United Kingdom System Integrator Market for Industrial Automation - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The United Kingdom System Integrator Market for Industrial Automation is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.83% for the forecast period 2021-2026.

The Covid-19 pandemic slowed the supply chain for the market temporarily eventually increasing the demand for industrial automation in the market.

• System integration assimilates all these systems in the industry to achieve smart factory utilization. They are responsible for contracting product development, sourcing hardware and software resources from OEMs, and integrating them for the end-users (manufacturers).
• Recent trends have shown that smaller PLCs being introduced in the micro and nanoclasses, providing features were previously found only in the larger systems. In response to market demands, many functions and features are now offered by lower-end PLCs. It is expected that small PLCs may continue to evolve to include many of the features associated with higher-level PLCs.​
• Furthermore, the rising demand for improved control, secured connectivity, and enhanced performance has pushed PLC manufacturers to bank on IIoT technologies, such as machine-to-machine communication, smart sensors, industrial cloud, and cybersecurity. Moreover, to accommodate advanced features, cost-effectiveness, and interoperability, PLC manufacturers have been involved in innovating and integrating the conventional PLC systems with modern and contemporary technologies.​
• SCADA systems are at the crux of industrial processes as they help organizations manage modern demands. For instance, Yokogawa zeros in on the evolution of SCADA to deliver high performance, high availability, broad scalability, and platform independence in their SCADA applications. Therefore, organizations also benefit from the company’s power and flexibility of Yokogawa’s SCADA software (FAST/TOOLS), a comprehensive, fully-integrated SCADA application suite.
• Similarly, Mitsubishi Electric, a world-leading equipment supplier, offers the SCADA software MC Works64, which is a modern solution for next-generation integrated monitoring for the Internet of Things (IoT). With IoTaccelerating digital transformation initiatives, solutions like these have the potential to create significant demand for themselves. Furthermore, Mitsubishi solutions come with a wide range of factory automation products to catalyze visualization, analysis, and improvement.​

Key Market Trends

Digital transformation and Industry 4.0 initiatives to Drive the Market Growth

• Digitization and Industry 4.0 revolution significantly stimulated the growth of automation among manufacturing industries by necessitating smarter and automated solutions, such as robotics and control systems, to improve production processes.
• According to a government-commissioned review, the country's manufacturing sector could unlock GBP 455 billion over the next decade, creating thousands of jobs if the country can successfully adopt the fourth industrial revolution and carve out a successful post-Brexitfuture.​ ​
• In comparison with other developed countries, it is observed that the country’s manufacturing sector has underinvested in robotics and other forms of automation. It invests around 1.7% of its GDP into manufacturing innovation, well behind the OECD average of 2.4%.​​
• The major trend observed in the market is the adoption of integrated solutions/devices, such as the embedding of PLCs with various other industrial controls (such as HMIs or SCADA). These integrations have offered higher efficacy and visibility in factory operations and have allowed workload on central controllers to be cut.
• Further, the British Automation & Robot Association (BARA) announced the UK’s first robot integrator certification scheme. By launching a certification scheme for robot integrators, BARA is hoping to improve the technical capabilities of integrators and ultimately enhance UK manufacturing.

Market Witnessed Fast Recovery from the Impact of Covid-19

• The COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown restrictions across UK affected industrial activities across the country. Some of the effects of lockdown include supply chain disruptions, lack of availability of raw materials used in the manufacturing process, fluctuating prices that could cause the production of the final product to inflate and go beyond budget, shipping problems, etc.
• Following the global economic recession led by COVID-19, the UK System Integrator Market for Industrial Automation market has witnessed positive impact from the demand side and mixed impact from the supply side in 1st half of 2020.
• Smart factory initiatives have helped manufacturers to overcome COVID-19 challenges and address issues such as workforce reductions, drops in sales for some specific products, social distancing, and extreme pressure to cut operational costs since most enterprises operating in the end-user industries (majorly manufacturing, automotive) had shuttered down their production sites due to lockdown restrictions.
• Mitsubishi Electric one of the leading global company in Industrial Automation in response to the pandemic saw decreased revenue from the second quarter of 2020, due to supply restrictions. However, automation is considered to be on the front lines in the battle against the pandemic. For example, automated workstations are speeding up the work of pharmaceutical companies striving to play an important part in the pandemic.
• Further, players in the market are also providing remote monitoring solutions to help the enterprises in the end-user industries withstand the pandemic.

Competitive Landscape

The UK System Inregrator Market for Industrial Automation is moderately competitive with new firms trying to enter the existing market. The firms keep on innovating and entering into strategic partnerships in order to retain their market share. Key players in the market are Adsyst Automation Ltd, Cougar Automation Ltd, and others.

• January 2021 - Cougar Automation has become a partner for Mitsubishi Electric as an Approved Solution Partner signifying it has reached an exceptional standard of expertise in the integration of products and services.

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