PALATINE, Ill. - September 7, 2006 - The North American Operating Division of Schneider Electric announced the launch of the Schneider Electric Motion Competency Center, with headquarters in Plymouth, Mich. Schneider Electric is drawing on the motion control expertise of Berger Lahr, a company of Schneider Electric, and its existing assets, to create a single resource in the United States for all motion functions. The center will offer customers increased proficiency, superior product knowledge and custom solutions in one location. “Motion is central to improving a machine’s efficiency and requires in-depth knowledge of both mechanical and electrical systems,” said Mike Hyslop, president of Berger Lahr and director of the competency center.
“We created the Schneider Electric Motion Competency Center so we could provide our customers with support from the design phase through the start-up and commissioning process. We want our customers to have seamless support, from integrated product design to service, and we felt it was most effective to have all the motion resources working together in one organization.”The center brings together a talented team of motion control experts from multiple disciplines, including application engineers, quote and application specialists, design engineers and project managers to provide customers with complete motion solutions.
In addition, the center will provide field sales support, technical and application support, training, engineering, order management, inventory, returns, repairs, exchanges, and marketing and product management. These experts offer unmatched insight on the industry and work with clients to design integrated systems made up of Telemecanique Lexium motion control products and other Schneider Electric automation and control products. “Machine builders no longer want to piecemeal together solutions and worry that their machine will not operate efficiently to yield the desired Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) for their customer,” Hyslop said.
“Our consolidation of resources will help us provide our customers with specific solutions, guaranteed to work together, in one stop.”Schneider Electric is uniquely positioned to offer motion solutions through the Motion Competency Center as well as complementary solutions. A 2005 Schneider Electric survey of small to medium OEMs requiring a high level of mechanical control revealed that more than 50 percent of motion customers also use AC drives and more than 65 percent want their motion and PLC systems to integrate so they can save design, start-up and operational time. “The Schneider Electric offer is unrivaled in its simplicity and flexibility,” said Geoff Walker, business director, automation and drives, Schneider Electric.
“Customers implementing our automation, drives and motion solutions state that they have reduced application development time by 25 percent and start-up time by 15 percent.” The Motion Competency Center is especially suited to serve machine builders serving the automotive, electronic assembly, food and beverage production, and pharmaceutical industries. Key applications include packaging and forming, material handling and positioning, metal working and special purpose machinery.The Motion Competency Center marks the fourth competency center for the North American Operating Division of Schneider Electric.
Most recently, the company launched the Water Wastewater Competency Center in Nashville, Tenn., which serves as a single resource in the United States for all power, control and automation needs for the water wastewater industry.
Previously, Schneider Electric opened a Critical Power Competency Center in Nashville, and a Sensor Competency Center in Dayton, Ohio.Headquartered in Palatine, Ill., the North American Operating Division of Schneider Electric had sales of $2.8 billion (U.S.) in 2005.
The North American Operating Division is one of four operating divisions of Schneider Electric, headquartered in Paris, France, and markets the Square D, Telemecanique and Merlin Gerin brand products to customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States, Schneider Electric is best known by its flagship Square D brand, with Telemecanique becoming increasingly known in the industrial control and automation markets and supported by many Square D distributors. For 100 years, Square D has been a market-leading brand of electrical distribution and industrial control products, systems and services.
Schneider Electric is a global electrical industry leader with 2005 sales of approximately $14.5 billion (U.S.).
