Terms

Some terms are provided here for an in-house translation table. The background to this is the partially different designations that are already established within the company itself.

A plant corresponds to a company name within a site. At the same time, work center groups or work center are subdivided in a plant.

A work center group combines several work center of the same type.

A work center corresponds to a manufacturing step in which products are created that can be transported and/or stored. A work center is subdivided in one or more PLCs.

A PLC is assigned to a work center and combines several functions.

A function corresponds to a work step of a machine, which is recorded via PLC variables.

An MES-Terminal is an (industrial) computer. Each work center requires an MES-Terminal, which enables communication between the PLC and the MES-Suite, allows the employee to enter data via a touch screen and displays current order data.

A collector, or MES-Datacollector, is a software that enables communication between a PLC, the MES suite and the database. For each work center, an MES-Datacollector is installed e.g. on the corresponding MES-Terminal. The MES-Suite defines the corresponding variables of the PLC to be recorded by the collector.

A Combox is a PLC that makes it possible to connect manual workstations and machines to the MES-Suite that do not have their own PLC supported by the software. They are often containers with light barriers which counts OK or NOK parts. Several PLCs and manual workstations can usually be connected to one Combox. Comboxes are treated separately in the software.