INTELLIGENCE

IN NUMBERS

Control’s readers come together to pick winners of

23rd Annual Readers’ Choice Awards
by Control staff
42 www.controlglobal.com J A N U A R Y / 2 0 1 5
E
very single interaction between customer and supplier is an oppor- In addition, within Safety/Emergency Shutdown, Schneider was
tunity for providing good solutions. After awhile, these positive mo- a new winner in the Chemicals Manufacturing, Electric Power
ments really begin to add up. Generation, Oil & Gas Extraction and Petroleum Refining subcat-
Despite the huge effort and extreme consistency required, the best egories. Also, within the Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition
vendors almost reflexively deliver useful products and services, and con- (SCADA) category, Schneider Electric was preferred in the Electric
tinually develop and release new improvements and innovations. Con- Power Generation, Oil & Gas Extraction, Pulp & Paper Manufac-
sequently, over months, years and decades, they methodically build turing and Water & Wastewater Processing subcategories. It seems
reputations for quality, and gain the elusive and precious trust of their that Schneider’s acquisition is al-
customers in the process industries. ready paying technical dividends Continuous Regulatory Control
Many of those customers have again voted to determine the winners in the process industries. Emerson Process Management
2. Rockwell Automation
of Control’s 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards. As usual, about 1,000 respon- Finally, within the Batch Pro- 3. Honeywell Process Solutions
dents weighed in on which suppliers provided the best products and cess Automation category, Em- 4. ABB
5. Yokogawa
services in the main process automation disciplines, primary process in- erson Process Management and 6. Schneider Electric
dustries and in nine overall product categories and 78 subcategories. Rockwell Automation switched 7. Siemens Industry
8. GE Intelligent Platforms
The respondents include both U.S.-based and international readers of places from last year in the Pulp
Control’s print magazine and its ControlGlobal.com website. Each was & Paper Manufacturing and Elec- Safety/Emergency Shutdown
Schneider Electric
allowed to vote for up to three vendors in each category and discipline, tric Power Generation subcatego- 2. Rockwell Automation
and then their first-, second- and third-place votes were weighted to yield ries, respectively. Also, ABB was a 3. Emerson Process Management
4. ABB
a rank of up to five top suppliers in each category. new winner in Continuous Regu- 5. Siemens Industry
Because of their technical preeminence and unflagging support, latory Control’s Pulp & Paper sub- 6. Yokogawa
7. HIMA
the suppliers ranked by responses to the Readers’ Choice Awards sur- category; Rockwell Automation 8. GE Intelligent Platforms
vey remain remarkably consistent year to year, even though changing took over in SCADA’s Chemicals Batch Process Automation
groups of readers do the voting. Certainly, there’s always some jock- Manufacturing and Metals, Ma- Rockwell Automation
2. Emerson Process Management
eying for position and minor reshuffling among vendors competing terials & Mining subcategories, as 3. ABB
in the categories and subcategories due to differing respondents and well as winning several other slots; 4. Siemens Industry
5. Schneider Electric
their shifting vendor experiences in the past year. However, tectonic and Honeywell was a new winner 6. Honeywell Process Solutions
shifts in the rankings typically only happen when large process auto- in SCADA’s Petroleum Refining 7. Yokogawa
8. GE Intelligent Platforms
mation and control suppliers merge with other large players, gain or subcategory.
lose parts of their traditional businesses in spin-offs or acquisitions, Sequential Logic Control
Rockwell Automation
carry out large reorganizations that impact how they go to market, or New Categories, New Insights 2. Siemens Industry
expand organically into new technological areas. To give users in some more spe- 3. Emerson Process Management
4. ABB
Undoubtedly, this year’s biggest recent change of this kind was cialized, technical areas a chance 5. GE Intelligent Platforms
Schneider Electric’s more than $5-billion acquisition of Invensys to vote for their favorite providers, 6. Schneider Electric
7. Honeywell Process Solutions
just one year ago. Because the former Invensys was a such a long- this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards 8. Yokogawa
standing pillar of the control and automation community, the pro- includes a few new subcategories, Continuous Sheet/
cess of folding it and its Avantis, Eurotherm, Foxboro, InFusion, which could be added because this Web Monitoring & Control
ABB
SimSci, Triconex and Wonderware divisions and brands into its new year’s survey generated enough re-
2. Honeywell Process Solutions
parent company is causing some seismic waves to ripple though the sponses in these areas for us to de- 3. Rockwell Automation
4. Emerson Process Management
Readers’ Choice categories, and will likely continue to generate a clare winners and runners-up.
5. Schneider Electric
few aftershocks in the coming months as readers continue to get Two new level-switch subcat- 6. Siemens Industry
7. Yokogawa
used to the name and organizational change. egories were added, including
8. GE Intelligent Platforms
Level Switch, Mechanical and
Supervisory Control &
The Big Boards Level Switch, Ultrasonic. Also, Data Acquisition (SCADA)
For instance, while the Best in Control categories are broken down the Pressure Switch and Tempera- Rockwell Automation
2. Invensys
by six process automation disciplines and 10 industry verticals (Ta- ture Switch categories have been 3. Emerson Process Management
bles 1 and 2), and their results have remained mostly uniform in restored after a brief absence. In 4. Honeywell Process Solutions
5. GE Intelligent Platforms
recent years, the 12-month-old Schneider Electric-Invensys combi- addition, the Contact Radar cat- 6. Siemens Industry
nation appears to have already impacted the rankings. First, Schnei- egory has been renamed Guided- 7. ABB
8. Schneider Electric
der replaced Invensys at the top of the Safety/Emergency Shutdown Wave Radar because that name
category. Second, Schneider took over from Invensys in the Contin- includes more products and is Table I. Best in Control
Readers Choice Awards
uous Regulatory Control, Batch Process Automation and Continu- more recognizable and familiar to by Process Automation
ous Sheet/Web Monitoring & Control categories. most readers. Discipline

J A N U A R Y / 2 0 1 5 www.controlglobal.com 43
 Chemicals Electric Power Food & Beverage Metals, Minerals &
Oil & Gas Extraction
Manufacturing Generation Manufacturing Mining
Emerson Process Emerson Process Emerson Process
Continuous Regulatory Control Management Management
Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation
Management
Emerson Process Emerson Process
Batch Process Automation Management
Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation
Management

Continuous Sheet/Web
- - - ABB -
Monitoring & Control
Safety/Emergency Shutdown Schneider Electric Schneider Electric Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Schneider Electric

Supervisory Control & Data

Rockwell Automation Schneider Electric Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Schneider Electric
Acquisition
Sequential Logic Control Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation

Pharmaceuticals & Life Plastics & Rubber Pulp & Paper Water & Wastewater
Petroleum Refining
Sciences Manufacturing Manufacturing Processing
Honeywell Process Emerson Process Emerson Process
Continuous Regulatory Control Solutions Management Management
ABB Rockwell Automation

Emerson Process Emerson Process Emerson Process Emerson Process

Batch Process Automation Management Management
Rockwell Automation
Management Management

Continuous Sheet/Web
- - Schneider Electric ABB -
Monitoring & Control
Emerson Process
Safety/Emergency Shutdown Schneider Electric
Management
Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation

Supervisory Control & Data

Honeywell Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Schneider Electric Schneider Electric
Acquisition
Sequential Logic Control Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation

Table II. Best in Control

Readers Choice Awards by Discipline and Industry
Advanced Process Control Software Loop-Tuning Software
Emerson Process Management ExperTune
2. Honeywell Process Solutions 2. Emerson Process Management
3. Rockwell Automation 3. Rockwell Automation
4. ABB 4. Control Station
5. AspenTech 5. Honeywell Process Solutions

Software Strides Onward Alarm Management Software

Honeywell Process Solutions
Neural Network Software
Emerson Process Management

W
2. Emerson Process Management 2. Rockwell Automation
hile it’s not news that software (aided by faster, cheaper 3. ABB
OPC Connectivity
4. Rockwell Automation
and more powerful microprocessors) has been taking 5. PAS MatrikonOPC
over traditional hardware-based tasks for many years, Asset Management Software
2. Kepware Technologies
3. Rockwell Automation
the ways this revolution is shaking out lately is fueling some Emerson Process Management 4. Emerson Process Management
far-reaching innovations, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), 2. ABB
PLC Programming Software
3. Rockwell Automation
virtualized computing, cloud-based servers and other smart 4. Maximo Rockwell Automation
2. Siemens Industry
manufacturing strategies and technologies. Just as in other in- 5. Siemens Industry
3. GE Intelligent Platforms
dustries, these changes are having a profound and growing in- Calibration Management Software 4. Schneider Electric
Emerson Process Management 5. Emerson Process Management
fluence on process control and automation. 2. Fluke
SCADA Software
Similarly, while perennial Software category winners Emer- 3. Beamex
4. CyberMetrics Rockwell Automation
son Process Management won four subcategories and Rockwell 2. Schneider Electric
Design/Documentation Software 3. Siemens Industry
Automation won three, there are several new subcategory win-
Autodesk 4. GE Intelligent Platforms
ners this year: Honeywell won in Alarm Management Software, 2. Intergraph 5. Emerson Process Management
3. Rockwell Automation
and Emerson won in Calibration Management Software. Like- Simulation Software
4. EPLAN
wise, Schneider Electric’s acquisition of Invensys also appeared Mynah Technologies
Human-Machine Interface Software 2. Emerson Process Management
to push it up in the standings in Human-Machine Interface Soft- Rockwell Automation 3. Rockwell Automation
ware and SCADA Software. 2. Schneider Electric 4. Honeywell Process Solutions
3. Emerson Process Management 5. ABB
4. Siemens Industry
5. Pro-face America

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 Pressure Transmitter Temperature Transmitter
Emerson Process Management Emerson Process Management
2. Yokogawa 2. Endress + Hauser

Temperature and Pressure Cook Along

3. Endress + Hauser 3. Yokogawa
4. Honeywell Process Solutions 4. ABB
5. Honeywell Process Solutions
5. ABB

T
Pressure Switch Infrared Temperature Sensor
Fluke o keep pipelines, vessels and other process equipment running within
Ashcroft
2. Emerson Process Management
2. Emerson Process Management optimal ranges, however, requires more than flow and level devices,
3. ABB
Resistance Temperature 4. Omega Engineering and that’s where the best pressure and temperature components
Detector Infrared Imaging/ come in—and keep on winning end users’ votes year after year.
Emerson Process Management Thermography One more time, Emerson Process Management won again in four of
2. Pyromation Fluke
3. Endress + Hauser 2. FLIR Systems
the eight subcategories, including Pressure Transmitter, Resistance Tem-
4. Omega
Temperature Switch perature Detector, Thermocouple and Temperature Transmitter.
5. Moore Industries
Ashcroft Likewise, Fluke won again in the Infrared Temperature Sensor and In-
Thermocouple 2. Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management 3. United Electric Controls
frared Imaging/Thermography subcategories. In addition, Ashcroft won
2. Pyromation in the new Pressure Switch and Temperature Switch subcategories.
3. Omega
4. Moore Industries
5. ABB

Ambient Gas Detector

MSA
2. Emerson Process Management
3. ABB
4. Yokogawa

Analyzers Get Smart and Travel

5. Siemens

Density/Concentration Analyzer
Emerson Process Management

B
2. Endress + Hauser
ecause process equipment running properly isn’t worth much 3. Yokogawa
if the products they’re producing aren’t within specifications, 4. Thermo Fisher Scientific
5. Anton Paar
control engineers and operators must also keep a close eye
Humidity/Moisture Analyzer
on the quality and characteristics of those products as they prog- Vaisala
ress through their applications. Cue the analyzers, which are them- 2. GE Measurement & Control
3. Emerson Process Management
selves gaining new, intelligence capabilities, and often moving out 4. Honeywell Process Solutions
into the field to more closely monitor their processes and products. 5. Ametek

Perhaps it’s related to the newfound mobility of their devices, pH/ORP/Conductivity Analyzer
Emerson Process Management
but analyzer suppliers are also experiencing some shifts within
2. ABB
their Readers’ Choice category. In fact, three second-place win- 3. Endress + Hauser
4. Yokogawa
ners last year took over and won in three of seven Analyzer sub-
5. Schneider Electric
categories this year. These scrappy competitors include: MSA
Process Spectrometer
that won in Ambient Gas Detector; Vaisala that won in Humid- ABB
ity/Moisture Analyzer; and Emerson Process Management that 2. Thermo Fisher Scientific
3. Emerson Process Management
won in Process Chromatograph. 4. Yokogawa
Beyond these upsets, Emerson also won again in three more 5. Hach

subcategories, including Density/Concentration and pH/ORP/ Process Chromatograph

Emerson Process Management
Conductivity analyzers, as well as Process Chromatograph. 2. ABB
3. Yokogawa
4. Siemens Industry

Stack Gas/Emissions Analyzer

Emerson Process Management
2. ABB
3. Ametek
4. Yokogawa
5. Siemens Industry

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