Data acquisition


INTEGRATED AUTOMATION SET TO WIDEN MANUFACTURING’S COMPETITIVE GAP


With highly automated core processes forecast to more than double by 2030, Banelec says manufacturers must connect machinery, controls and production data - or risk falling behind.


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he manufacturers that embrace integrated automation over the next five years are set to pull decisively ahead of competitors still relying on disconnected production systems, according to new global research highlighting one of the biggest shifts in industrial manufacturing for decades. PwC’s Global Industrial Manufacturing Sector Outlook 2026 predicts that the proportion of manufacturers with highly automated core processes will more than double by 2030, rising from 18 per cent today to 50 per cent. Among the industry’s most advanced businesses, automation levels are expected to reach 65 per cent, creating an increasingly significant competitive advantage through higher productivity, greater agility and faster decision-making. For Black Country based electrical control systems manufacturer and automation integrator Banelec, the findings reflect a trend that has been steadily gathering pace across UK manufacturing. Rather than viewing automation as a series of individual projects designed to improve a single production line, more manufacturers are looking at how electrical controls, machinery, robotics, energy systems and production data can work together as part of a wider operating environment. Dean Banner, managing director of Banelec, believes the conversation around automation has fundamentally changed: “Five or ten years ago, many automation projects focused on replacing a manual process or making one machine work more efficiently. Today our customers are looking at their entire operation. They want production equipment, electrical controls, robotics, energy systems and factory data to communicate with one another so the whole business becomes more responsive.”


That shift places greater emphasis on the engineering infrastructure underneath digital manufacturing. A modern automated production environment may bring together PLC and HMI


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systems, SCADA, variable speed drives, robotics, safety systems and industrial networks, with the control architecture providing the link between individual pieces of equipment.


It is an area in which Banelec works across the full project lifecycle, from control-system design and panel manufacture through to programming, integration, installation and commissioning. Its engineers work with a range of PLC, HMI and SCADA platforms, including Siemens, Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi and Schneider, allowing systems to be integrated around the requirements of individual production environments rather than forcing manufacturers into a single technology stack. The PwC research, based on interviews with 443 senior manufacturing executives across 24 territories, concludes that future performance will depend less on simply acquiring new technologies and more on integrating them effectively. Production and operations are expected to become the largest users of advanced technologies by 2030, while the research also identifies a widening gap between future-fit manufacturers and their peers. That distinction is particularly relevant as factories become more interconnected. Adding a robot, upgrading a PLC or introducing a


monitoring system can deliver a local improvement, but the wider gains come when those technologies can exchange information and contribute to a coherent production strategy.


Dean Banner, managing director of Banelec


According to Banner, this systems-level thinking is where many manufacturers now gain their competitive advantage: “The real value isn’t simply adding more automation. It’s making every part of the factory work together. If machines operate in isolation, you only improve individual processes. When electrical control systems integrate production equipment, energy management, quality monitoring and operational data, manufacturers gain visibility they simply didn’t have before. That allows faster decisions, better productivity and much greater resilience.” The same principle is increasingly being applied to maintenance. Industry 4.0 technologies can allow manufacturers to move from reactive “fail and fix” maintenance towards more predictive approaches, using equipment data to identify potential problems before they result in unplanned downtime.


September 2026 Instrumentation Monthly


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