GF_RK_SMC99_oct_1999

Frey, G; Kottke, R.:
Integrated Information Flow in Manufacturing Systems using a Relational Database.
Proceedings of the IEEE SMC'99, 12.-15. Oktober 1999, Tokyo(J). Volume IV, pp. 516-521.

In chemical industry, the growing demand for efficient, economic and just-in-time production of goods with constantly high quality leads to the goal of complete automation of a company's production processes. This can only be achieved, if the information flow between the varying IT-systems in the company works without problems. There are IT-solutions in chemical industry providing a complete informational integration by coupling process control systems (PCS) supporting recipe based control to plant management systems (PMS) like SAP R/3 (using the module PP/PI). However, not all PCS support recipe based control as it is not even necessary for a lot of processes. Hence, it is necessary to find a means that integrates these less complex systems. This paper presents an approach for the coupling of PCS with varying functionality to SAP R/3. The proposed solution employs a relational database as a middleware between PCS and PMS. The information flow for three different basic coupling scenarios (PCS with recipe management, PCS with sequential function charts (SFC), and PCS with only measurement and control objects) is examined and the pros and cons of the three scenarios are discussed.