PLCs deployment in industrial area

elmer_w · Sep 21, 2020

Hi,

I am currently doing a survey to investigate how many PLCs (any brand) are used in automation industries on different scale (e.g. small, medium and large). Much appreciate if you can share some experience about this

I know it is hard to define an industry with small, medium and large measure words, but a rough number or a range of number will do.
Thanks

Edit: Sorry I mean the average number of PLCs used for each of the industries on different scale.

Steve Bailey · Sep 21, 2020

1,234,567 PLCs are in use in large industrial applications in somewhereistan.
9,876,543 PLCs are in use in medium industrial applications in anywhereia.
98,765,432 PLCs are in use in small industrial applications in greater everywhere.

Ask again in an hour and the numbers will change.

mk42 · Sep 21, 2020

so many

elmer_w · Sep 21, 2020

Steve Bailey said:
1,234,567 PLCs are in use in large industrial applications in somewhereistan.
9,876,543 PLCs are in use in medium industrial applications in anywhereia.
98,765,432 PLCs are in use in small industrial applications in greater everywhere.

Ask again in an hour and the numbers will change.

Is the number for all the industries combined? or is it just for one industry？
I think for some local beer manufacturer (on small scale), the PLCs they used could be 5 to 10？ Just a guess, please correct me ；）

elmer_w · Sep 21, 2020

mk42 said:
so many

Could you please give me a rough idea?
Like small industry, normally each of them use 5 to 10 PLCs?
Medium industry, each of them probably 20 to 50?

I am not quite sure the average number here..

Bob O · Sep 21, 2020

98,765,431 PLCs are in use in small industrial applications in greater everywhere.

We just took one out of service.

HTH

elmer_w · Sep 21, 2020

Bob O said:
98,765,431 PLCs are in use in small industrial applications in greater everywhere.

We just took one out of service.

HTH

Hahaha good to know

geniusintraining · Sep 21, 2020

Bob O said:
We just took one out of service.

I added 3 this weekend....

Maxkling · Sep 21, 2020

Just processors or RIO too?

Example we are a large facility, with thousands of conveyor sections spread across miles. A set of redundant processors can control the 100’s of sections. So in reality we only have a few processors, but remote chassis out the wazoo.

mk42 · Sep 21, 2020

elmer_w said:
Could you please give me a rough idea?
Like small industry, normally each of them use 5 to 10 PLCs?
Medium industry, each of them probably 20 to 50?

I am not quite sure the average number here..

I'm gonna be honest, you're asking a question that really doesn't have much meaning. You've chosen undefined and arbitrary categories, and you didn't really define well the metric you're looking for. Originally I thought you wanted how many PLCs are installed across the world, now maybe you want the PLCs per facility?

The question is even more complicated by the fact that PLCs don't have uniform performance. You could have the same system controlled by 1 high end PLC, or several low end ones.

I'd be willing to bet that some marketing organization like ARC has asked a similar question, done the research, and published the result, if you're willing to pay for it.

The link below might be a good place to start:

https://www.arcweb.com/technology-evaluation-and-selection/plcs-plc-based-pacs-control-systems

alive15 · Sep 21, 2020

This article is pretty interesting, it shows the plc market was $8.5 billion about 3 years ago. You could take the average cost of a PLC and divide into this to get an extremely rough rough estimate only for 2017.

The best way to figure out the info you are looking for is seeing with the vendor how many plcs they have sold, but I don't think they would share that info with you. Like everyone is saying, your question is very broad, so it's difficult to provide an accurate answer.

https://technology.informa.com/5998... 10 PLC vendors,share increased to 81 percent.

Robb B · Sep 21, 2020

7ish, in a teeny tiny place

harryting · Sep 21, 2020

A lot.

OkiePC · Sep 21, 2020

I was gonna answer "All of them." But ya'll have done a much better job with the responses.

mk42 · Sep 21, 2020

OkiePC said:
I was gonna answer "All of them." But ya'll have done a much better job with the responses.

hah, that was my first instinct, before i settled on "so many"

PLCs deployment in industrial area

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