Actus des entreprises
Schneider Electric to open its first Innovation Hub in Eastern Europe
The hi-tech demo space is in the company’s showcase smart factory in Bulgaria and is open for visitors from all over Europe
Schneider Electric, leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, is opening its first Innovation Hub in Eastern Europe, ready to welcome visitors from all countries of the region and beyond. The Innovation Hub is a demo space that allows visitors to experience live the IoT technology of the company. It is located in Schneider’s showcase plant in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. With this step the company is reinforcing its robust operations in the region where already a lot of competence is concentrated with a shared services center in Romania, regional logistic hub in Hungary and a competence center on Smart Grid in Serbia.
End of 2019, the production site in Bulgaria has received the highest level of industrial certification in the company - Smart Factory. To achieve this the enterprise had covered an ambitious set of criteria such as a minimum of 65% automation, building and energy management systems, highly efficient maintenance through an augmented reality application and others. “At the heart of this success is our own IoT based platform EcoStruxure. It consists of three main layers – connected devices, edge control and software, applications and services – and allows building of different architectures to the scale required for each site, managing and collecting data, as well as working with preventative and predictive maintenance tools. We created the Innovation Hub with the idea to let our all partners and customers, as well as students, trainees and young engineers of the region, experience these new technologies live”, Pert Hermann, Regional general manager, said.
Smart Factory is a program of the company that sets standardized requirements for factories of Schneider all over the world and is globally applied and audited in exactly the same way. “Our success shows that digitization and business maturity in Eastern Europe is already at the level required. The recent situation of necessary distancing proved that the ability to follow your plant’s processes remotely is a must nowadays. Next to our daily jobs we are now ready to host Innovation Hub and Smart Factory visits from all over the region.” Maria Topchiyska, Plant manager, said.
During the complicated period industry went through by now the factory had not closed for a single day. The connectivity, as well as the remote visibility and control functions given by smart systems were a key factor for the smooth adaptation to the new environment.
