Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
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Zurich, Switzerland, October 8, 2012—In a recently published study titled “CPM/MES Systems for Process Industries Worldwide Outlook,” industry analyst firm ARC Advisory Group ranked ABB in the leading worldwide position for this expanding market. CPM and MES (Manufacturing Execution System) software provides visibility, execution, tracking, reporting and optimization of manufacturing processes to improve product quality, safety, and overall productivity.
According to the study, the CPM market grew in all regions of the world in over the past two years, as all manufacturing organizations need to collaborate and improve their efficiency to operate profitably. The increased use of CPM is driven by the need to control energy use and costs, new regulations, globalization, standards enforcement, big data analytics demographic changes, and the overall need to reduce manufacturing costs.
Even with economic instability and exchange rate fluctuations, ARC forecasts that industry dynamics will continue to drive the overall CPM for process market growth positively in 2012 and beyond. The increased use of new technologies such as tablets, smartphones and cloud computing as workplace tools have set new expectations for the information access and capabilities provided by CPM solutions.
“ABB’s CPM solutions provide users with collaboration tools to improve productivity and asset availability, while reducing energy and maintenance costs in a rapidly changing business environment.” said Janice Abel, principal consultant at ARC and author of the study. “The acquisitions of both Ventyx and Mincom vastly expanded ABB’s CPM business. With its comprehensive product line, ABB stands poised to grow its presence even further in this market.”
ABB acquired power networking software company Ventyx in 2010. Ventyx then acquired Mincom, a software company focused on the mining business, in 2011. The combination of Ventyx, Mincom and continued strong organic growth of ABB’s existing CPM portfolio allowed ABB to move to the market leadership role. In 2011, ABB also recorded good organic growth across the key business areas of oil, gas and chemicals, as well as very strong organic growth in the mining business.
“Collaborative Production Management allows our process customers to extend the benefits that they get from the underlying automation they already have in their plant. The software ABB provides has been proven to reduce order to cash time for our customers’ manufacturing operations, improve throughput, reduce inventory and optimize maintenance,” said said Veli-Matti Reinikkala, head of ABB’s Process Automation division. “We’ve heard customers talk about the need for complete shop floor to top floor integration for years; ABB is delivering CPM solutions that do exactly that and more.”
Additional information on the CPM/MES Systems for Process Industries Worldwide Outlook, as well as other studies on the global automation market, is available at www.arcweb.com
