Annual spending on Industrial IoT platforms for manufacturing is forecast to surpass US$12.4 billion by 2024, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40%.
The report, published by IoT Analytics, a provider of market insights and competitive intelligence for the Internet of Things (IoT), M2M, and Industry 4.0, found that the market is accelerating in 2019 as more and more industrial manufacturers prioritize their transformation into IoT data-driven companies.
Discrete manufacturing is identified as the number one area for Industrial IoT platforms for manufacturing in terms of market spending by 2024.
However, discrete manufacturers (e.g., in automotive, industrial machinery) are faced with unprecedented pressures (e.g., mass customization, decreasing product lifecycle span) to transform what they design, build, sell and service while remaining competitive in today’s increasingly connected world, according to the report.
Hence, discrete manufacturers are investing in new technologies that leverage the capabilities of IoT, cloud, and big data analytics to enhance their ability to innovate and maximize return on their assets.
Industrial IoT platforms are also being implemented as the central backbone of these discrete manufacturing environments enabling remote command, continuous sensing capabilities from the equipment on the factory floor, giving access to new streams of data, and supporting new capabilities such as predictive maintenance.
“The aim is to drive greater efficiencies and productivity throughout operations in the plant, deliver higher-quality outputs, and increase profitability,” the report noted.
In developing the 155-page report, the analyst team at IoT Analytics said they studied over 150 technology companies that offer industrial IoT platforms technology elements for the manufacturing industry and reviewed 260 implemented industrial IoT projects.
Further input to the report included surveys from leading industrial IoT platforms providers and end-users as well as industry interviews and numerous expert discussions at IoT conferences.
“In the last 2-3 years, many manufacturers have woken up and realized that IoT and digital will be impacting their business tremendously. These companies are at an important inflection point, performing lots of industrial IoT Proof-of-Concept (POCs) projects, getting an understanding of what works for them and what doesn’t,” said IoT Analytics Managing Director Knud Lasse Lueth in a media statement.
“As part of these PoCs, IoT platforms have increasingly become a central part of the overall technology solution. Using IoT platforms as the unifying backbone, selected OEMs have started to monetize software alongside the actual physical product that they have been selling for years,” he added.
Lueth said he expects this to become a significant trend in the coming years, although he forecasts that it would take a while “until EaaS is a dominant theme in the industry.”
