Abstract
Onsite Calibration to Reduce Manufacturing Industries?f Reluctance to
Calibrate Instruments
The economic slowdown has compelled manufacturing industries to think twice
before calibrating their instruments. They would rather optimize usage of their
existing equipment than create downtime and increase basic operational expenses
by sending their instruments for calibration. However, the turnaround time can
be reduced substantially if the calibration is done on-site but only if the
volumes are adequate and the applications, critical. This will reduce downtime,
save transportation costs for customers, and lower risks in carriage. Service
providers can also acquire or retain customers by offering low-cost
non-accredited services for certain non-critical applications.
This Frost & Sullivan research examines the North American calibration
services market. It offers revenue forecasts by market segments and covers key
drivers and restraints affecting market growth. It also provides industry
challenges and strategic recommendations to overcome them. The different types
of calibration services covered in this research are electrical, mechanical,
thermodynamic, and physical.
Regular Calibration Leads to Improvement in Manufacturing Quality and
Ensures Demand for Calibration Services
Industries have various instruments to monitor the production process and it
is critical to check and maintain these instruments to achieve optimum results.
"Once the instrument is calibrated, it helps ensure consistency of end
products and their compliance to their specification levels," says the
analyst. This drives manufacturing industries to calibrate instruments at
regular intervals and thereby, ensure the growth of calibration services market.
Frequently monitored operational parameters and standards calibrated at
regular intervals help guarantee consistent product quality. This would make
certain that there are fewer rejections at the quality assurance stage, smaller
number of rework cycles on rejected products, lower warranty costs, and
increased production yields. All these are strong motivational factors for
organizations to calibrate their process instruments regularly.
Outsourcing of Calibration Services by Manufacturing Industries Drives
Growth
Industries have downsized their work force and started concentrating on their
core competencies to stay profitable during the economic slump. This change in
operating structure has resulted in the outsourcing of calibration requirements
to third-party service companies, giving the calibration services market a shot
in the arm. This move also eliminates the organizations?f need to maintain a
staff for associated activities such as maintaining history of calibration and
ensuring optimum operating condition of instruments since they are taken care of
by the service companies.
"A large portion of calibrations that are being done in-house (captive
labs) are likely to be outsourced and form the potential market for third-party
service providers and OEMs expanding to meet the growing demand for
outsourcing," notes the analyst. In fact, third-party calibration service
providers constitute nearly 25 percent of North America?fs calibration services
market.
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