"Automation is the foundation of industrial production," said Rainer Brehm, Chairman of the ZVEI Automation Association and CEO Factory Automation at Siemens, at the ZVEI Automation Association's press conference on the SPS. The industry is changing: in addition to cost pressure, faster innovation cycles and increasing demands on the quality and flexibility of production, there are also social challenges such as sustainability, resilience and a shortage of skilled workers. The manufacturing industry accounts for 37 percent of global energy requirements and 20 percent of global_{CO2 emissions}. According to Accenture, only 13% of waste in the global manufacturing industry is currently recycled. According to Brehm, automation technologies are "an essential key to the transformation to a climate-neutral and more sustainable society".

The trade association therefore sees three important fields of action for automation: energy and resource efficiency, resilience and competitiveness, and human-centric automation.

The three fields of action

The 'Energy and resource efficiency' field of action includes the use of highly efficient products, the intelligent use of production data, smart and networked energy as well as the administration shell and the path towards a circular economy.

The 'Resilience and competitiveness' field of action focuses on the complete integration and digitalization of the value chain as well as the intelligent networking of machines and processes. This goes hand in hand with new and innovative business models.

'Human Centric Automation' focuses on people: artificial intelligence will support people in operating systems and machines, while automation will make complex technologies manageable for users.

Automation as a growth market

From January to September 2022, the turnover reported for automation in Germany amounted to 42.6 billion euros. This is an increase of 11.1% compared to the same period last year. In comparison, real production increased by 3.1% in the same period. Sales growth in the high single-digit percentage range is expected for 2022 as a whole. Incoming orders rose by 13.5% in the first nine months of this year. "Since the beginning of 2021, we have seen a divergence between incoming orders and sales, which has led to high order backlogs. This is not least due to the fact that material shortages and supply bottlenecks have hampered production activity," says Brehm. There is a shortage of semiconductor components, plastics and metals in particular.

The global growth trend is unbroken. The market has grown by an average of 5 percent since 2010. "The European Union will remain very important for companies in the German automation industry in 2022, with an export share of 54%. At the same time, exports to the USA and Asia, excluding China, grew at an above-average rate of 20.7% and 16% respectively compared to the previous year." Exports to China were weak with an increase of 1.6%.