Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has opened its new Smart Distribution Center in Dubai. It is the first Smart Distribution Center in the region and becomes the latest addition to the company’s growing worldwide network of smart operations facilities. These centers feature innovative digital technologies that can be leveraged to support a host of industries as they pursue their path toward greater integration and digitization.

The Smart Distribution Center is a model for industrial digitization, supporting the development of the UAE’s national Industry 4.0 agenda as it works towards a future based on harnessing the power of the Industrial Internet of Things and Smart Manufacturing. This is Schneider Electric’s sixth Smart Distribution Center launched in 2019, following inaugurations in Australia, China, Brazil, France, and India. Smart Distribution Centers are fundamental to Schneider Electric’s Tailored Sustainable Connected 4.0 supply chain digital transformation where the company leverages its EcoStruxure platform and architecture across its supply chain operations to deliver end-to-end integration and visibility to improve performance.

Schneider Electric has a 30-year track record of investment in the region, and in the UAE in particular. In that time, Dubai has become one of four international hubs for the company after Paris, Boston and Hong Kong.

The digitization of Dubai’s Smart Distribution Center not only shortens its delivery time to customers, but also optimizes supply chain operations to provide delivery excellence. Built on Schneider Electric’s cutting edge EcoStruxure technologies, the new distribution center will deliver a host of benefits across all layers of the company’s logistical operations.

Some of these improvements include:

• Agile management & process efficiency: EcoStruxure Plant communicates effectively with upstream and downstream suppliers, as well as internal parties, to optimize scheduling and drive faster and better decision-making to improve customer satisfaction with better service
• Asset performance management: EcoStruxure Machine enables real-time performance monitoring, analysis and predictive analytics to reduce downtime and create more efficient operations
• Empowered operators: The End to End Control Tower allows real-time visibility of shipments and timely contingency plans at early stages, empowering operators with information for increased and significantly improving safety
• Energy efficiency & reliability: EcoStruxure Power reduces energy consumption through real-time insights delivered by EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert and EcoStruxure Power Advisor, which has shown potential energy savings of between five and seven percent

Schneider Electric is committed to working in collaboration and partnership to develop the support infrastructure required to allow local government and industry to reach their digitization goals. As such, the company is open to sharing knowledge with government agencies, partners, customers and learning institutions to further the UAE’s national digitization agenda and develop local talent. The Smart Distribution Center, spanning across an area of 30,000 square meters, is now open for Inbound, Outbound and Local adaptation entities interested to experience and learn about the company’s most innovative technologies delivered through its IoT-enabled, open, interoperable architecture, EcoStruxure.

“Our new Smart Distribution Center in Dubai highlights our commitment to the UAE and the region. Through the implementation of our EcoStruxure architecture and platform we are enabling a wide range of industries, as well as government institutions in the UAE, to fulfill their long-term ambitions for digital transformation. In the short to midterm, our Smart Distribution Center is already increasing the end-to-end efficiency of our operations up to 5% by cutting delivery time to customers, optimizing supply chain operations by reducing equipment downtime and reducing overall power consumption saving approximately 10 – 12%,” said Ahmed Khashan, President of Gulf Countries & Pakistan, Schneider Electric.