Forward-looking technologies with Eplan

When it comes to the digital future, Eplan plays first fiddle: for over 40 years, we have been a first mover and quality leader in our industry. And you benefit from this too: use our forward-looking technologies to drive your business forward. With Eplan, you orchestrate your processes and become part of a seamless ecosystem.

Data is the foundation for the future

The future of engineering rests on a solid foundation: standardised, high-quality data.

At Eplan, we believe in this solid basis on which industrial automation and connected industries can be built. Artificial intelligence thus becomes more than just a buzzword and serves as a reliable co-thinking partner for software users.

Eplan Copilot: Your AI solution for electrical design

The latest innovations for your engineering future

Eplan Copilot
Product Change Notification

Eplan Copilot: Your co-thinking partner

Eplan Copilot is your co-thinking partner, combining engineering knowledge, software functionality and real-world tasks via a new interface layer – reliable, scalable and future-proof.

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Product Change Notification: Device data from manufacturer to operator

The Product Change Notification (PCN) use case, based on the Asset Administration Shell (AAS), provides a practical example of a consistent database within the industrial automation ecosystem.

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Understanding the impact of AI

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42% name poor data quality as a major obstacle to AI integration (Source: Statista)

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96% consider AI an indispensable asset in global competition (Source: Statista)

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80% of industrial companies view Industry 4.0 as an opportunity (Source: Statista)

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84.5% name reducing routine tasks as a goal of AI adoption (Source: German Economic Institute)

Cut working hours by 80% – it’s possible today!

Working with project templates, reusing standard circuits from libraries, automatically generating documentation or creating circuit diagrams at the touch of a button: electrical design with Eplan can be completed in a matter of hours or even minutes. And this is already possible: with Automated Engineering, entirely without AI.

This initially requires human expertise: the user creates libraries of sub-circuits that can be reused time and time again.

The advantage: this prevents copy-and-paste errors, and other staff members do not have to recreate these circuit diagram elements from scratch every time.

Depending on the company’s level of standardisation, initial sub-circuits can be generated automatically, or up to 80 per cent of the engineering process can be automated. However, in the ‘final stages’, human intervention is always required to make individual adjustments to the circuit diagrams.

Step by step to automated electrical design

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Digitalisation is essential for driving trends forward

If, for example, circuit diagrams are only provided on printed sheets of paper, there is no way to work on a data-driven basis in downstream processes.
In line with the principle ‘Data leads. AI follows’, the first step is to create a digitised and standardised database.
This forms the basis for communicating and collaborating seamlessly at all levels of engineering and in subsequent processes.

Eplan is the benchmark for electrical design

When it comes to a unified database, Eplan is your trusted partner – even beyond engineering:

Our software is the benchmark for electrical design, based on guided workflows and industry standards, enabling you to tackle complex challenges whilst completing routine tasks with just a few clicks.
You have access to millions of ready-to-use component data sets and templates to speed up your engineering work.
We also focus on a unified data foundation within our industry: from planning through to operation, end-to-end processes are based on intelligent data communication and data-driven solutions.
Here, various stakeholders – such as plant operators, machine builders and control panel manufacturers – are interconnected within an ecosystem via Eplan.

“AI is a tool – we need to ask the right questions.”

AI-based solutions operate on a different principle, but pursue a very similar goal: they assist humans with repetitive tasks. “AI is a tool – we need to ask the right questions,” says Sebastian Seitz, CEO at Eplan.

The human factor and human creativity always play a central role in this. Whether it’s about automating processes or using AI for routine tasks: individual tasks must still be carried out by humans.

When we talk about AI, we are talking about a form of co-intelligence that assists in solving repetitive tasks, so that humans have time for more complex issues. “If we use AI in a way that fosters creativity and provides relevant information at the right time, we are on the cusp of a revolution,” says Sebastian Seitz.

“When AI systems can interact with one another across domains and autonomously, we take the benefits for customers to a whole new level. In the field of automation technology in particular, there are significant efficiency gains, such as a reduction in planning time. Using AI-supported tools, developers can simulate various scenarios within minutes that would previously have taken days or even weeks. This allows us not only to save time, but also to significantly improve the quality of the results.”

What both automated and AI-based engineering have in common is that the data foundation must be correct so that all systems can work together seamlessly.