Recently, the “Digital China Construction overall layout Plan” was officially issued, which indicates the future development direction of digital China construction planning clearly states that stronger, better, bigger digital economy, to promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, will accelerate the application of digital technology innovation in key areas such as industry.

2090-CSWM1DF-14AA09 This means that digital construction in many industries, including industry, is entering the fast lane. The strategic focus on digital transformation is also taking companies in different directions. According to the Harvard Business Review, since 2000, 52% of Fortune Global 500 companies have either gone bankrupt, been acquired, or ceased to exist in the face of the digital onrush. On the other hand, with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), industrial software and automation, and data analytics technologies, 26% of industrial companies have successfully benefited from large-scale digital transformation.

Because of this, the use of digital technology to develop a smarter, more sustainable and more resilient manufacturing industry has become a strategic consensus for countries to seize the top level of economic development, and the introduction of the digital top-level design plan is more firm in this development direction.

In the current in-depth integration of digital and real technology, the landing of digital technology to 2090-CSWM1DF-14AA09 specific industrial application scenarios requires deep industry knowledge and professional services as support. How can digital empowerment accelerate progress towards a sustainable industrial future? Xing Jian Pang, Senior Vice President of Schneider Electric and head of Industrial Automation in China, said that Schneider Electric is empowering future industries to be more sustainable and resilient through open, software-centric industrial automation.

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Xingjian Pang is Senior Vice President and head of Industrial Automation in China at Schneider Electric

Break the seal and embrace the next generation of automation

2090-CSWM1DF-14AA09 From artisanal workshops to mass production to lean production, today’s industry has reached the “peak” stage, but this is not the end. When people meet the arrival of the future industry, they will also face many new challenges: how to achieve intelligence from equipment automation to data automation? How to build an efficient and resilient digital supply chain in the face of global uncertainty? How to achieve sustainable industrial development under the dual-carbon target? And how can digital empower people?

The era of Industry 4.0, which promotes industrial transformation with information technology, has lasted for nearly a decade. Driven by software, data and ecology, industrial enterprises have great hope to meet the needs of agility and digitalization in today’s era. However, in the field of industrial automation, closed automation systems that are heavily bundled with hardware and software have led to poor compatibility and lack of interoperability, which have become barriers preventing enterprises from rapidly upgrading and iterating to enjoy digital dividends.

In Pang’s view, the future of industrial automation will emphasize openness, interoperability and portability. For this purpose, Schneider Electric has created the EcoStruxure open automation platform, which is based on the open IEC61499 international standard, decouple software and hardware, help enterprises reduce dependence on proprietary automation systems, and achieve a unified edge computing operating environment through innovative software and services. Now it has been more and more recognized by academia, industry and users.

Taking Jingkelen, a domestic enterprise focusing on cold chain logistics and warehousing, as an example, 2090-CSWM1DF-14AA09 with the help of EcoStruxure open automation platform, the company has modular packaging and reuse of conveyor lines, transplanters, stackers and other objects, which reduces the debugging time by 30%, reduces the error line products by 45%, and increases the logistics throughput by 5.3%. The opening up of the open platform has brought real production capacity improvement to Beijing Kelun.

The wide application of open automation calls for the participation of more enterprises. Founded in 2021, the Open Automation Organization UAO (UniversalAutomation.org) is a non-profit international organization dedicated to promoting open automation. Its members include industrial and information manufacturers, integrators, end users and academic institutions, including Schneider Electric, and currently has about 40 member units, including 2 domestic institutions.