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34 SMT Magazine • July 2016 Some MES solutions that have originated from the SMT environment are available with built-in sophisticated machine interfaces. They have been somewhat successful at gaining true visibility of the SMT and related processes. How- ever, because of the vast variation in the types of post-SMT processes, the same level of detail for data collection from back-end processes has not been possible, beyond the simpler data cap- ture, which has left these processes neglected. Companies adopting the generic MES approach have found themselves stuck with an expen- sive system performing at a general level and little opportunity for advanced projects such as smart factory operation. The Application of OML (Open Manufacturing Language) The new OML standard was announced in February 2016, intended to create the communi- cation backbone for the Industry of Manufactur- ing and be the enabler of Industry 4.0 and smart factory operations. Strictly speaking, because OML is new, not a category of existing approach- es. OML can be applied to all other categories of solutions discussed so far, providing easier and cost-effective ways of achieving the desired goals in the ways that make most business sense. Let's consider how this works in each case. In-house Development and OML We heard from the largest companies that, even for them, the key difficulty that they had in their smart factory projects was machine communication. If they had OML, the IT teams would have been able to work with only one format of communication, no matter which machine, robot, manual process, or other op- erational event was being captured. Cooperat- ing machine vendors would have been able to develop just one interface within each of the machines needing communication, which then would be available for all other customer proj- ects. This works out then to be much more cost- effective for the larger EMS companies as well as for the machine vendors. The time-scale to com- plete the project would also have been reduced by an estimated 50%. Follow-on sites after the initial smart factory showcase could then go-live for a fraction of the cost and lead-time. Fortunately, it is not too late. Starting a proj- ect today to retro-fit the smart factory showcase with OML represents a small amount of addi- tional work for the EMS companies and the ma- chine vendors compared to the cost of repeat- ing the exercise of smart factory conversion for other sites using the previous method. Replacement of an Existing Generic Standard with OML The design of OML is intended to be an up- grade to existing standards such as CAM-X or SECS-GEM, etc. The process and architecture of exchanging data using the older standards can easily be rewritten and replaced using OML. Although this requires some time and effort, OML brings many upsides. The level of detail and the breadth of scope for data collection us- ing OML can be greatly enhanced compared to the old standards. As new machines and robots come into the market and are introduced into manufacturing, where machine vendors have chosen OML as their IoM language, they simply plug into the existing smart factory structure. In so doing, the values and opportunities of the system are greatly enhanced, while the cost of ownership and support is greatly reduced. Now is the time to make the switch. OML was created specifically for manufacturing, with internal definitions to provide normalization of information to the level of detail that can de- scribe the complete factory operation, especially the intricate and difficult to understand work- ings of SMT placement machines. Today, these machines have multiple dimensions of opera- tion, for example, multi-heads, multi-modules, multi-lanes, multi-robot, etc., all of which make " Some MES solutions that have originated from the SMT environment are available with built-in sophisticated machine interfaces. " INDUSTRY 4.0: MAKING THE FIRST MOVE