Industrial architecture
A digital factory is built in layers. Each has its own tempo, constraints and owners. Confusing them is the most common cause of failure in integration projects.
The CIM model
Computer Integrated Manufacturing describes the factory as an integrated whole where design, planning, execution and control share the same reference data. Its contribution is organisational rather than technological: it forces you to decide who owns the truth about each piece of data — the item, the bill of materials, the routing, the equipment — and how that truth travels.
CIM
- A single reference for items, bills of materials and routings
- Documented, versioned and testable exchanges between layers
- A clear separation between management decisions and execution decisions
The ISA-95 levels
Select a level to see its role, its systems and its exchanges with neighbouring layers.
Planning, purchasing, costing and customer relations. This level thinks in days and weeks; it is not meant to drive a machine.
- Systems
- ERP, APS, PLM, business intelligence
- Tempo
- Hour to week
- Data exchanged
- Requirements, planned orders, consumption, costs
The layer that turns a works order into executable operations, then returns shop floor reality to management. Traceability, OEE and the batch record all live here.
- Systems
- MES, LIMS, CMMS, WMS, data historian
- Tempo
- Second to minute
- Data exchanged
- Works orders, declarations, inspections, genealogy
Real-time equipment control: sequences, safety, regulation. This level guarantees the machine does what it is told, independently of any IT connection.
- Systems
- PLCs, SCADA, HMI panels
- Tempo
- Tens of milliseconds
- Data exchanged
- Machine states, active recipes, alarms, counters
The interface between the physical and digital worlds. The quality of instrumentation sets the accuracy ceiling for the whole architecture above it.
- Systems
- Sensors, drives, valves, code readers, scales
- Tempo
- Millisecond
- Data exchanged
- Analogue and discrete signals, individual measurements
Material, machines and actual transformations. This level holds no software: it is what every layer above is trying to represent faithfully.
- Systems
- Conveyors, ovens, presses, tanks, robots
- Tempo
- Continuous
- Data exchanged
- Physical quantities: temperature, pressure, position, flow
Interactive diagram — click a level or use the arrow keys.
Downwards: requirements, works orders, bills of materials, recipes and control plans flow from management to the shop floor.
Upwards: produced quantities, actual consumption, time spent, measurements and events flow from the shop floor back to management.
The mistakes we see most often
- Wiring the ERP straight to the controllers, then finding that any shop floor change breaks the accounts.
- Pushing management decisions down to level 2, where they become invisible and unauditable.
- Collecting data at scale without first defining the decision it is meant to inform.
- Ignoring degraded mode: what does the shop floor do when the network goes down?
Planning a connected factory?
Describe your industrial context. We come back to you within two working days with an initial read of your situation.