2014 System Integration Study: Five hardware integration trends

Seventy-five percent of respondents to the Control Engineering 2014 System Integration Study perform system integration services, either for their own projects or for third-party affiliates.

By Amanda Pelliccione April 22, 2015

Seventy-five percent of respondents to the Control Engineering 2014 System Integration Study perform system integration services, either for their own projects or for third-party affiliates. Of these integrators, 84% have recently integrated human machine interface (HMI) hardware or equipment, operator interface (OI), control panels, alarms, annunciators, data acquisition equipment, or data recorders or plotters. Below are five high-level findings impacting system integration services today as they relate to integrating these technologies:

  1. Projects per year: The average system integrator works on eight projects per year that involve integrating HMIs, OIs, and related equipment—with 47% working on 10 similar projects or less annually.
  2. Project size: The average HMI, OI, etc. integration project is valued at $65,000, with 38% of system integrators working on similar projects rated over $100,000.
  3. Valuable skills: Respondents integrating HMI, OI, and related equipment agree that having engineering skills (99%) and project management skills (93%) are highly important when performing quality system integration work, as well as a vast knowledge of industry standards (98%), national standards (90%), and capital cost consciousness (89%).
  4. Project delivery: Seven in 10 of respondents’ HMI, OI, etc. integration projects were completed on time within the past 12 months, with 53% of respondents claiming that their last project was finished on time. Of the recent projects that did not meet deadline, the primary causes of delay involved communications between the system integrator and the client—such as scope creep, delays in approvals, etc.
  5. Project budget: Thirty-five percent of respondents’ most recent HMI, OI, etc. integration projects were unable to fit within the original budget. Of these respondents, 64% were able to agree upon a new budget with their client that was then met, and only 18% said the budget deviance wasn’t large enough to affect the project too much.

View additional findings at www.controleng.com/2014SystemIntegration.


Author Bio: Amanda is the Research Director and Project Manager of Awards Programs for CFE Media and its publications.