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Recognizing an opportunity to improve quality and manufacturing efficiency, Schneider Electric Power System North America sought an integrated approach to electrical design and wiring processes. In this case study, Schneider Electric evaluated new methods against existing workflows, and ran a test pilot to prove the value of the SEE solution within their new workflow model.
Schneider Electric is a global industrial technology leader bringing world-leading expertise in electrification, automation, and digitization to innovative industries, resilient infrastructure, future-proof data centers, intelligent buildings, and intuitive homes. Anchored in deep domain expertise, they provide integrated, end-to-end AI-enabled Industrial IoT solutions, featuring connected products, automation, software, and services, which deliver digital twins to enable profitable growth for customers. The company is comprised of an ecosystem of 168,000 employees and over a million partners operating in more than 100 countries to ensure proximity to its customers and stakeholders.
Location: Nashville Metropolitan Area, Tennessee, USA
Year: 2024
Keeping pace with the rapid growth of engineered-to-order demands
This manufacturer recognized that a very big transition was occurring in their industry. One factor being the digitization of manufacturing, and the other is the new demands related to the energy transition, where multi-source systems including solar and battery storage are becoming more common. Each customer order for a new building project requires different switchboards and panels with varying wiring, communication options, and mechanical and electrical components. The quantities and sizes of structures that are required to house the electrical components vary from one order to the next. As well, the arrangements and sizes and ratings of the electrical components themselves vary within those configurations.
Current examples of their products include PZ4 and QED6 low voltage switchgear, Model 6 low voltage motor control centers which include drives and starters, QED2low voltage switchboards, and Masterclad medium voltage switchgear, with every project requiring different configurations of these products. Today’s switchboard and switchgears have very elaborate control schemes, often times including redundancy, with a high degree of communication and even connectivity to the cloud. The North America Power Systems Division at Schneider Electric recognized a need to revamp their engineering and manufacturing workflows to more efficiently meet each client's unique switchboard requirements, with each order requiring specialized equipment and components.
Integrated products in their workflow
What we delivered
Outcomes
All of this culminates in a higher level of quality with the machines preparing of the wires. We have a more consistent application the fittings on those wires and the length of the cables are cut correctly per the 3D models.
John Lane, Technology, Automation and Data Analytics Leader, Schneider Electric
The Wiring Pilot
The wiring trial involved comparing the new method for wiring against their old wiring method, where two wiring personnel were given the same 36 inch wide panel with pre-mounted electrical components in the same position. The test involved 88 wires and 103 terminations, and the activity was performed and recorded side-by-side at the same time.
The old wiring method used a legacy CAD system and a proprietary wiring design software with familiar documentation the employee was trained on. The second person used the new method using the SEE Expert software with visual work instructions produced from SEE 3D Panel and use the wire bundles prepared using the integration with the Komax Zeta 650. The results of this single test were a 58% reduction in wiring time and 49% reduction in scrap wire.
Run time: 8 hours 40 minutes
Run time: 3 hours 35 minutes
475 feet of wire
There was a marked improvement in efficient use of materials due to wiring lengths pre-calculated using the SEE software integration with the Komax machine.
The North America Power Systems Division at Schneider Electric currently has this new integrated SEE Electrical solution deployed at 8 sites for 8 product families with 304 active users of the software. The solution will be deployed at 4 more sites for 2 additional product families in the near future with an estimated 400 active users in the engineering team. Additional custom application work with SEE Expert is also underway for additional specializations for alignment with their internal bill of materials (BOM) management system and additional proprietary error checks with their own product library content. As well, as part of the order processing we have now enabled 3D modeling visualization using SEE 3D Panel with our own 3D library content. For manufacturing, we are running 3 Komax machines with SEE 3D Panel, and more planned.
Once fully operational, the company will be producing approximately 2 million terminations per year using this process However, this estimate is based upon 2022 volume, and they are expecting even more based upon current production levels.
The company has been actively training engineers and assembly teams on the new SEE software and workflow, including the use of SEE 3D Panel manufacturing work instructions using augmented reality tools to validate that components are mounted correctly. Continuous improvement is part of their process in the 3D modelling, the wire routing definition and production of work instructions, utilizing the human expertise of the shop floor employees to advise the engineering design.
Recognizing an opportunity to improve quality and manufacturing efficiency, Schneider Electric Power System North America sought an integrated approach to electrical design and wiring processes. They found the solution in ETAP SEE Electrical Expert and began their transformation journey. In this demonstration, you’ll learn how Schneider Electric evaluated new methods against existing workflows. As a result, SEE Electrical Expert, along with the Harness Engineering module and SEE Electrical 3D Panel, are now being implemented in manufacturing facilities to deliver more robust engineering designs. Meanwhile, SEE 3D Shop Floor has been adopted to automate manufacturing with wire-cutting machines.
SEE Electrical Expert
SEE Electrical 3D Panel
SEE Electrical 3D Shop Floor