Advanced production needs support of industrial IT. The principles of intelligent and lean manufacturing are applied in all industries. The COMES system supports leanness and economy of manufacturing processes. The COMES integrate intelligent equipment and automated technology through many needful functions, which in a more complex deployment realize full digitization of production, the Compas Digital Factory concept, which is in line with the new Industry 4.0 industry standard.
COMES has been developed as an advanced and Lean Manufacturing Execution System incorporating principles of:
- Up-to-date achitecture
- Flexibility
- Licensing and ownership costs
Advanced IT architecture of COMES employing Microsoft client-server and web technologies. COMES can operate in accordance with the preference of the user in local IT infrastucture of the company or in Cloud (C4C – COMES for Cloud). A web browser server as an interface allowing non-limited user access to information (fully tested on the well-known MS IE), an integral part of each plant PC, or as interface on mobile devices (tablets, smart phones). This reduces the COMES installation and administration down to only an IT server, or a virtual IT server created for the MES functionalities as a part of the existing plant’s HW server. COMES can be also installed in a Cloud. The system operating and administration costs are substantially reduced, which proves significant for large applications with tens of users on a production control level and hundreds of operators throughout the production. COMES architecture is powerful enough to allow for only one server (physical or virtual) installed in the enterprise being made use of by more of its plants.
The flexibility of the COMES system in ensured by a COMES Modeller module which allows the MES functionality to be modified. The name Modeller expresses the ability to model information flow, define production workflow, transform data into information, adapt MES functionality and implement special customer requirements. The module supports freely accessible configuration interface allowing the user to “on-line” configure the system with respect to actual production state and its future changes.
Easy implementation and administration achieved through the COMES architecture are the conditions of the MES system’s leanness and flexibility. The COMES leanness is further emphasized by its simplicity and scalability of its functions and licenses. The users make use of only the features which they currently need without putting themselves at risk of having to re-configure the application when adding other features. On doing so, synergic effect causes the users to gain even more than just the sum of all the contributions of each particular feature.
A favorable functionality-versus-costs ratio achieved in the plants by employing standard COMES applications and solutions, is also a part of the leanness.
