In spite of COVID-19, simulation and analysis (S&A) revenues more than doubled in 2020 to $7.5 billion, according to a report by CIMdata.
CIMData announced the release of the CIMdata Simulation and Analysis (S&A) Market Analysis Report. This report deepens the S&A market analysis conducted as part of the CIMdata 2021 PLM Market Analysis Report Series.
In 2020, S&A revenues grew to nearly $7.5 billion, an increase of 4.2% over the $7.2 billion in 2019. Stan Przybylinski, CIMdata’s Vice President, said, “In the end, the S&A segment did well despite the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic, better than our forecast of 0.6%. S&A continues to move ‘up front’ in the product development process (i.e., to the left side of the Systems Engineering Vee), helping companies evaluate multiple design concepts and optimize performance before committing to the final hardware and software design. CIMdata sees more interest in model-based approaches in a wide range of industries, helping them meet the challenges of developing, testing, and deploying smart, connected products. This should help drive increased S&A investment.”
Don Tolle, CIMdata’s practice manager for simulation-driven systems development, said, “Detailed geometric modeling, simulation, and analysis for virtual prototyping and verification/validation still makes up the majority of the S&A market segment. But to support the development and lifecycle support for smart, connected products, systems-level behavior modeling, simulation, and analysis are increasingly recognized as must-have core competencies to enable the digitalization of product development, manufacturing, and in-service lifecycle operations. The emergence of physics-based digital twins and real-time data analytics from IoT-enabled smart systems enhanced by new AI/machine learning capabilities offer access to unprecedented product performance knowledge from today’s complex products.
“Both end-users and design engineers can benefit from this augmented knowledge. Users, in how best to optimize their product use and effectiveness in service. And design engineers who can leverage this knowledge to create innovative new products to meet ever more demanding customer and regulatory requirements.
“To meet these industry challenges, there is a strong industry focus on creating collaborative product innovation platforms that enable cross-domain digital process threads (including mechanical, electronics, software, controls, chemistry, materials, and other physics) that can be shared, continuously improved, and managed throughout the product development lifecycle. The major software and services solution providers spanning the mechanical and electronics domains are investing heavily in R&D to create new model-driven, integrated MBSE, PLM, and S&A capabilities as well as adding new leading-edge technologies by acquiring or partnering with smaller, innovative solution providers.”
The product lifecycle management (PLM) market is likely to come back from the COVID-19 pandemic, but at different rates for the different segments. For 2021, CIMdata forecasts the S&A sub-sector will grow 8.1% overall and have revenues of just under $8.1 billion. CIMdata expects S&A will be one of the fastest-growing segments within the tools sector of PLM over the next five years, reaching $12 billion in 2024, with a 10% CAGR.
– Edited from a CIMdata press release by CFE Media.
