In the latest move to bring the plant and enterprise closer together, Kepware Technologies, the maker of device communication software, rolled out a connectivity suite for Oracle’s manufacturing applications.
The KEPServerEX product, which includes more than 130 communication protocols supporting more than 1,000 plant floor devices, including PLCs, I/O, and field instrumentation, now includes an interface directly into the Oracle MES for Discrete Manufacturing application, introduced last year, as well as Oracle’s Manufacturing Operations Center, a repository for plant floor data and a real-time analysis tool, which was released in April.
Kepware and Oracle have been working together since February to design plug-ins for the applications, which are part of the Oracle E-Business suite. KEPServerEX, which is compliant with the OPC device communication standard, is used by a long list of automation vendors and industrial software suppliers, including Rockwell Automation, GE Fanuc, Wonderware, and Activplant. These companies leverage the Kepware technology in order to avoid having to write their own unique communication drivers for each device.
Recently, however, enterprise applications vendors — including SAP, and now Oracle — have tapped into Kepware’s device connectivity as a way to give their customers visibility into plant floor activities.