Schneider Electric First to Deliver Measurable, Profitable Asset and Operational Reliability with New EcoStruxure Solutions

Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, today introduced new EcoStruxure software solutions, bringing measurably profitable asset and operation reliability to the industrial market for the first time.

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. Delivering Innovation at Every Level across Connected Products; Edge Control; and Apps, Analytics & Services, the EcoStruxure architecture enables scalable design and operation of connected systems with best-in-class cybersecurity built in at every layer.

Empowering the Workforce to Drive Profitable Reliability, Safely 

The company’s new EcoStruxure Maintenance Advisor software, with embedded EcoStruxure Condition Advisor, bridges 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. 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.”

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.

New EcoStruxure Condition Advisor for OPC DA enables real-time, automated condition monitoring of any OPC DA-compliant asset, such as intelligent electronic devices, motor starters and drives. This new capability complements existing Condition Advisors, which monitor the condition of Fieldbus Foundation, HART and Profibus process instruments.

“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.”

Profitable Reliability: The Keys to the Profit Engine

Combining the offers to work with Schneider Electric and third-party control systems enables customers to monitor and diagnose the condition of a broad range of plant automation assets in real time, which can help maximize operational uptime, minimize operational and maintenance costs and increase workforce safety. Clear and concise alerts offer recommendations and context around the status of every asset and the criticality of the condition, which improves response time.

“We have strategically aligned these new offers to ensure maximum complementarity and value for our customers, regardless of what type of control system they use,” Bonomo said. “EcoStruxure Maintenance Advisor and EcoStruxure Condition Monitor can minimize or even eliminate unscheduled downtime and incidents on the plant floor, not only to improve ROI on CapEx and return on assets, but to drive measurable improvements to the reliability and profitability of our customers’ operations, safely. When applied correctly, these solutions will help convert their process automation into the profit engines of their business.”

EcoStruxure Maintenance Advisor and EcoStruxure Control Advisor are now available for hybrid and process industry customers. For more details and information about the company’s EcoStruxure process automation systems and solutions, please visit Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Plant webpage.