Flourishing Indian Economy Provides excellent opportunities for DCS
The Distributed Control Systems (DCS) market in India is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 9.9 percent through 2008, according to ARC Advisory Group's new study DCS Outlookfor India - Market Analysis and Forecast Through 2008. The manufacturing industry in India, with its economy emerging as oneof the fastest growing, is humming with activity. The rising consumer demand, which is well supported by large investments in infrastructure projects such as construction, transportation, and manufacturing, is naturally spurring the demand for control systems. "In 2003, the Indian economy started emerging out of the correction phase. Companies have begun to invest in creating additional capacity. India's emergence as a growth market for DCS systems stems from significant investments taking place in process industries. The expanding demand for a wide range of goods is resulting in investments in greenfield projects, production facility expansions, revamps, and project upgrades across a broad spectrum of manufacturing verticals," according to ARC Research Director Larry O'Brien.
Power industry is the Indian market's largest user
All major process industries will contribute to DCS market growth, but the power industry is, and will continue to be, the biggest user of DCSs as the country expands its generating capacity to meet the increasing needs of manufacturing and residential power. More investments in the power sector essentially means that the Indian manufacturing industry can look forward to the removal of one of the major hurdles to its growth and that of the Indian economy. State owned enterprises will continue to make the bulk of new power project investments. According to industry sources, at least $20 billion will be invested in the next 5 years to generate an additional 20,000 MW of power. This is in addition to the investments contemplated in the renovation of existing power plants.
China vs. India: Foreign investment grows
China and India adopted different strategies to set in motion the cycle of disposable incomes, demand fulfillment, capital formation, and growth. China successfully created its initial affluence through the traditional route of development through manufacturing. India succeeded in generating wealth through new economy industries and services, a development path that has not been traversed before.
Foreign investment, which spurred further capital formation in the manufacturing industry in China, is also beginning to happen in India. In 2003, India attracted around $4.5 billion in foreign direct investments. It is a modest beginning, but the trend bodes well for the Indian economy and its manufacturing activity. DCS suppliers can look forward to the growth of the Indian market on a sustainable long-term basis.
Offer solutions that help manufacturers achieve operational excellence
The decision to create production facilities in India is an integral part of global manufacturers' strategic considerations to disperse their production centers driven by logistics and other considerations. They are a link in the chain of production centers set up to improve corporate performance. ARC's business performance improvement concept is Operational Excellence (OpX).
The OpX concept is valuable for conveying a clear and intuitive understanding of the business improvement processes. Operational Excellence in a process plant environment translates to Production Management and Process Control. OpX embraces two fundamental processes: Improvement and Control. Improvement is an off-line process that utilises tools such as Six Sigma to identify weaknesses compromising performance. The second process, Control, essentially is the control strategy and execution for the plant and is the heart of OpX. Control also has two levels, a supervisory level and an execution level. These levels, in terms of their automation counterparts, are production management and process control respectively.