"The modern factory is digital, interconnected and adaptable. However, since the manufacturing landscape in Germany is predominantly based on brownfields – and thus on grown structures, limited space and machines from different decades – flexible and adaptable MES/MOM solutions are required. These enable communication and horizontal and vertical networking from the top floor to the shop floor," explains Peter Bollinger, CEO of iTAC Software AG, a subsidiary of Dürr AG.
With the iTAC.MOM.Suite, production processes can be controlled, optimized and predicted in real time. The holistic manufacturing management system is based on a completely open architecture and can therefore be integrated into existing ecosystems. This enables factories to complete the digital transformation in their production – also in the brownfield – and to meet future requirements for an end-to-end digital process chain. Various services and applications are integrated into the iTAC.Workbench – a browser-based framework for the integration of any HTML-5-compliant applications. The framework is designed to consolidate the multitude of iTAC and customer-specific applications in a single user interface with standard functions.
All MOM modules easily available in HTML-5 framework
iTAC is now focusing on seamless integration and is increasing the integration and usability of the MES/MOM modules in the iTAC.Workbench. It thus serves as a central access point for using all modules from iTAC as well as from third-party suppliers. What was only delivered as a separate plug-in in the past, each with a different URL, is now integrated into the Workbench.
Modules such as the Maintenance Manager or Quality Management can be installed as plug-ins in the Workbench and opened and operated directly from there. It is possible to define which users have access to which plug-ins or not. In addition, interfaces can be easily created via low code in the Workbench. The user can thus generate an individual interface without any programming knowledge.
In addition, add-on modules from third-party providers can be connected and operated from one software. Project-specific applications that are required by users on the shopfloor, for example, can be made available via the add-ons plug-in.
Simplicity for users and developers both
"Our framework offers benefits for both the end user and the developer. The user gets a one-stop solution – a single URL is enough to get access to all available front-end applications. With single login, the user logs in only once and can easily manage multiple applications. A single administration frontend provides access to all plug-ins installed on a system," explains Peter Bollinger.
For the developer, the framework provides an API (Application Programming Interface) to allow access to frequently used features of web applications, thus facilitating the development process while ensuring homogeneous applications. The API provides an authentication service – so the developer only has to use the API of the framework. It also provides access to a common component library that reduces development effort and enables a common user interface design.
Peter Bollinger says: "With the concept of seamless integration, iTAC is increasing its focus on flexibility, usability and simplicity. These are exactly the features that are in demand in Industry 4.0."
