The global market for Servo Motors & Drives is expected to slump by -9.5% in the year 2020 and thereafter recover and grow to reach US$17.1 billion by the year 2027, trailing a post COVID-19 CAGR of 3.6% over the analysis period 2020 through 2027. A vital part of robotics, automation and CNC machining, servo motors & drives are facing a temporary setback as a result of the slumping manufacturing sector & the economic and financial challenges created by the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic has however fast forwarded the world's migration to the fourth industrial revolution by accelerating digital evolution of industries & companies. The long predicted boom in robotics & automation is expected to come much faster than earlier forecasts and will play a key role in inducing a faster & more rapid recovery to growth. Automation plays a key role in process improvement by eliminating repetition and redundancy, decreasing production time and costs, increasing production uptime, reducing risk of human errors, elevating employee work efficiency, and ensuring high level of compliance with environmental, occupational safety and health regulations. Adoption of automation technology enables enterprises to gain from improved quality of manufactured products, superior employee work efficiency, increased yield and reduced material wastage, and savings on capital and operating costs. Besides the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the worldwide industrial sector is facing several other pressing challenges in the form of volatile raw material prices, harsh regulatory scenario, globalization-driven issues, and decreasing profitability. In order to stay competitive, manufacturers are increasingly focusing on improving the efficiency of their operations and productivity by modifying and modernizing their production processes and infrastructure.

Manufacturers are leaning towards automation of processes and systems that facilitate plant supervisors, managers, and engineers and workers monitor and manage plant operations in a more efficient and resourceful manner. To reap the benefits of automation, process engineers are deploying advanced Machine Vision, Human-Machine-Interface (HMI), Machine-Machine Interface (MMI), IoT Control & Data Aggregation technologies embedded with dedicated Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Software (SCADA) that aid in gaining complete control over complex operations and processes. Machine Vision and HMI infrastructure systems have already become common in programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and industrial control panels as these tools provide technicians the capability to select and finalize a pre-planned result from the automated equipment and its application. By deploying HMI, PLC, industrial control panels, machine vision and other technologies, industrial entities can automate various functions such as turn on/off industrial valves, sensors, and alarms; view and monitor critical data in dashboards; control IoT devices and machines; execute push messages, repots, and KPIs; and turn mechanical operations into visual processes to identify and diagnose problems, among others.

Automation will play a vital role in enabling the companies to recover from the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic. In the long run, prospects remain promising due to the growing need for automation in industrial facilities. With process industries focused on plant automation in a bid to enhance productivity, reduce downtime, and conserve energy, there will be increased demand for servo motors and drives that are designed to support process automation. Servo motors and drives are widely used in every type of machine that needs accurate position control. The motors are also important for operating a variety of industrial systems including robotics, cameras, and conveyor belt systems. As automation continues to grow in leading end-use markets including automotive, semiconductor, and food processing sectors, the servo motor and drives market is poised for stable growth in the post COVID-19 period. The rapidly growing aging workforce and labor cost is expected to stimulate the demand for various automation systems, including conveyors and robots, across a wide range of end-use industries across the globe. Rising implementation of automation systems in factory settings is likely to create a significant demand for servo motors and drives in the manufacturing of factory automation systems. Asia-Pacific is expected to register the highest growth, owing primarily to the rising adoption of industrial robots. Germany and Japan are considered to be two of the major producers of industrial robots, and hence would be the leading markets for servo motors and drives. The demand for precisely controlling the position and speed in automation systems has been primarily contributing towards the adoption of servo motors in these systems. In addition, food-grade servo motors are increasingly being deployed in a wide range of applications, including food handling, fill and seal, form, volumetric filling, and food packaging. Further, servo motors, drives, controllers, and inverters are also finding widespread utility in several industrial machineries, such as transport, machine tools and assembling, and welding and painting.