Schneider Electric introduced EcoStruxure software solutions, an open and interoperable system architecture and platform intended to bridge the gap between operations and maintenance, providing predictive maintenance and decision support for plant-wide assets, including its EcoStruxure Foxboro DCS, EcoStruxure Hybrid DCS, intelligent field devices, drives and other wide-ranging automation assets.
By providing early, actionable data and insight into abnormal operating and asset conditions, the solutions empower the workforce to make smarter, more targeted and more proactive maintenance and operating decisions that improve operational reliability and profitability, according to Schneider. With mobile capability devices and embedded workflow options, it allows plant personnel to respond quickly to emerging conditions from anywhere in the plant.
“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.
“Emerging IIoT technology stacks, like Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure platform and tools, are enabling end users to seek and find value across production processes. Maintenance Advisor, Condition Advisor and other Schneider Electric offerings represent the next generation of technology. They allow personnel to control and optimize operational performance based on actual financial constraints, delivering higher profits safely, even as the asset base is aging and becoming less reliable.”
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, vice president, 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.”