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SEPTEMBER 2018 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 49 Smart Factory Infrastructure To define a more general infrastructure in which to work, the existing CIM applications can be grouped into the three primary layers that exist functionally: process applications, site applications, and enterprise applications. These groups of applications generally serve the same function in relation to each other, as shown in Figure 1. At the lowest layer are the process applica- tions which control or manage a given man- ufacturing process. These are the machine vendor applications, programmable logic controllers (PLC), sensors, or custom appli- cations that run equipment, collect data, or guide a person or process. These applications may create event data that is valuable to oth- er processes or to the higher-level infrastruc- ture. To operate, these applications generally require information from the higher-level infra- structure, such as material information, work orders, and flow control. Sitting above the process-specific applica- tions are the site applications that manage the overall manufacturing flow. The MES infra- structure, process engineering, quality man- agement, material management, and finite production planning applications are typi- cal site-level functions. In many cases, these applications are consuming the event data cre- ated by specific processes to actively manage production operation to operation. The site level applications provide the flow control, work order details, and material information required by the process-specific operations. At the top level are the enterprise applica- tions that manage higher-level, cross-func- tional business processes. Some examples of enterprise-level applications are ERP, MES, manufacturing operations management (MOM), product lifecycle management (PLM), and business analytics. These applications may receive data that is aggregated from the process-specific applications and then summa- rized by the site level applications. The enter- prise applications are responsible for provid- ing the site level applications with the overall resource, material, and production plans. With this delineation between the layers of applications in the smart factory, there is then a clear flow of data: business requirements flow down from the enterprise applications to the site applications. The site applications trans- late the requirements into concrete manufac- turing plans, which flow down to the process applications. The process applications gather event data to send back up to the site applica- tions. The site applications aggregate and sum- Figure 1: Smart factory layers.