Drives & Controls March 2022

24 n DIGITALISATION March 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com T he factory of the future is not an amorphous idea. It is a fully formed reality, answering the real challenges of today, while securing a sustainable future. Manufacturers stuck in the cultures and technologies of yesterday will quickly find themselves left behind. In short, the future is now. There are plenty of reasons why factories need to accelerate their evolution. Green manufacturing is no longer a nice-to-have; achieving net-zero is a global priority. More than 64% of large industrial companies say reducing their carbon footprint is one of their top three priorities for the coming year. However, it’s not just sustainability goals that demand innovation. Cost and efficiency savings are a must at a time of continued supply chain disruption. Anything that causes unnecessary expenditure or delay can impact long-term resilience, growth and competitiveness. And, with the constant threat of cyber-attacks, factories must be able to match innovation with digital protection. With such a range of challenges to master, it might feel like the only answer is to start from scratch. Not so. Building brand-new factories isn’t the answer to our current challenges. Access to greenfield sites is limited, and it is both practical and sustainable to take existing brownfield infrastructure and retrofit them to be future-proof. The question is: How can existing factories be updated to meet these expectations? And where do you start? For more than 30 years, Schneider Electric’s Flint factory in North Wales has been manufacturing PVC trunking for domestic and international markets. Previously known as Mita, it was acquired by the Lexel Group, part of Schneider, in 1999. Much of the machinery in the plant was outdated and analogue. The site was the highest energy consumer of all Schneider Electric’s factories in the UK, and it was also a significant user of water. Schneider saw the site as an opportunity to create a smart factory. Rather than removing and replacing the existing machinery, the factory was retrofitted with digital technologies, allowing Schneider to maximise efficiency and minimise downtime. As the company’s first UK smart factory, Flint provides a model for revolutionising ageing infrastructure to deliver operational effectiveness and sustainability. Painting a picture The transformation started by painting a complete picture of the plant, using an auditing tool that allowed modernisation strategies to be prioritised. The process included: Low-voltage auditing Factory Schneider Electric has converted an ageing factory that it operates in North Wales into a digitised plant ready for the future. John Flynn, the company’s smart factory business developer manager for the UK and Ireland, explains how it was done. Turning a factory of the past into a factory of the future