“Customer focus, digital innovation and remote services are the driving forces behind ABB’s 21 consecutive years at number one in Distributed control Systems (DCS) market share.” Analysts say.

Distributed control systems (DCS) are at the heart of automation technology in the energy and process industries, which not only play a key role in Industry 4.0, but also contain a $15 billion global market value. According to a recent report released by ARC Advisors, ABB has been the world’s largest DCS market share for 21 consecutive years in a highly competitive market environment.

With expertise in a wide range of industries, a comprehensive service network, continuous investment in technology and digital solutions, and meeting the changing needs of customers, ABB has achieved a global DCS market share of 19.2%, 2 percentage points ahead of competitors.

The major growth in the DCS market in 2019 came from the oil and gas, chemicals, mining, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries, followed by the food and beverage, metallurgy, cement and pulp and paper industries. With ABB AbilityTM 800xA and ABB AbilityTM SymphonyPlus®, two major DCS products, ABB has a strong presence in these market segments. ABB is also a leader in several DCS trends, including module automation, batch processing, personalized I/O and remote services, according to the ARC report.

As a leader in the DCS industry, ABB is committed to continuously developing new features for its customers. For example, in the massive data processing generated by DCS, ABB continues to enhance its data analysis capabilities to help customers increase productivity, improve problem predictability through machine learning, and extend the life cycle of equipment and assets.

Bernhard Eschermann, Chief Technology Officer of ABB Process Automation, said, “I would like to thank our customers for their long-term support, which has helped ABB build on its automation products and industry expertise. Automation is changing the world and DCS is the backbone of digital transformation in many of the industries our clients operate in. It also applies to many of the fundamental elements of modern society, such as our drinking water, our energy consumption or the materials used to build our houses.”

“During an economic boom, process industry producers often rely on new production equipment to increase production. But in today’s tough economic environment, clients are more focused on creating more value from existing assets and improving operational efficiency to ensure profits. Maximizing assets and efficiency is what DCS products are all about.” “We see it as our responsibility to continually develop solutions that benefit our customers,” Bernhard said.

In the context of Industry 4.0, ABB is investing $1.5 billion annually in R&D and is focused on further expanding DCS and other digital and automation capabilities. In July 2020, ABB also introduced two new products to the market that combine DCS data with value-added applications to improve customer productivity, process performance and product quality. ABB AbilityTM Edgenius Operations data management platform delivers value through DCS data, while ABB AbilityTM Genix Industrial Analytics and AI suite integrates operational (e.g. DCS), engineering and information technology data for multi-dimensional data analysis and decision support.

According to the ARC report, services related to hardware and software are growing the fastest. This trend will be particularly evident in 2020, when customers will have an even more urgent need for remote services. One such service is the ABB AbilityTM Collaborative Operations solution, which is based on ABB’s expertise and know-how in a remote support network that applies numerous ABB DCS technologies to remotely monitor and support customer assets and processes. ABB Collaborative Operations centers have experts located around the world to provide 24/7 customer support. The collaborative operations network will continue to provide remote support to customers when travel is limited.

With the continuous progress of urbanization, the development of smart cities, green energy and vertical agriculture is also gaining global attention, and ABB DCS will play an important role in this process.

ARC Advisory Group, founded in 1986, is the world’s leading technology research and advisory firm for manufacturing, infrastructure and smart cities. ARC has a deep understanding and coverage of today’s global manufacturing, infrastructure and smart city related operational technology engineering and integration with information technology.