5 ways open automation principles promote responsible profitability

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In the fast-paced world of business and technology, the pursuit of profitability typically dominates corporate agendas. However, we’re seeing a shift in the landscape to emphasize responsible business practices and sustainability through open automation.

When businesses look beyond profitability to include ethics, environmental impact, and societal benefits, they find an opportunity to redefine their success metrics. This is “responsible profitability” — where intent meets action. One key area where responsible profitability becomes a possibility is within the realm of open automation.

How does open automation lead to responsible profitability?

Open automation is the next generation of automated systems. It automates processes traditionally managed by closed, proprietary systems or humans; using shared/open-source software, open standards, and collaborative frameworks.

By adopting open automation principles, businesses can achieve five key objectives that contribute to responsible profitability:

1. Cost efficiency and accessibility: Open automation democratizes technology by reducing reliance on expensive proprietary solutions. By helping make automation more accessible to a broader range of businesses, it fosters economic inclusivity and helps stimulate innovation across industries.
2. Transparency and accountability: Shared/open-source software promotes transparency in automation processes. Businesses can inspect the underlying code in their automated systems, ensuring they align with ethical standards and regulatory requirements. This helps build trust with customers, investors, and regulatory bodies to enhance the company’s reputation and reduce the risks associated with opaque practices.
3. Customization and adaptability: Open automation frameworks allow businesses to customize automation workflows to suit specific needs and evolving market conditions. This agility enables quicker adaptation to changing consumer preferences, technological advancements, and regulatory landscapes to help future-proof operations.
4. Collaboration and knowledge sharing: Share/open-source communities embrace collaboration and knowledge sharing, allowing participating businesses to access diverse talent and ideas. What’s more, they can leverage collective intelligence to solve complex challenges and drive continuous improvement in their automation strategies.
5. Environmental sustainability: Open automation principles can contribute to sustainability efforts by helping optimize resource utilization, reduce energy consumption, and support circular economy practices through efficient production and logistics automation.

Creating an automated future where everyone can contribute

Using digital transformation and open automation will make businesses flexible, agile, and competitive. However, one potential obstacle stands in the way of some companies attaining their responsible profitability goal – inclusive architectures.

Businesses locked into a proprietary ecosystem technology are at risk of being left behind. It’s like forcing a young adult to build a copper-wire infrastructure with dial-up to make a phone call rather than using AI-enabled smartphone technology to communicate.

The EcoStruxure framework is key to fostering an open automation approach. As a result, it enables industrial businesses to grow and innovate for the future without being encumbered by obsolescence. Its interoperability and portability help our customers enjoy the freedom of shaping technology around their business needs – and not the other way around.

It’s also key to attracting the best and brightest of the next generation of workers, who have never lived without digital influencing their lives. This allows your operations to continue the full potential of automation advancements.

Creating an automated future ensures all generations can contribute to your value goals without limitations.

Drawing on expertise to make responsible profitability a reality

Using digital transformation and open automation solutions equips businesses with greater flexibility and agility. I’m proud to say Schneider Electric has taken some important, leading steps in this area with:

• EcoStruxure Foxboro DCS– acts as the central brain of your industrial operation, coordinating and controlling process subsystems in real time.
• EcoStruxure Automation Expert– helps companies bridge AI and edge computing while freeing their system from closed, proprietary technology, also known as open automation.
• AVEVA Digital Twin– supports digital acceleration across the lifecycle.

For example, the new Electrodynamic Controller for EcoStruxure Foxboro DCS enables the implementation of EcoStruxure Power & Process principles. In turn, it integrates power and process controls into a single system, allowing for energy optimization and driving sustainable operations.

EcoStruxure Automation Expert, with Schneider Electric’s Soft dPAC, provides a software defined automation solution that enables businesses to architect automation with less hardware and greater flexibility. Conversely, this breaks the need for proprietary systems and ensures sustained operations independent of hardware lifecycles.

Finally, AVEVA Digital Twin provides digital continuity. One source of data leveraged throughout the lifecycle, from engineering, operations, asset performance, optimization to long term data management/analysis and more.

These innovative technologies allow us to foster, control, and analyze high-worth information. With our success metrics defined, we can use this high-quality data to measure inputs and outcomes. Afterwards, we determine how we are achieving our goals and have an impact on our businesses and our world.

Embracing responsible profitability to hold your company accountable

Responsible profitability through open automation principles represents a paradigm shift towards sustainable and ethical business practices. By embracing shared/open-source software, collaborative frameworks, and transparency, businesses can enhance profitability and contribute positively to society and the environment.

This approach fosters innovation, improves operational efficiency, and builds stakeholder trust, positioning companies as industry leaders. As we navigate an increasingly interconnected global economy, adopting open automation principles will continue to be a driving force for responsible profitability in the years to come.

If you’re ready to optimize your business for responsible profitability, start by unlocking Foxboro DCS’s full potential in automation advancements. If you’re ready to reimagine your automation with the newest technology, visit the EcoStruxure Automation Expert to learn how.