Schneider Electric launches EcoStruxure™ Plant Advisor to Increase Operational Profitability through Edge and Data Analytics in the Cloud

Schneider 400

October 14, 2020

  • End-to-end agnostic IIoT capabilities eliminate data silos and provide missing operational intelligence to improve performance
  • EcoStruxure Plant Advisor speeds up IIoT solutions deployment; allows for cross-functional plant data collection and governance; scales easily across multiple plants
  • Improved visibility and streamlined operations enable up to 15% reduction in unplanned downtime, 30% reduction in maintenance costs, 8% energy costs reduction, 6% raw materials consumption reduction and 6% increase in quality

Schneider Electric launched EcoStruxure Plant Advisor, the next evolution in IIoT digital plant management. A scalable, open IIoT platform built within the company’s EcoStruxure architecture, it gives industrial enterprises focused insights to understand process and operational data and uniquely enables common cross-function, live monitoring and application data sharing. This leads to faster improvements in operational performance, improved quality control, reduction in energy and raw materials use, better maintenance and increased profitability. 

Developed for and perfected with Schneider Electric’s worldwide Smart Factories, EcoStruxure Plant Advisor empowers operations and productions professionals with meaningful, specific business insights through contextualized live data, enabling them to make improvements in machine performance, predictive maintenance and asset performance. A common data model also optimizes remote plant operations, enables regional and global scalability across multiple plants and improves downstream and upstream traceability across the value chain. Based on pilot projects, EcoStruxure Plant Advisor could generate € 2.8 million / year of improvements for a typical €100 million manufacturing site. 

“The volume of data available to industrial enterprises is growing exponentially. However, the prevalence of legacy and proprietary systems and a lack of OT/IT integration mean industrial businesses lack the end-to-end visibility needed to rapidly adjust their operations,” said Sophie Borgne, Senior Vice President of Digital Plant Business, Schneider Electric. “As a business with over 200 manufacturing sites around the world, this is a problem we have faced ourselves. Deploying EcoStruxure Plant Advisor has upgraded our own resilience and productivity. It has also equipped our smart factory teams with the tools to optimize operations at a local and global level. Having perfected the platform, we are delighted to extend the benefits of EcoStruxure Plant Advisor to the marketplace.”

 

The EcoStruxure Plant Advisor includes three key interconnected parts:

  1. Hybrid (Edge/Cloud) Connectivity: Agnostic edge-to-cloud approach to manage data source connectivity lifecycle within the same industrial data model.
  2. Industrial data processing platform and multisite analysis: Data aggregation and processing enabling remote and live monitoring through near real time multisite KPIs and analytics.
  3. App builder and industry specific offers: The ability to build custom applications in a low code/ no code environment, leveraging prebuilt IoT modules and centralized access to all production data to meet specific business needs.

Typical benefits delivered by EcoStruxure Plant Advisor include up to:

  • 15% reduction in unplanned downtime
  • 30% reduction in maintenance costs
  • 8% reduction in energy costs
  • 6% raw materials consumption reduction
  • 6% increase in quality of outputs
  • 5% reduction in product recall costs
  • 6-11% Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) improvements of a given plant

Enterprise-Wide Operational Intelligence

Modern industrial enterprises are under enormous pressure to increase agility to meet dynamic global demand, highlighting plant operational efficiency and cost. Siloed data and the increasingly complex systems prevalent in industrial enterprise environments are hindering the ability to quickly adapt operations to meet rapidly changing social and economic requirements. 

“The need for agility cannot be over emphasized for industrial operations,” said Craig Resnick, Vice President, ARC Advisory Group. “The EcoStruxure Plant Advisor suite provides industrial operations with the real-time visibility needed to understand the intricacies of operations that enables this agility. This information empowers a business to pivot and an operation to maximize production efficiency while reducing energy consumption, waste, and labor costs.”

By consolidating the enormous amount of data industrial enterprises produce into a centralized hub, EcoStruxure Plant Advisor makes it easy for end users to access, aggregate and contextualize all operation related information. Leveraging data from the natively integrated smart solutions, the platform provides the actionable business and operational intelligence needed to enhance plant efficiency.

EcoStruxure Plant Advisor also harmonizes global governance while allowing standardized local customization to enable businesses to speed up IoT solutions deployment and easily scale them across multiple plants. This flexibility is essential for industrial enterprises to address modern challenges and thrive in today’s global, digital economy.

Enterprise-Wide Digital Transformation

EcoStruxure Plant Advisor uses a modular and customizable approach combined with dedicated consulting support provided by Schneider Electric. This allows the EcoStruxureTM Plant Advisor to cover the full plant lifecycle while providing only the required resources based on each industrial enterprise’s unique requirements and digital maturity. 

EcoStruxure Plant Advisor includes cross industry and segment specific offers for sectors including CPG, Mining and Manufacturing, using a global standardized hybrid environment to provide immediate operational impact.

 

For more information, visit here.

Related Articles


Changing Scene

  • Weidmüller Canada Is Growing Their Team & Investing in the Future of Engineering

    Weidmüller Canada Is Growing Their Team & Investing in the Future of Engineering

    Weidmüller Canada is growing their team and investing in the future of engineering. They are proud to welcome Ada Santavy, Laura Cochrane, and William Watson, the newest hires of Weidmüller’s Engineering Launchpad Program, an innovative initiative that combines technical and soft skills training, mentorship from industry veterans, and hands-on project experience to develop well-rounded engineering… Read More…

  • Leviton Canada Announces Jim Hartery as New Territory Manager, Alberta

    Leviton Canada Announces Jim Hartery as New Territory Manager, Alberta

    Please join Leviton Canada in welcoming Jim Hartery to their team! Jim brings extensive experience in sales and account management within the electrical industry, along with a proven track record of building strong customer relationships, developing new business opportunities, and driving growth across both new and existing accounts. Leviton is thrilled to have Jim on… Read More…


Sponsored Content
The Easy Way to the Industrial IoT

The way to the Industrial IoT does not have to be complicated. Whether access to valuable data is required or new, data-driven services are to be generated, Weidmuller enables its customers to go from data to value the easy way. Weidmuller’s comprehensive and cutting-edge IIoT portfolio applies to greenfield and brownfield applications. Weidmuller offers components and solutions from data acquisition, data pre-processing, data communication and data analysis.

Visit Weidmuller’s Industrial IoT Portfolio.


ADVANCED Motion Controls Takes Servo Drives to New Heights (and Depths) with FlexPro Extended Environment Product Line

Advanced Motion Controls is proud to announce the addition of six new CANopen servo drives with Extended Environment capabilities to their FlexPro line. These new drives join AMC’s existing EtherCAT Extended Environment FlexPro drives, making the FlexPro line the go-to solution for motion control applications in harsh environments.

Many motion control applications take place in conditions that are less than ideal, such as extreme temperatures, high and low pressures, shocks and vibrations, and contamination. Electronics, including servo drives, can malfunction or sustain permanent damage in these conditions.

Read More


Service Wire Co. Announces New Titles for Key Executives

Bruce Kesler and Mark Gatewood have been given new titles and responsibilities for Service Wire Co.

Bruce Kesler has assumed the role of Senior Director – Business Development. Bruce will be responsible for Service Wire’s largest strategic accounts and our growing Strategic Accounts Team.

Mark Gatewood has been promoted to the role of Vice President – Sales & Marketing. In this role, Gatewood will lead the efforts of Service Wire Company’s entire sales and marketing organization in all market verticals.

Read More


Tri-Mach Announces the Purchase of an Additional 45,000 sq ft. Facility

Tri-Mach Elmira Facility

Recently, Tri-Mach Inc. was thrilled to announce the addition of a new 45,000 sq ft. facility. Located at 285 Union St., Elmira, ON, this facility expands Tri-Mach’s capabilities, allowing them to better serve the growing needs of their customers.

Positioning for growth, this additional facility will allow Tri-Mach to continue taking on large-scale projects, enhance product performance testing, and provide equipment storage for their customers. The building will also be the new home to their Skilled Trades Centre of Excellence.

Read More


JMP Parent Company, CONVERGIX Acquires AGR Automation, Expanding Global Reach

Convergix Automation Solutions has completed the acquisition of AGR Automation (“AGR”), a UK-based provider of custom, high-performance automation design and systems integration primarily to the life sciences industry.

Following Convergix’s acquisitions of JMP Solutions in August 2021 and Classic Design in February 2022, AGR marks the third investment in Crestview’s strategy to build Convergix into a diversified automation solutions provider targeting the global $500+ billion market, with a particular focus on the $70 billion global systems integration and connectivity segments. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Read More


Latest Articles

  • Texcan: Teck, Vertical Riser & AIRGUARD – Cable Solutions for Demanding Environments

    Texcan: Teck, Vertical Riser & AIRGUARD – Cable Solutions for Demanding Environments

    Teck, Vertical Riser Teck, and AIRGUARD address distinct installation needs for industrial and vertical‑riser installations. Each product targets specific installation needs: Teck for general industrial feeders, Vertical Riser Teck for continuous vertical runs, and AIRGUARD to deliver high crush resistance and corrosion protection on long runs. Understanding the differences in application can help ensure the right cable is selected for the… Read More…

  • Mouser: Industrial Ethernet vs Fieldbus – Architecture, TSN & Migration

    Mouser: Industrial Ethernet vs Fieldbus – Architecture, TSN & Migration

    Fieldbuses once replaced bundles of wiring with shared, deterministic networks. For years, they carried control signals reliably and predictably. However, as equipment, sensors, and data systems proliferated, fieldbus limitations emerged. The central issue today is real-time operational visibility. Engineers need networks that move control data, diagnostics, and process information across the plant as reliably as… Read More…