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Schneider Electric: A Smart Move to Industry 4.0

1. Introduction 

Schneider Electric is a French company that provides energy, automation, and digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. By combining energy technologies, real-time automation software and related services, Schneider Electric provides solutions for digital infrastructure requirements across industries, data centres, as well as private residences, buildings, etc.

As a leading manufacturer of critical components, hardware systems and software used in a range of industrial automation and control applications, Schneider Electric is in a unique position to accelerate Industry 4.0 adoption, by building a manufacturing factory infrastructure that is ready for automation and data generation. The types of products offered are covered in Table 1.

Table 1: Industrial Automation Products from Schneider Electric
Table 1: Industrial Automation Products from Schneider Electric

The wide range of the company’s products solutions and services, also give it an unparallel domain expertise. This has allowed Schneider Electric to develop an end-to-end, patented, digital architecture platform called EcoStruxureTM that delivers IoT-enabled solutions to various industries. The platform has been deployed at more than 4.8 lakh sites, globally.

Schneider Electric’s solutions are applicable not just on the factory floor but also for a series of nodes within the digital value chain. As a result, the company has jumped to 4 on the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for the year 2020, from 11 in 2019. Equipped with the EcoStruxureTM platform, between 2017 and 2019 Schneider Electric launched 17 smart factories around the globe including three facilities in India, at Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

In India, Schneider Electric has a total of eight manufacturing plants. Of these, the switchgear manufacturing plant in Hyderabad, commissioned in 2006, has become the first Indian facility to join the smart factory network in Feb 2019. This was followed by the Bengaluru facility in Nov 2019.

2. Smart Factory Solutions Enable Industry 4.0

Industry 3.0 saw the rapid deployment of automation within manufacturing lines using PLCs, PACs, SCADA and sensorisation of process lines. Industry 4.0 relies heavily on data analytics to develop Business Intelligence (BI). Smart Factory solutions such as EcoStruxureTM, not only help to bring Industry 3.0 compliant facilities to Industry 4.0 readiness, but can also assist older facilities with low automation and data generation capabilities, to leapfrog to Industry 4.0 readiness, albeit with greater investment in digital and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, upgrade.

Scheider_Picture 1
Figure 1: Elements of Manufacturing Data Architecture
Source: Tata Steel 

Data generated across various nodes in the value chain in a manufacturing factory, need to be connected over a platform to enable centralised data analytics. The EcoStruxureTM platform with its open architecture permits integration of IoT solutions even with legacy components, and connects plant assets on the shop floor, to the enterprise and supply chains. The open architecture capabilities of the EcoStruxureTM platform substantially reduce the cost of digital transformation.

3. Transformation Philosophy

Eat your own food: Schneider Electric is the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of critical automation and IIoT hardware components. This unique knowledge and expertise allow the group in a position to follow an ‘Eat your own Food’ philosophy for designing and developing digital smart factory solutions in-house. These solutions build on hardware and software originating from a single source brings in high degree of reliability in performance and post-sale service.

Pankaj Goyal, Vice President, EcoStruxureTM and Digital, Schneider Electric, India, states that a multipronged strategy is essential for accelerating Industry 4.0 product development. At Schneider Electric, this strategy is primarily driven through acquisitions, outsourcing to start-ups and utilising commercially available technology.

In Sep 2017, Schneider Electric reverse acquired U.K. based Aveva, an engineering software developer, and merged its software division with Aveva. This merger has been a primary contributor towards product development.

4. Methodology

A smart factory is essentially a facility that is capable of generating data in every process of the value chain. The capability of a factory to generate data is directly proportional to its depth and spread of automation and sensorisation. A Smart Factory platform and architecture such as EcoStruxureTM can aid manufacturing units to progress on the path of automation, sensorisation and provide connectivity for enterprise-wide operations.

Figure 8: Smart Factory Enabling Industry 4.0 Source: Schneider Electric, India
Figure 2: Smart Factory Enabling Industry 4.0
Source: Schneider Electric, India

5. Success Stories

Of the 17 Schneider Electric smart factories equipped with EcoStruxureTM, two facilities – one each in France and Indonesia have been able to scale-up to an Industry 4.0, World Economic Forum (WEF) recognised Global Lighthouse Network.

Some of the major benefits accrued at Schneider Electric ‘smart factories’ are outlined in Table 2.

Schneider_Table2
Table 2: Schneider Electric smart factory beneficiaries
Source: Schneider Electric

EcoStruxureTM can be leveraged for the following benefits within an enterprise:

6. Key Findings

MNC Centric

MSME Centric

Schneider Electric’s views on adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions by MSMEs are:

Commander Amrut Godbole is Fellow, Indian Navy Studies Programme at Gateway House.

Manjeet Kripalani is Executive Director and co-founder at Gateway House.

Sagnik Chakraborty is Former Researcher, Cybersecurity Studies Programme at Gateway House.

This study was conducted by Gateway House, in partnership with India EXIM Bank. Read the full study here.

For interview requests with the authors, or for permission to republish, please contact outreach@gatewayhouse.in.

Disclaimer: The contents of the paper are personal views of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Indian Navy or Government of India.

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