In a recent announcement, Schneider Electric, a energy management and automation company, has introduced several new EcoStruxure software solutions, bringing asset and operational reliability to the Smart Factory and Industrial IoT market.
Plant personnel have traditionally focused on improving the efficiency of the industrial operations they control, which has driven plant assets to their reliability threshold, increasing downtime and safety risks along the way. However, with more robust IIoT technology available, including Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure architecture and platform, the industrial workforce is more equipped than ever to control and improve the reliability and profitability of their assets and operations in real time.
EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric's IoT-enabled, open and interoperable system architecture and platform. The EcoStruxure architecture is designed to enable scalable design and operation of connected systems with best-in-class cybersecurity built in at every layer, the company said.
Empowering the Workforce to Drive Profitable Reliability, Safely
The company's new Maintenance Advisor software, with embedded Condition Advisor, bridges the gap between operations and maintenance, providing predictive maintenance and decision support for plant-wide assets. By providing early, actionable data and insight into abnormal operating and asset conditions, the solutions reportedly empower the workforce to make smarter, more targeted and more proactive maintenance and operating decisions that improve operational reliability and profitability.
"The increasing speed of business and fast-paced technology developments have converged, increasing the pressure on manufacturers to get more value—that is, profit—from operations," said Matt Littlefield, president and principal analyst, LNS Research. "Digital transformation is sweeping across industry, with LNS Research expecting 60 percent of companies to have an IIoT initiative by the end of 2017. This means executives are looking for and need smarter tools, more advanced analytics and better decision making to deliver measurable ROI, safely.”
Improved Asset Health Monitoring for Measurable, Complete ROI
Delivered in a single unified dashboard, EcoStruxure Maintenance Advisor monitors the real-time health of plant-wide assets to detect abnormal operating conditions. It then automatically provides actionable, easy-to-understand alerts with the proper context, along with potential reasons for the abnormal condition and possible actions to rectify it.
"Our solution's ability to accurately detect and report potential problems and recommend corrective action before failures occur improves plant safety, asset reliability and process efficiency while giving executives better control of their P&L," said Jose Bonomo, VP, Process Automation offer management, Schneider Electric. "By bringing these capabilities to the market for the first time in a single solution, we are able to help our customers improve their organizational effectiveness and increase enough throughput to provide full, measurable ROI within just three months of implementation."
Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars.Edited by
Ken Briodagh
