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The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is sometimes touted with very lofty goals, promising improvements in everything from remote maintenance services to products as a service. However, there are some very pragmatic examples where IIoT is changing the face of the industrial production environments. Security and safety are major concerns within the industry, however there are many components in the plant that can leverage connectivity without introducing unnecessary security risks. Schneider Electric has taken a building block approach to IIoT, in which individual components provide a remote connection. Using this approach, the company has set out to change the business practices in the plant. Products that provide connectivity to mobile devices and tablets are changing the behavior of the plant people by providing alternative ways of diagnosing problems, thereby changing the face of maintenance services.
Transparent Ready Permeates Electrical Power
Circuit breakers, contactors and drives have all benefited from almost two decades since Schneider Electric launched Transparent Ready in the late 1990s. The mission was to incorporate web servers and internet connectivity to virtually every control component in the portfolio. The largest beneficiary of the Transparent Ready initiative has been the AC Drive business. However, the mission continues as increasingly more devices and relatively low value components have integrated mobile connectivity using the underlying Transparent Ready capabilities. Critical components such as contactors, circuit breakers and UPS systems in the power distribution on the production floor are now falling under the umbrella of Transparent Ready providing faster time to repair for the production plants.
While many of these innovations seem somewhat pedestrian, they are actually very effective and reinforce Schneider Electric's efforts to place people at the center stage of improving production efficiencies. By developing a suite of connected products for the Medium Voltage and Low Voltage applications, Schneider is creating a digital ecosystem that is transforming business practices in the typical plant today. Products such as the Easergy P5 Protection Relay and MasterPact MTZ enable plant personnel to use mobile companion applications to monitor these devices on smartphones and tablets providing alerts and rapid diagnostics. These are incremental improvements that will enable plant operators to improve operational performance.
Augmented Operators
Many readers have used their smartphone in store to scan a bar code on a product to find the best price or reviews, and similar technology is available in industrial plants. The plant operator is being augmented with industrial components that leverage technology that is pervasive in our everyday life. For example, Schneider Electric has uses a QR code on the panel of the AC drive to report a fault diagnostic. The plant floor operator uses their tablet/mobile phone to take a picture of the QR code and the App references the manual on the web to diagnose the problem. Simple, but quite powerful when you consider how maintenance is performed today. This is part of the concept of an augmented reality that is now being deployed. The Vijeo 360 brings augmented reality to the electrical cabinets by using camera technology on the mobile device to read tags on the devices in the cabinet. The operator is immediately provided documentation and product information without having to carry any paper. Development of these augmented reality displays on a tablet is an additional service that Schneider Electric offers their customers. Once again these are technologies that are already pervasive in our everyday life, but are now finding application in maintenance and service of automation equipment.
At the heart of every plant is electrical power, yet service and maintenance for this segment of the business been overlooked. By leveraging incremental innovations, plants with an aging workforce and increasing pressure to improve operational performance can strengthen the core of every operation by focusing on power distribution.
Transparent Ready Permeates Electrical Power
Circuit breakers, contactors and drives have all benefited from almost two decades since Schneider Electric launched Transparent Ready in the late 1990s. The mission was to incorporate web servers and internet connectivity to virtually every control component in the portfolio. The largest beneficiary of the Transparent Ready initiative has been the AC Drive business. However, the mission continues as increasingly more devices and relatively low value components have integrated mobile connectivity using the underlying Transparent Ready capabilities. Critical components such as contactors, circuit breakers and UPS systems in the power distribution on the production floor are now falling under the umbrella of Transparent Ready providing faster time to repair for the production plants.
While many of these innovations seem somewhat pedestrian, they are actually very effective and reinforce Schneider Electric's efforts to place people at the center stage of improving production efficiencies. By developing a suite of connected products for the Medium Voltage and Low Voltage applications, Schneider is creating a digital ecosystem that is transforming business practices in the typical plant today. Products such as the Easergy P5 Protection Relay and MasterPact MTZ enable plant personnel to use mobile companion applications to monitor these devices on smartphones and tablets providing alerts and rapid diagnostics. These are incremental improvements that will enable plant operators to improve operational performance.
Augmented Operators
Many readers have used their smartphone in store to scan a bar code on a product to find the best price or reviews, and similar technology is available in industrial plants. The plant operator is being augmented with industrial components that leverage technology that is pervasive in our everyday life. For example, Schneider Electric has uses a QR code on the panel of the AC drive to report a fault diagnostic. The plant floor operator uses their tablet/mobile phone to take a picture of the QR code and the App references the manual on the web to diagnose the problem. Simple, but quite powerful when you consider how maintenance is performed today. This is part of the concept of an augmented reality that is now being deployed. The Vijeo 360 brings augmented reality to the electrical cabinets by using camera technology on the mobile device to read tags on the devices in the cabinet. The operator is immediately provided documentation and product information without having to carry any paper. Development of these augmented reality displays on a tablet is an additional service that Schneider Electric offers their customers. Once again these are technologies that are already pervasive in our everyday life, but are now finding application in maintenance and service of automation equipment.
At the heart of every plant is electrical power, yet service and maintenance for this segment of the business been overlooked. By leveraging incremental innovations, plants with an aging workforce and increasing pressure to improve operational performance can strengthen the core of every operation by focusing on power distribution.