"Increasingly more machinery applications are moving to much higher speeds of operation, as well as providing more capability to reduce changeover time," said Sal Spada, research director with the ARC Advisory Group, and principal author of the study. "Production raw materials are becoming less consistent as recycled materials enter the market. The result is that machine builders need to consider a wider range of operation in the original design to accommodate changes."

Developing economies all over the world are increasing the demand for industrial production machinery at high rates. Feeding this demand has been a surge of regional machine builders in emerging markets. Domestic machine builders with a vertical specialization have an advantage that goes beyond machine performance issues. It is the greater understanding of the technical and cultural needs of the end user customer that are now emerging as competitive advantages to machine builders in these markets. Regional OEMs, including both domestic and foreign transplants, have leveraged their close proximity to the customer to create an understanding of the particular niche their customers operate in and are able to build machines that are more suitable for regional issues. The growth of OEMs in emerging markets has enabled manufacturers who once relied on a comparative labour advantage to produce low valued products and become confident with employing machinery in their facilities that will enable production of higher valued finished goods. Because of this, industrial automation suppliers are also experiencing a tremendous growth in these emerging markets in both unit volume and unit value.

To access the report, visit www.arcweb.com.