Drives & Controls March 2023

44 n OPINION March 2023 www.drivesncontrols.com 2023: a year of digital transformation, sustainability and people C oming out of the Covid pandemic, no one expected things to snap back to normality. However, with new geopolitical and recessionary pressures coming to the fore in 2022, uncertainty and disruption continued and show no signs of slowing down. The government’s Autumn budget looked to industry and technology as key areas for growth, with a renewed commitment to r&d and promises of Britain being the“world’s next Silicon Valley”, yet industry still faces a lot of challenges to reach those heights. Last year was not an easy period for industry. The“race for chips”was just one example of product availability issues. Supply chain disruption continued and the fight for talent raged on. However, companies did start to think more seriously about sustainability, with the energy crisis, the cost of fuel and reduced access to Ukrainian gas refocusing minds on how to cut consumption. There is still hope and opportunity going into 2023, yet we need to work smarter and shift our focus to digital transformation, sustainability and people. 1. Digital transformation: optimisation is the name of the game With financial and market uncertainty carrying on into 2023, businesses will have no option but to optimise their operations to combat energy shortages and price rises. Restructuring and unifying data will enable this optimisation, integrating disparate datapoints across different businesses to gain a single view. This will allow organisations to compare multiple data sources, pinpoint areas to drive efficiencies, cut waste and boost profit margins. Through a best practice approach in our own factories and offices, we have proved that optimisation and sustainability go hand- in-hand. Using automation we have cut the energy bill at our Paris headquarters by 79%. Meanwhile, at our site in Coventry, we have been able to use resources more efficiently and to eradicate gas usage, using a building The turmoil of recent years is starting to recede, leaving a changed industrial landscape. Mark Yeeles, vice-president for industrial automation at Schneider Electric UK & Ireland, peers into his crystal ball to predict what the coming year holds for manufacturing and automation. Schneider Electric has been practicing what it preaches by upgrading its factories to smart operation. At its plant in Le Vaudreuil, France (above), for example, it has installed IIoT sensors connected to digital platforms. The new data this is generating has helped it to cut electricity use at the site by 25%, material waste by 17%, and CO 2 emissions by 25%.