8.9 %
Omron 6.6 %
GE Fanuc 4.0 %
Moeller 2.3 %
ARC charges many thousands of dollars for their research reports, which the major vendors rely upon. I don't know how to find a public-domain report with the same information.
I think that sales volume and installed base are roughly corrolary if you are focusing on large factory automation systems. If you're trying to figure out whose micro-PLCs are in every automatic bottle washer, you're going to have a harder time finding that data.
RE: PLC market share