I have talked earlier about the importance of data in MES software.If I separate the software into "Data Consumer" or ERP,"Data Processor" or MES and the "Data Producer" which includes both the plant processor generated SCADA as well as the manually generated production reports, this allows us to move further towards data integration.ERP providers typically build an enterprise model and constrain all other data inputs to fit( allowing for customisation).The SCADA providers typically cocentrate, as they should on running the production machinery in the first place, and offering use of historical data stored.No solution provider has as yet concentrated on the production report end.
It is in the interest of the users to come up with a specification or "contract" that will allow any ERP to combine with any SCADA and any provider of Production Report solutions.As a preliminary step I suggest the following:
For all Production Report functions:
1.The Data Consumer should accept data from only the Data Processor.
2.The Data Producer should provide data only to the Data Processor.
3.The Data Processor should obtain data only from Production Reports and SCADA(i.e. the Data Producer).
4.The MES data will be a superset of the ERP production data.
This will ensure that while MES reports will focus on an area totally different from the ERP, the reports will be consistent with each other because the underlying data are consiastent with one another.
