Growing the Machine Control Pie - Industry Perspective

Positioning and Machine Control technology has enjoyed rapid growth over the last 10 years. The core technology has been around longer, of course, but adoption has accelerated in these recent years partially due to greater visibility, internal market referencing and the normal adoption of such technology paradigms.

There is debate about the potential market size and current penetration rate but general consensus hovers around approximately $400 million in annual machine control sales estimating 10% market penetration. There are many factors and questions to be considered, thus the debate. For example, what do these numbers include? Do they include agriculture (land leveling, drainage , precision spraying), 2D and 3D positioning systems, mining, haul truck monitoring, landfill compaction systems, precision and coarse drilling and asset management? This list goes on and I do not have all of these numbers. I welcome any input that contributes to our collective benefit. Feel free to share your comments, facts and perspectives. (contact Randy)

Nevertheless, considering the general consensus, $400m being 10% penetration, we have a very small piece of a very big pie; A pie that continues to grow.

So how do we grow our slice of the pie? Do we drive development to new heights spawning new features that differentiate one system over another? Certainly one cannot stop progress. Do we lower prices bringing affordability as differentiators? My guess is that prices will drop organically any way as new players come to compete for the 10% slice and most assuredly dropping faster than desired by the industry, squeezing their profits.

Let me offer another perspective for consideration. It is not rocket science and likely I am not the first to discuss. But it is my belief that the primary competitor is not competing systems. They are all good delivering unprecedented control, accuracy, safety and productivity to the consumer. Hypothetically, I think if we were to cut features in half, the value and ROI remains. I believe the primary competitor is the non-user. That part of the pie outside the 10% that feeds us. I believe that if the industry focuses more on education, simplicity, interoperability, industry standards (GNSS messaging, driver formats, application interoperability, etc.) we grow the pie, we grow the slice of penetration and we grow our share of this bigger slice.

froM: machinecontrolonline.com