Semantic integration by means of a graphical OPC Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) information model designer for Manufacturing Execution Systems

Today, normally MES (Manufacturing execution systems) are isolated applications. Tomorrow, they have to be linked to each other. The prototypical engineering-framework based on OPC-UA (OLE for Process control-Unified architecture) processes data in the standardized XML-based format CAEX (Computer Aided Engineering Exchange) describing production plants. It configures MES and generates corresponding process visualization. OPC-UA is a standard which accomplishes to support process communication in a structured way with an underlying user-defined information model. In this contribution, a graphical OPC-UA information model editor is presented which supports CAEX import and OPC-UA export, both in XML. Thus, MES can take advantage of the skills of OPC-UA servers and CAEX data can be managed online. The mentioned concepts were tested with an application example.