Quality and visibility are the top reasons for the implementation of production management applications. The market for Collaborative Production Management for the Discrete Industries (CPM-D) had total software and services revenues of $987 million in 2007. The five-year forecast is for a strong Cumulative Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14%. The market is forecasted to grow just over $1.9 billion by the end of 2012, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.

Extreme competitive pressures are driving manufacturers to improve visibility, quality, customer responsiveness, and regulatory compliance. With the increased volume of change, plant managers cannot manage their plants anymore. It is becoming increasingly obvious that manual methods are no longer viable, causing many to seek an IT systems solution. "The real-time nature of CPM applications gives manufacturers the visibility necessary to manage their dynamic business," according to Research Director Ralph Rio, the principal author of ARC's "Collaborative Production Management for Discrete Industries Worldwide Outlook".

The CPM-D market is diverse in several dimensions including industry focus, application breath, business model, size, and geography. New CPM suppliers continue to enter the market for specific geographies and or vertical markets. This is particularly true in Europe with its diversity of countries and industries. ARC examined over 200 companies in the CPM market and profiles 70 of them in the study. ARC expects continued market fragmentation with new entrants, while at the same time, some consolidation occurring as well. The net effect will be a continuation of the increase in the number of suppliers.

CPM systems enable manufacturers to keep pace with the accelerating speed of business. While performing the production-centric functions of planning, controlling, operating, and informing, CPM systems integrate with business systems, engineering systems, and maintenance systems both within and across multiple plants and enterprises.

This ARC market study provides a comprehensive assessment of the CPM market and a sound foundation for strategic planning through the year 2012. Production management solutions provide manufacturers with the means to plan, operate, and control their manufacturing operations on an ongoing basis. They do this by providing functionality such as workflow planning and management, factory and manufacturing process modeling, recipe management, resource management, production optimization, and tight integration with other applications.

CPM has three main areas of functionality that include plan, operate, and inform. The "plan" segment consists of functions such as short-term production planning, plant simulation and modeling, electronic routing, and finite capacity scheduling. This group of functions determines what products to make, when to make them, and what equipment to use. The "operate" segment stems from the need to continuously control work processes, process equipment, and operate the plant. This segment includes dispatching, electronic work instructions, resource management, and workflow management. The "inform" segment stems from the need to gather, store, organize, and communicate data and information.
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