My journey in Industry 4.0 and Smart Factories in the Schneider Global Supply Chain

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This is the story of my journey around a revolution: The industry 4.0

1st February 2018, straight after coming back from Malaysia where I was studying cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence, I started my internship as an IoT and Augmented Reality engineer in Schneider Electric Le Vaudreuil in France. I was very thrilled to be there as it was the beginning of a revolution that will lead to many innovations and technologies to discover. We had to be quick in deploying new solutions as we wanted to inaugurate the plant in April to become the showcase of what we could achieve regarding Industry 4.0.

I had the chance to meet someone that I will quickly consider as a mentor: Matthieu Mailly. He was the project leader and my internship supervisor at the time and initiated me to the policies and culture of Schneider Electric and helped me grow as an employee but also as a person.

After 6 months of working on leading the way by using new technologies and digitization to get benefit in safety, quality, customer satisfaction, and performance, I had the amazing chance of becoming the successor of my mentor and officially became a Smart Factory Project Leader and gather myself with wonderful people to create a Smart Team.

Our mission was clear: addressing issues of the plant that did not have answers before and use innovative ways to solve them, then share those results with my collaborators around the world and build the showcase that will allow our teams to present Schneider Electric achievements to our customers, in a real functioning factory. Growing with digital put me in a very interesting position because I got a strong digital background and I was always used to discovering new technologies.

In order to achieve our targets, our team had help from many people from all over the world, and I personally love working with people from different backgrounds and positions to build the future of the industry.

Sharing my passion along the way with Smart Factory

What I love about my work is that it is also a story of sharing experiences to achieve great success together. This picture was taken during a sharing session between Le Vaudreuil and Mastertech factories in February 2020. By our continuous effort to lead the pack, we even achieved to become the first two Advanced Smart Factory in Europe by the end of 2020!

I also had the chance to present my projects to many collaborators, customers, leaders, collectivities, and even YouTubers to interact with a larger public!

Here are two examples, one is a presentation I did in Grand Palais (Paris, France) about what will be the future jobs in Industry 4.0. I was very happy to be able to inspire people to take part in the Smart Factory journey.

The other one is a presentation for the world economic forum of Davos of 2019. The goal was to discuss with leaders from all around the world about what we believed this industry revolution will bring to all the companies in this sector. It was a remote presentation: already ahead of our time!

This is just the beginning

I am very proud to say that at the end of 2020, Schneider Electric gave me the title of Digital Edison Expert IIoT to Cloud (addressing my expertise in connected product, edge control, data analytics, etc.). This recognition means a lot to me and brings my motivation to the roof!

Learning from people with different backgrounds drives me professionally but also personally, and I’m sure will do my best to continue to be part of the wonderful Smart Community that Schneider Electric is building along the way, internally and externally.

I can only invite you to join us, and create your own journey 4.0 with us at Schneider Electric! Start your career with us and search for opportunities here: www.se.com/students

About the Author

After graduating as an IIoT & IT Architect Engineer, Mathieu started in Schneider Electric as the Smart Factory Project Leader for Le Vaudreuil Factory. He has always been driven by new technologies and innovation and enjoy making life better for people that are around him, both professionally and personally. His position in one of the most advanced smart factories in the world allows him to get insights about future technologies, customer needs, best practices and trends around Industry 4.0. He is since 2020 an IIoT to Cloud Digital Edison Expert and a builder for the industry of the future.