Schneider Electric, a global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and industrial automation, and SAP, a world leader in business process management software, announced today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on IT/OT integration applications. Schneider Electric and SAP plan to explore ways to drive industry innovation and digital transformation, drive open standards, and encourage tight integration of IT and OT technology to benefit industrial customers.
The companies intend to validate scenarios with their complementary offerings to enable easy and seamless integration for joint industrial customers. The companies also plan to address future collaboration in the areas of sustainability and energy management.
“Our collaboration with Schneider Electric demonstrates SAP’s broader support for the Industry 4.0 ecosystem,” said Peter Maier, President, Industries & Customer Advisory, SAP. “Our companies agree on the importance of collaboration, innovation and open standards to make integrated information and operational technology solutions easy to use for our mutual customers.”
The companies plan to explore ways to add value to customers through pre-configured and tested end-to-end solutions to reduce the cost of implementing and operating mission-critical business processes. The first scenarios will be:
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Simplified shop floor OT/IT integration based on common standards, onboarding and lifecycle management of assets as digital twins.
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End-to-end closed-loop, intelligent asset and field service management using virtual and augmented reality technologies.
An augmented reality solution will be demonstrated at Schneider Electric’s exhibition, 540 Hall 1, during the SPS 2022 conference from November 8th to 10th in Nuremberg, Germany. Event attendees can experience the EcoStruxure Augmented Operator Advisor, which uses augmented reality to allow operators to overlay the actual data and virtual objects on a cabinet, machine or plant. It integrates with SAP’s Intelligent Asset Management, which can orchestrate the entire lifecycle of these assets, including operations and planning, and maintenance planning and execution. Schneider Electric has also implemented EcoStruxure Augmented Operator Advisor at its own manufacturing facility in Carros, France.
“Many of our customers are looking for simpler ways to integrate advanced technology into their digitization journey,” said Bruno Zerbib, EVP, Chief Platform and Technology Officer, Schneider Electric. “With SAP, we are committed to addressing market challenges with innovative digital solutions to help these customers reap the benefits of Industry 4.0. For example, ensuring end-to-end OT/IT connectivity enables data-driven decision-making and improved performance strategies. Solutions that automatically trigger maintenance or service orders in SAP applications can close the loop between maintenance strategy and execution for optimal asset maintenance, and augmented reality can empower users to Delivering the right information at the right time in the right place to reduce time and increase the accuracy of root cause analysis.”
