Description

In the current dynamic environment, which has uncertain economic conditions, trade wars, price volatility, production slowdown, and intense market competition, manufacturers are striving to improve operational efficiency in their existing plants and are keen to cut down the maintenance and operational related costs occurring due to unexpected failure and asset downtime. With pumps highlighted as the assets that require the highest maintenance attention, there is a growing demand for diagnostic solutions that help continuously monitor pump health condition. In this Frost Radar we have conducted an in-depth analysis of the various pump monitoring solutions that leverage Internet of Things (IoT)-based technologies such as intelligent sensors, cloud infrastructure, analytics platforms, machine learning, cognitive intelligence, and industrial mobility. The companies considered for this analysis include OEMs of pumps, motors, and automation as well as IT and IoT vendors.

End-user industries that have invested and/or plan to invest in these pump monitoring solutions include oil and gas, chemical and petrochemicals, power generation, mining, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals. The main factors governing their investment decision in these diagnostic tools include the ease of integration, simple configuration, user-friendly interface, and reliable data supporting maintenance decisions. Due to existing IT policies and security concerns, it is observed that each end-user industry has a different level of engagement of these monitoring solutions in their plant operations. Some customers prefer vibration monitoring, where the vibration and temperature of the pumps need to be monitored continuously. However, a few customers prefer to understand the health condition of the pump and its wetted parts, hence are willing to integrate plug and play hardware that is built with software to detect anomalies, offer vibration trends analysis and basic data visualization features. The other set of customers include those who are keen on moving towards preventive and predictive maintenance of pumps. They prefer solutions that have diagnostics and a descriptive capability for the entire pump, helping detect potential failures and optimizing pump performance.

Companies that offer any of these solutions are assessed in the Radar and are measured based on their ability to cater to critical end-user needs, ease of deployment, flexibility, integration of advanced technology, cost-efficiency, research and innovation effort, and many others. It includes companies that offer plant-level and enterprise-level asset monitoring solutions. We have captured them as they have dedicated solutions for pump monitoring.

The majority of these monitoring solutions are still in its initial phase and have started to be commercialized in 2017 or 2018. This poses a limitation to assess the impact of these solutions on the company’s revenue and growth. The companies positioned in this Frost Radar include Flowserve, ITT, KSB, Sulzer, Grundfos, PumpWorks, PSG Dover, SPX Flow, Torishima, Kirloskar, Augury, Liberty Pumps, Dynapar, Flowrox, Emerson, Rockwell, AMI, Precognize, Exosite, and Infinite Uptime.

The Frost Radar reveals the market positioning of companies in an industry using their Growth and Innovation scores as highlighted in the Frost Radar methodology. The document presents competitive profiles on each of the companies in the Frost Radar based on their strengths, opportunities, and a small discussion on their positioning. Frost & Sullivan analyzes hundreds of companies in the industry and benchmarks them across 10 criteria on the Frost Radar, where the leading companies in the industry are then positioned. Industry leaders, predominantly in the Innovation index for this market are recognized as best practice recipients.

Author: Kiravani Emani