Paris - France

Schneider Electric is a worldwide leader in electrical distribution, industrial control and automation. At present, Schneider Electric has 60,000 employees in 130 countries,153 plants, 620 marketing locations and 7,400 sales outlets. Schneider Electric is one of the few global suppliers with a catalogue that meets all international standards requirements, notably IEC (Europe) and NEMA (North America). Schneider Electric had Sales of 7,600 Mio EURO, an operating income of 900 Mio EURO, a net income of 400 Mio EURO, capital expenditure of 290 Mio EURO and spent approximately 400 Mio EURO on RTD in 1998.

The core business of Schneider Electric is electrical distribution (transmitting electricity from power plants to homes and businesses with complete safety and reliability) and industrial control and automation (controlling, monitoring, protecting, automating, supervising machines and installations in industrial processes, infrastructure and construction). The core markets are electrical power (distribution, control and protection equipment for installations, transmission networks, and high and medium voltage power distribution; transformer, substations, supply substations and medium voltage distribution substations; control/monitoring and safety equipment for power plants; customized services), industry (electrical distribution for industrial sites, monitoring equipment to ensure the safety of people and installations; automation devices to operate machines and continuous and batch manufacturing processes; customized services), infrastructure (electrical distribution for industrial sites, monitoring equipment to ensure the safety of people and installations, automation devices to operate machines and continuous and batch manufacturing processes, customized services), construction (electrical distribution, building management, monitoring and safety systems, building switchgear, equipment and automation systems, customised services).

Schneider has successfully entered into the area of ICT systems for process monitoring and providing a basis for planning and the efficient introduction of new automation technology. By their product ‘Web Embedded Server’ within the Automation strategy ‘Transparent factory’ they provided new means for process monitoring over distributed plants enables efficient maintenance and planning of process improvements. The product facilitates efficient monitoring of the processes at different levels in the company (including Management Information Systems).

PICK represents an excellent opportunity for SCHNEIDER to enter into the new generation of ICT tools, based on an effective management of corporate knowledge. The process improvement topic, addressed by PICK, is ideally fitting in with the strategy of SCHNEIDER to support their customers with effective tools when introducing advanced automation technology. SCHNEIDER sees this as an extraordinary way not only to enter the market with new products, but also to enhance possibilities for the marketing of their other products (since tools which will support customers in PI, specifically in the run-up phases of the new technology, will considerably increase the market potential of the automation technology which SCHNEIDER is selling).

One of the high motivations for SCHNEIDER in this project is to further improve their service regarding the integration of different systems in the companies, especially w.r.t. knowledge integration, which is seen as the main challenge for the automation systems in the next 5-10 years.

In reference to this there is a high interest of SCHNEIDER to take an active role towards establishing standards between the different products and, especially, process models.

The main area of interest within the PICK project is the further building of know-how in knowledge based methods and tools. This includes extended products as well as improved offers in supporting enterprises to introduce modern ICT systems (knowledge based systems) for process improvement.

The basic role of Schneider, as a main vendor within PICK, will be to provide methods for integration of knowledge over different systems and sources, as a basis for the integration of the developed tools in the environments of the three end-users, as well as for their effective exploitation. Specifically, Schneider will contribute to the definition of requirements and the specification of the interfaces/knowledge exchange between PICK and other legacy systems and the implementation of the required adapters. Schneider will also overtake the role as a main exploitation partner and will lead activities regarding standardization aspects.

Jacques Le Gallais, will be responsible for the project work carried out at Schneider Electric. He has extensive experience in automation systems and their application in different industrial sectors. Today he is Manager of Application Packages. His know-how includes knowledge/information integration aspects, especially between different planning and control systems. He will also act as Exploitation manager in co-operation with the Project manager Mr. Fischer from DaimlerChrysler and lead the task related to the standardization aspects.

Eric Jegu, will be responsible for the project work carried out at Schneider Electric. He has extensive experience in automation systems and their application in different industrial sectors. Today he is Manager of Automation Engineering Services responsible to support customers in their process improvement within their introduction of advanced technology. Therefore, he will bring into the team his know-how on the process improvements by different customers and on integration between different legacy systems.

Eckart Tietze, will be responsible for the direct activities between Schneider Electric and DaimlerChrysler. He has 30 years experience in automation systems. Today he is the National Account Manager DaimlerChrysler.