ELECTRIC.IE • The Magazine & Website for the Irish Electrical Industry • 35 Eplan The quick and easy cabling of machines for improved foresight, simplification and transparency. of experienced engineers is now stored in the software, preventing it from leaking out of the organisation when experienced engineers leave. Moreover, newcomers can start work sooner, as they no longer need extensive electrical engineering experience and knowledge of the client's organisation to generate electrical schematics. And last but not least, because many engineering tasks are automated, organisations can do significantly more electrical work with the same number of staff. The role of automation in various sectors Automated engineering is interesting for companies in a wide range of sectors, from healthcare to hightech industry and from the food industry to logistics and transport. It offers advantages for any organisation that wants to reduce process costs while simultaneously improving productivity and product quality. One sector that stands to gain significantly from automated engineering is mechanical engineering and industrial automation. Automated engineering also offers significant benefits for the energy sector, for example, in the design of installations and infrastructure. This sector is facing the challenge of facilitating the energy transition, while the number of available technicians is declining. Automated engineering offers the solution. This allows energy companies to perform more electrical engineering work with less skilled personnel. Challenges in implementing automated engineering Integrating automated engineering into existing processes and platforms can present challenges. A potential solution is automated engineering software like EEC. One organisation that avoids integration problems with this approach is Eaton. This manufacturer of power distribution, switching, and control equipment has managed to automate all human actions in the schematic generation process. Furthermore, Eaton has standardised the output of automated schematic generation to such an extent that EEC can largely automate the subsequent panel building process. Another challenge in transitioning to automated engineering is that engineers' work changes, requiring additional skills. For example, electrical engineers in automated engineering must collaborate more interdisciplinary, including with mechanical engineers and software developers. This requires excellent communication skills. They also need to develop a more conceptual mindset, enabling them to transcend the technical solution and see the bigger picture. Basic knowledge of mechanical engineering and software development is therefore a plus. Step-by-step plan for implementing automated engineering How do you implement automated engineering? To a certain extent, it's a customised approach. However, there are some implementation steps and best practices that apply to every organisation. Start by identifying the processes and process steps that are repeatable. That's where automated engineering can achieve the greatest efficiency gains. Then, assess the extent to which these steps are already standardised and standardise them further where possible. After all, without standardisation, there's no automation. Then, launch automated engineering and monitor the time savings. Is this less than the time engineers spend? At some point, you need to cross that tipping point. You can potentially accelerate this by streamlining and standardising the processes that provide input for schematic generation and documentation creation prior to implementation. For example, by having the input for automated engineering generated by a sales configurator, where the sales department or customer can submit their requirements within standardised frameworks. The next and final step in implementing automated engineering is user training. Because when engineers know how to get the most out of the schematic generation software, the efficiency gains you achieve with automated engineering are greatest.
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