Studies have shown that companies in the manufacturing sector developed and expanded just as the systems for control, management and supervision of the production activities evolved throughout history. As a result of the increasing competition, companies settled on implementing various methods in order to enhance efficiency and reduce their costs. One of these methods is the implementation of industrial management software and other computer tools, responsible for planning, monitoring, and increasing the productivity of the human resources and materials. Currently, the implementation of a common platform that supports SCADA and MES systems is more than essential for efficient factory management. The main reason for this is that both SCADA and MES systems are much more open and interconnected than they used to be. Both systems collaborate in seeking optimisation of production process operations and adapt to the current society digitalisation.
In this master’s thesis, we will focus on describing the development of an application for inspecting and executing a series of functional tests for final MEA (Membrane-Electrode Assembly) and efficiently packing these components as well. This solution connects the two systems, SCADA, a data collection and monitoring system, and MES, a production management system which work seamlessly on the same platform. In addition, we will explain how this application functions, its structure, and what is the connection between the two systems. Based on the integration of the systems, we will focus on analysing why having a unified application for both systems is much more beneficial.
|
