ARC: Discrete Manufacturers Watch Wireless Developments in Process Industries

September 18, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

Recent process industry developments, such as introduction of a wireless version of the highly addressable remote transducer (HART) protocol for process sensors, plus the ISA 100 initiative for wireless process sensing, are of interest to discrete manufacturers, but numerous differences between discrete versus process requirements will limit their applicability to discrete manufacturers, ARC said.

The worldwide market for wireless devices in discrete manufacturing is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2% over the next five years. The discrete wireless market for ISA SP50 levels 0 through 2 totaled $368.0 million in 2007 and is forecast to grow to more than $780 million in 2012, according to a new ARC study.

"While the business drivers are in place, including wireless' status as the ultimate fieldbus from the perspective of wiring reduction, the lag in technology and standards development suitable to meet discrete industry requirements will contribute to an ongoing fissure in growth prospects for discrete versus process industries over the next five years," according to Chantal Polsonetti, ARC vice president.

"Divergent issues such as higher-speed discrete processes that cannot tolerate the latency times of current wireless communications and the longer potential timeline for standardization at the sensor/actuator level are just a few of the potential detractors to potential growth," Polsonetti said.

The prospect of a cable-free interface for use in control and data acquisition applications has the potential to affect discrete manufacturing in core areas such as productivity, performance and cost reduction, ARC said.

Wireless technology enables these improvements through its ability to lower engineering costs, enable remote and/or mobile operations, add flexibility in the form of incremental improvements or changes to existing installations and provide cable-free access and operation.

Wireless technology can also bring incremental control and monitoring capabilities to a process, serving production data up to enterprise applications and enabling ongoing improvements in productivity and operational performance, ARC said.

According to ARC, discrete manufacturers are often among the first companies pursuing leading-edge, advanced, often data-hungry processes to improve performance and/or remove human intervention and the variability it brings.

This type of automation, such as flexible manufacturing platforms in automotive, often requires a significant amount of incremental monitoring, sensing and actuation of robots and their associated handling and control systems as they go through numerous production changes.

In these instances, ARC said, the use of wireless products not only reduces cable failure in moving equipment; it also enables the addition and monitoring of incremental input/output (I/O) and devices.

The standard configuration of wireless local area network (WLAN) and Bluetooth in mobile computing devices points to their role as flashpoints in the trend toward wireless convergence in the market as a whole.

According to ARC, this role will expand as global system for mobile communications (GSM) and cellular networks are added to the personal area network (PAN) and WLAN interfaces already supported.

Compliance requirements for time/date/location stamps that track movement of hazardous and other materials throughout a facility are a key driver behind this expanding convergence, while location-based services and radio frequency identification (RFID) will be among the next requirements, ARC said.

For more information on the study, titled Wireless Devices in Discrete Manufacturing Worldwide Outlook, go to http://www.arcweb.com.

Source: ARC Advisory Group.