The Challenge

As the world's most populous country and its second largest economy, China faces a huge demand for dairy products. Rapid population growth and urbanisation mean the dairy industry has enormous capacity for expansion. In the “Made in China 2025” strategy and the 13th Five-Year Plan*, Chinese dairy producers, including Yili, also face the challenges of accelerating transformation and modernising, energy conservation, emissions reduction, and sustainable development:

• Greater energy conservation and emission reduction targets that are difficult to meet using traditional energy management methods
• Energy efficiency status of equipment cannot be effectively monitored and managed in real time
• Lack of detailed and accurate data and analysis to support decision making 
• Energy input-output ratio is difficult to scientifically quantify
• Rebuild consumer trust through smart and secure manufacturing

* January 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Food and Drug Administration, the five ministries jointly issued the National Dairy Development Plan (2016–2020)

Apps, Analytics and Services: Energy management software & expert services
Edge Control: Modicon M340 PLC, building automation
Connected Products: Sensors, switches, UPS, cabinets

Schneider Electric provides Yili with a complete energy management solution:

Energy management software and expert services:
• Provide comprehensive real-time system monitoring for energy efficiency, making it relatively easy to understand the situation
• Generate reports on demand showing energy consumption
• Correlate and compare system and historical data across different cost centres and product lines to help optimise processes, energy efficiency and lean management

Powerful edge control system:
Modicon M340 PLC and controller controls and collects a large amount of data quickly through a unified protocol, and uses the "information flow" to open up highly dispersed systems. The connection completely eliminates information islands between systems and realises the transparent visual management of energy consumption.

A full set of automation products:
UPS, intelligent power distribution cabinets, sensors, and switches to ensure continuous and reliable use of electricity by deploying smart meters and gateways, etc.

• New industry benchmarks set for energy efficiency and operations management
• Operational efficiency increased by 19%
• Energy costs reduced by 5%
• Integration of automation systems with energy management software to generate large amounts of valuable data, accurately and quickly
• Complete transparency between energy demand side and supply side distribution
• Labour costs reduced and efficiency improved

Example: At the Yili Huanggang factory, staff can now complete the data collection from all 200 energy meters in 5 seconds, increasing efficiency by 1400 times, with complete accuracy. The energy consumption KPI indicators are now measured in a single second, greatly improving management efficiency.