Demand for digitalization of factory equipment increases as pandemic continues
SE, a cloud-based remote equipment monitoring solution
Provides greater flexibility for equipment manufacturers and operators


As the non-face-to-face trend has taken hold due to the ongoing pandemic, the foundation for the spread of smart factories is being laid as traditional factories increasingly adopt remote equipment maintenance and monitoring solutions. The digitalization of factory equipment (Machine Digitization) enables OT managers to collect and analyze equipment-related information. It prevents sudden equipment downtime and secures visibility that enables remote management, enabling immediate response.

On the 8th, Schneider Electric held a press conference in Magok, Seoul, and explained its plan to introduce remote equipment management technology for implementing smart factories. Schneider Electric's integrated architecture platform for industrial sites and equipment manufacturers, 'EcoStruxure™ Machine', unveiled that day, extends the life of existing equipment based on IoT technology and supports the introduction of new equipment and increased efficiency in application design.

EcoStruxure Machine is a platform for increasing energy efficiency, optimizing processes, and improving productivity, and consists of three stages: connected products, edge control, and apps, analytics, and services. It provides up to 30% reduction in time to market during the design phase, up to 40% reduction in startup time during the AR virtual test drive deployment phase, and up to 50% reduction in problem resolution time during the digital service phase.

“The digitalization of factory equipment enables the collection, transmission, and sharing of information without time and space constraints, thereby improving equipment operation efficiency and usability,” said Yoon-Kook Park, Manager of Machine and Sensor Solutions and Industrial Automation Segment Offer Marketing for Schneider Electric’s Korea/Taiwan Cluster. “In particular, the cloud is an essential element of smart factories.”

Meanwhile, Manager Park Yoon-guk introduced 'EcoStruxure™ Machine Advisor', a cloud-based digital remote factory equipment management solution within the EcoStruxure machine architecture, 'Microsoft Azure'. Machine Advisor allows customers to monitor the status of their equipment installed in all production sites around the world in real time, and guides equipment operators to take immediate action in the event of an emergency.

EcoStruxure Machine Advisor provides three capabilities to track, monitor, and troubleshoot the health of your equipment. First, ▲Tracking is a function that provides equipment-related data storage and operating work management services, and through this, equipment-related data, documents, and service items can be digitized.

▲Monitoring is a function that collects equipment data and digitalizes the equipment status and data by visualizing it in a way that users can easily recognize. In particular, it increases equipment availability through abnormal detection through data analysis, and provides predictive maintenance services by immediately notifying users when abnormal signs occur. In addition, ▲Fix function is a software tool linked to the cloud that allows you to solve equipment problems and manage maintenance items.

Next, PAE Manager Lee Seon-cheol of Schneider Electric's Industrial Automation Division demonstrated real-time data from Schneider Electric's Iksan Smart Factory site. Because it is based on the MS Azure cloud, asset monitoring is possible on all devices that can use a web browser, including general PCs, tablets, and mobile devices.

Machine Advisor supports most automation devices commonly used in the field, including Schneider Electric's PLCs, IoT gateways, and Ewon, Hilscher, and Moxa, making it easy to apply to any factory.

On this day, Jeon Hyeong-geun, the director of NIT Korea, a dust collector manufacturer and domestic customer of Schneider Electric, also participated in the meeting and shared examples of utilizing Machine Advisor. NIT Korea has specialized technology to filter various pollutants in daily life and industrial sites based on plasma technology and has various domestic and international customers.

CEO Jeon Hyeong-geun emphasized, “Recently, when supplying our equipment to customers, we have been providing equipment management solutions based on Machine Advisor,” and “We have added various convenient functions on our own, including a function to automatically create environmental indicators that were previously manually entered every day, and have reduced the customer’s initial investment cost and labor cost by about 20%.”

“By leveraging our cloud- and IIoT-based digitalization solutions for factory equipment, equipment manufacturers can provide users of their equipment in the field with faster, improved services that differentiate them from their competitors,” said Sanghoon Seo, Head of Schneider Electric’s Industry Business Unit. “They can also build a collaborative environment between equipment manufacturers and users.”