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By the numbers

Don't we all love numbers? (Especially when someone else does the analysis!) I spent several days this month crunching numbers for the May 2003 cover story on reader salaries and industry trends. Here are two of my favorites: Readers responding to the survey who expect to spend more on control systems in 2003 than in 2002: 24%.

Read a lot more engineering-related numbers in the link below.

By the Numbers

Don’t we all love numbers? (Especially when someone else does the analysis!) I spent several days this month crunching numbers for the May 2003 cover story on reader salaries and industry trends. Here are two of my favorites:

Readers responding to the survey who expect to spend more on control systems in 2003 than in 2002: 24%. About 46% expect to spend the same, just 12%, less; 18% are uncertain.

Respondents that read every issue or most issues of Control Engineering : 83%, up from 70% in 2000.

Feverishly in the numbers mode, I had to look for other interesting statistics.

In the 2002 Control Engineering Purchasing Study, 751 respondents said that during the previous 12 months their five areas of greatest spending (dollar amounts) were:

  1. Distributed and/or hybrid control systems;

  2. Block (on/off) valves;

  3. Programmable logic controllers;

  4. Flow sensors and/or transmitters; and
    In the same study, top five product categories in number of responses were:

  5. Process analyzers.

  • Programmable logic controllers;

  • PLC programming software;

  • AC adjustable-speed (variable- frequency) drives;

  • Block (on/off) valves; and

  • AC motors.

The 20 product categories most selected by vendors who have listings in our Buyer’s Guide are:

  • Software;

  • Temperature instrumentation;

  • Flow instrumentation;

  • Pressure instrumentation;

  • Level instrumentation (Liquid);

  • Data acquisition;

  • Level instrumentation (Bulk solid);

  • Control systems, integrated, hardware &software;

  • pH instrumentation;

  • Networking devices, equipment &components;

  • Test &measurement equipment;

  • Board-level products;

  • Pneumatic equipment;

  • Switches, electromechanical;

  • Calibrators &calibration systems;

  • Valves;

  • Computers;

  • Controllers, process variable (General purpose);

  • Programmable logic controllers (PLCs); and

  • I/O modules, devices, or systems.

(Vendors are now updating listings at www.controleng.com/buyersguide for the printed guide.)

Most widely used communications that readers now connect to I/O modules: 4-20 mA at 84%; Ethernet TCP/IP: 79%. See the May 2003 Control Engineering “Product Focus” in this issue.

Average number of monthly visits to Control Engineering Online at www.controleng.com, January-March 2003: 94,389, up 267% over average monthly visits, January-March 2000: 25,750.

Average number of readers who opened January and February 2003 Control Engineering Motors, drives and motion control e-mail newsletter: 18,540. (See other topics at www.controleng.com/newsletters .)

Control Engineering print subscribers: 88,085; Control Engineering Europe print subscribers: 25,000; renew or subscribe at www.controleng.com/subscribe.

Reader feedback

Characters in my e-mail address: 23. Please send some of your favorite numbers to [email protected] , along with their source, your title, company, city, and permission to use your comments, and I’ll try to use the feedback in an upcoming issue. Good length for reader feedback: around 100 words.

Mark T. Hoske, Editor-in-Chief [email protected]