Schneider Electric Universal Automation User Manual
Universal Automation
A call for change
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UNIVERSAL AUTOMATION
The IT world has moved
on from proprietary
operating systems.
Now it’s industry’s turn.
The future of industry is wide open
™
Schneider Electric
calling it universal automation and it will forever change the way we automate operations.
believes the time is right for a bold move in industrial automation. We’re
Universal automation is the world of plug-and-produce automation software components
(think app store) enabled by the IEC 61499 standard.
We believe “open automation” as it exists today is not open enough. We believe
interoperable and portable application software is an essential enabler for
next-generation industries.
We believe broad adoption of universal automation will unleash a wave of unbounded
innovation and usher in a new era of à la carte automation where cost/performance is
optimized by integrating best-of-breed components without regard to vendor.
We believe industrial enterprises will embrace this ever-growing automation app
marketplace to realize step-change improvements in eciency and sustainability we
could only dream of a decade ago.
And we believe businesses will thrive with universal automation that fluidly adapts to our
changing world to better transform humanity through the food we eat, the technology we
use, the products we consume, the work we do, and the environment we live in.
This is NOT business as usual.
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UNIVERSAL AUTOMATION
Executive Summary
Current industrial automation system architecture has done a good job of advancing industry to
where we are today, but to fully realize the promise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we need to
fundamentally change our technology model.
It is time to release the constraints we have learned to accept: Big engineering efforts, lack of
modularization, and barriers that inhibit adaptability and bog down innovation.
We can create step-change operational improvements with an open, standard-based architecture
and a plug-and-produce application ecosystem capable of keeping up with the speed of doing
business in the digital world.
Will you be part of the universal automation future?
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UNIVERSAL AUTOMATION
À la Carte Automation
A digital world
We are now living in a true digital economy. Technological innovations and the internet have
forever changed how the business of the world gets done.
At the same time, the recent pandemic and resulting global economic disruption has served
as a “wake up call” for industrial enterprises to no longer postpone much-needed operational
advancements in automation and digitalization. Even established companies that were once
perceived to be immune from market fluctuations are finding themselves challenged by
unprecedented global dynamics and by newcomers who are embracing digital technologies
to create agile businesses that better serve the modern world.
No one company can navigate these conditions alone. Persisting in this new world requires an
extended ecosystem of partners collaborating to succeed. It’s time for universal automation.
For manufacturing enterprises, the epidemic has
simply exposed problems and risks that already
existed. As such, it might force industry to undertake
much needed reforms to automation, digitalization
and logistics processes and systems.”
Control Engineering, 2020
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UNIVERSAL AUTOMATION
What future do we want?
In a digital world, industrial organizations thrive by seamlessly adapting to ever-changing market
conditions on both the supply and demand sides. By embracing innovative technologies along
with sustainability goals, companies can easily accommodate new business opportunities while
also conserving energy and natural resources.
• Operations respond fluidly and cost-effectively to evolving market demands, to real-time
price fluctuations in energy and raw materials, and to highly dynamic and greatly shortened
product lifecycles.
• Plants and processes are fully optimized for efficiency, reliability, productivity, and
sustainability, supported by a flexible, intrinsically cybersecure digital automation platform.
• Manual tasks are fully automated freeing the industrial workforce to use intuitive technology
and easy to understand analytics to make smart, real-time decisions that create
unprecedented business value.
• Innovations such as augmented reality, remote management tools, and predictive maintenance
ensure that plants and processes are ready for 100% effectiveness. Return on OpEx and
CapEx spend is quickly realized.
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