Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced version 22.0 of EcoStruxure™ Automation Expert, further enhancing the capabilities of the world’s first software-centric universal automation system.
Consumer-packaged goods, logistics, water and wastewater operations now have next generation automation capabilities and unrivaled operational flexibility with EcoStruxure Automation Expert v22.0. including:
- expanded libraries for segment functions and energy management devices
- enhanced user experience (UX) in the build time tool
- fortified built-in cybersecurity
- support for additional engineering input formats, including DEXPI (ISO15926 based) and Excel
- Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish language support and enhanced documentation
Importantly, the solution also provides end to end digital continuity through close integration with AVEVA applications. EcoStruxure Automation Expert can connect to AVEVA Engineering and import plant design data for automated bulk engineering. It also enables scalable visualisation for the enterprise control room by integration with AVEVA System Platform
Decoupling automation software from hardware
EcoStruxure Automation Expert provides increased flexibility and control by enabling automation software to be separated from the hardware, providing freedom for all enterprises to break their dependency on proprietary industrial automation.
“EcoStruxure Automation Expert provides us with the digital thread through our operations that we need to become as efficient as possible,” said Quanjiang Wang, General Manager, Jingkelun. “By decoupling hardware and software, we can analyse, edit, or update systems effectively and provide our customers with the level of flexibility they need. EcoStruxure Automation Expert, with its open, vendor-agnostic approach, has changed the very nature of automation software.”
Beijing Jingkelun, the high-tech business specialising in the research, development, and construction of green intelligent cold chain storage, selected EcoStruxure Automation Expert to meet continuously fluctuating market challenges. The business wanted to react to market opportunities and changes in real-time while also decreasing commissioning and maintenance costs. They also wanted to leverage new technologies to advance service and capabilities and protect their installed base investments.
With EcoStruxure Automation Expert, Beijing Jingkelun achieved:
- 30% savings of commissioning time and ease of maintenance
- holistic system management of heterogeneous systems through orchestration
- locked access to function blocks source code
- efficient “wrap and reuse” of automation objects
Universal automation digital ecosystem
In addition to providing digital continuity and seamless integration with complementary software, EcoStruxure Automation Expert also enables different entities, whether internal or external, to work together to create the best solution to solve specific market challenges.
EcoStruxure Automation Expert is the world’s first universal automation solution and part of an ecosystem that works similarly to an app store for automation where vendors, end users, and OEMs share a common automation software layer across their technology. This technological collaboration is driving the development of portable, interoperable, “plug and produce” automation solutions that industrial enterprises can easily integrate regardless of brand.
Since its introduction in late 2020, EcoStruxure Automation Expert has received numerous recognitions and awards for innovation and product excellence. Most recently, EcoStruxure Automation Expert was the recipient of the 2022 Engineer’s Choice Award for Software: MES, MOM.
“Our customers continue to call EcoStruxure Automation Expert a ‘game changer’ for industrial automation engineering and operation,” said Fabrice Jadot, Senior Vice President, Next Generation Automation, Schneider Electric. “Industrial flexibility and sustainability have never been more important, given today’s highly volatile market. With EcoStruxure Automation Expert, our industrial enterprise customers are driving towards 100% engineering efficiency, ready for 100% effectiveness, and now 100% future proof.”
EcoStruxure Automation Expert v22.0 is the next in an ongoing series of updates and enhancements that Schneider Electric delivers to the market at least twice a year.
Schneider Electric was recognised as the world’s most sustainable corporation in 2021 by Corporate Knights Global 100 Index.