OPC

Open Platform Communication (OPC) is an industry standard communication framework that enables communication and interoperability between PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) and software systems. This allows data to be collected from machines in a standard way and in real-time.

OPC UA is platform-independent version of the OPC standard. Infor MES has a built-in OPC Client that can be configured directly within the application. This client communicates with OPC Servers to read data from and write data to connected equipment.

Within OPC servers, PLC data points are represented as OPC Tags. Each OPC tag corresponds to a specific PLC address and enables MES to access the required machine data. By reading from and writing to OPC Tags, MES can exchange information with equipment accurately and efficiently.

The simplified diagram below illustrates the basic OPC communication architecture and data flow between PLCs, OPC Servers, and MES applications: