The market for collaborative production management (CPM) for the discrete industries reached the billion-dollar mark in 2008 and will continue to grow despite the difficult economy, according to information from ARC Advisory Group (www.arcweb.com). With total software and services revenues of $1.083 billion in 2008, the five-year forecast is for a strong cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3%. The market will grow to more than $1.9 billion by the end of 2013, according to ARC’s new study.
Extreme competitive pressures are driving manufacturers to improve visibility, quality, customer responsiveness and regulatory compliance, says Greg Gorbach, vice president and principal author of the ARC report. With the increased volume of change, plant managers can’t manage their plants in the same way. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that manual methods are no longer viable, causing many to seek an IT systems solution, he says. Operating excellence and compliance, along with dynamic value creation, comprise opportunities for competitive advantage in manufacturing operations, adds Gorbach. The path to profitability in manufacturing is changing because of increasing costs for energy, water, waste generation, compliance and risk management, according to the report.
The ARC study assesses the CPM market and suggests a foundation for strategic planning through the year 2013. Production management solutions are designed to provide manufacturers with the means to plan, operate and control their manufacturing operations on an ongoing basis. They do this by providing functionality such as workflow planning and management, factory and manufacturing process modeling, recipe management, resource management, production optimization and tight integration with other applications.
CPM has three main areas of functionality that include planning, operating and informing. The planning segment consists of functions such as short-term production planning, plant simulation and modeling, electronic routing and finite capacity scheduling. This group of functions determines which products to make, when to make them and which equipment to use. The operating segment stems from the need to continuously control work processes, process equipment and operate the plant. This segment includes dispatching, electronic work instructions, resource management and workflow management. The informing segment stems from the need to gather, store, organize and communicate data and information.
