In a typical day in a manufacturing facility there are hundreds or thousands of machines, devices and independent systems operating in consortia, so we believe, to insure a product is manufactured in a timely, quality and cost-effective manner. Each of the pieces of these devices and systems accumulates information on its operation and, usually, is unable to communicate it to anyone or anything else. This may not be true in all cases, but overall, it is difficult to communicate information and process data among these machines and systems. As a result, coordination, optimization or data tracking to insure that the factory, or systems within, are operating at an acceptable level (think equipment efficiency, process flow, energy usage, toolpath validation, etc.) is very difficult.

This is the opposite of what we've seen in the computer or information technology arena. Here a wide range of disparate devices communicate through standard interfaces (like USB, for example) using standardized communication protocols, the printer plugs in and communicates smoothly with the laptop and third party sources create novel products to take advantage to this interconnectability to add value. The challenge becomes, therefore, how can manufacturing replicate the success of this interconnectability.

There have been initiatives started in the past to resolve this need, but none have emerged as a universally accepted common means for communication. The MTConnect Institute has picked up this challenge, but has taken on a different approach to this issue. The Institute, itself, is not creating hardware or special purpose software to link machines and systems together, but is designing open communication standards for interconnectability that mirrors the success occurring in the information technology world. That is, allowing devices, equipment, and systems to output data in an understandable format that can be read by any other device using the same standard format to read the data. The standard, MTConnect, is based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) which offers widely recognized and accepted flexible representation for exchanging semistructured machine-readable data. These standards are open and royalty free to insure the widest possible acceptance and utility. That is, MTConnect will use open and royalty-free technologies as its basis and will provide open and royalty-free reference implementations of the example software which can be used as-is, modified to suit special needs, reverse-engineered, or the user can create their own software for use or sale that meets the requirements of the MTConnect standard. This approach allows connectivity from the lowest end of the process chain, nearest the workpiece or shop floor, to the highest design or process planning tool. And the expectation is that the interoperability afforded by MTConnect will enable a host of third party solution providers to develop software and hardware products to make the entire manufacturing enterprise more productive.

For more details on the basics of MTConnect contact Hilena Hailu at hhailu@amtonline.org.