| Abstract: | In creating a new business division, ERP purveyor IQMS aims to outfit manufacturers with better communication between PLCs and enterprise systems. |
| Keywords: | ERP to PLC, ERP interface PLC |
IQMS, a vendor of manufacturing-specific enterprise software, today announced a new division dedicated to creating technology that can unite factory floor machines with ERP through an integrated database, thereby driving lean business operations from the top down.
The Automation Group, led by IQMS Programmer Jason Slater, began as a custom development project for a customer that needed to tie its IQMS ERP system to Rockwell Automation programmable logic controllers (PLCs). In that instance, IQMS configured a PLC handling a pallet wrapper program to communicate directly with the ERP system. The project quickly expanded to allow interfacing to a variety of conveyors, vertical lifts, scanners, palletizers, and other pieces of equipment — all with the goal of gaining better visibility into work in process and inventory on the shop floor.
That project, in turn, drove the ERP provider to create its own division staffed by experts who can visit a manufacturing facility and integrate ERP systems and PLCs. The Automation Group provides this integration on a case-by-case basis, building out its expertise as it goes.
IQMS’ ERP modules, built on an Oracle database, cover a variety of applications, including warehouse management systems (WMS), product lifecycle management (PLM), quality, manufacturing execution system (MES), and preventive maintenance. These modules have all been built from the ground-up with the same tools and the same look and feel, creating what IQMS said is one version of the truth across all applications. The integration efforts of the Automation Group aim to extend that single version of the truth on the factory floor, and also minimize integration efforts among multiple databases, providing IT with a more cost-effective, manageable system, said Randy Flamm, president and founder of IQMS, in an interview with Managing Automation.
Slater told Managing Automation that IQMS will ultimately support any PLC; he and his team are building a library of programs that will provide plug-and-play connectivity between PLC and ERP.
“There’s a lot of programming as far as machine-level control,” Slater said, “but some customers have a lot of that [logic] already in place, so we are able to tie into that and communicate easily.”
In collecting information from a variety of machines scattered around the production floor, IQMS makes use of its wireless mesh network of sensors, which feed real-time data back to the ERP system and report on what each machine is doing.
IQMS built its ERP application on top of Oracle’s database and Windows on the front end, including Mobile .NET, which works with wireless devices.
IQMS has more than 400 customers covering 1,000 or more manufacturing locations. Beta sites have been testing several applications designed by the IQMS Automation Group, including two-way communication with PLCs, automated pick/store warehouse applications for forklifts, and direct interfacing with work centers to automatically report scrap and production data.
“The manufacturers we deal with in the U.S. that are progressive are typically the ones trying to reduce labor and increase throughput, as well as address compliance issues,” Flamm said. “This dovetails into what we are doing with the Automation Group. The ERP system reaches down and talks to machines and machines talk to it with information pushed from shop floor into ERP without human intervention.”
The goal, according to officials, is to have a lean operation that knows when a machine has completed a cycle, how many parts the machine made, and how fast — in terms of parts per minute — as well as when a job will be finished and whether a machine is down. If a machine stops, for example, a sensor can send that information back to the ERP to reconcile inventory.
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