Top-Floor to Shop-Floor Integration

In manufacturing, business operations are becoming more entwined with the plant floor. Integrating the top floor with the shop floor means taking enterprise resource planning (ERP) to the next stage, allowing companies to take information from one business function, combine it with information from another, and use that knowledge to deliver better products and develop more efficient processes.

APS' data transport solutions provide for the efficient flow of information throughout the organization in a timely manner. As an example, we have integrated plant floor engineering and production systems with business operations allowing corporate sales data to influence plant production schedules directly. By using the I/Gear Data Transport Utility (DTU) technology – a conduit between top-floor database products and controllers on the plant floor – information flows bi-directionally between business and plant floor systems.

A major driving force behind the need for manufacturers to integrate the top floor with the shop floor are customers. Customers are always looking for something new and innovative to buy – the Internet is fueling that interest. This trend requires a constant flow of new products from your engineering group to manufacturing. The constant flow of new products requires collaboration between sales, engineering, manufacturing, and suppliers – all happening at Internet speeds. APS' solutions create a more agile manufacturing environment by making your existing equipment more flexible and capable of dealing with the ever-growing demands of customers to have products built to their specs. Our error proofing solutions provide employees and automated systems with the information required to ensure products are built to customer specs and errors are avoided.