Products 

Easy95 is an ISA-95 standard compliant application framework and a reference architecture for Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) applications following ISA-95 common data object models.

The reason why Ninety-Five decided to build a framework is based on three reasons:

1.    The ISA-95 common data object models are very well suited to base an information system on. It provides models for Product Definition (what must be defined to make a product), Production Capability (what resources are available), Production Schedule (what actual production will be executed), and Production Performance (what actual production was achieved).

2.    The existing MES solutions are very expensive to implement and most of the time require the work flow of the organization to be modified.

3.    The market is adopting the ISA-95 standard more and more, but most of the times it is being used by consultants to make an analysis of the operation instead of implementing actual real-life applications. The models are very theoretical and sometimes difficult to apply consequently. Easy95 will make the practical use of ISA-95 more easy. A user should however be knowledgeable about understanding work flows of an operation and some basic understanding of ISA-95.

The figure below provides an overview of the components that make a MOM application based on the Easy95 framework.

The red parts are the standard components the user will have access to when installing the Framework. The Framework is installed as a service on-site and has a web based interface.

Easy95 is platform independent and can be run on any operating system in the present market. We have currently implementations running on Ubuntu Linux Server and Microsoft Server 2003. Ninety-Five recommends the use of Linux as preferred Operating System.

Easy95 can run on different databases (Oracle, DB2, SyBase, MySql, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, SAP DB) and we currently have implementations running on PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Ninety-Five recommends the use of PostgreSQL.

Easy95 is developed in Java and based on the Spring Framework in combination with Hibernate. This technology stack is the defacto platform for mission-critical enterprise applications in the present day market.

The code of our core product line is managed in a reference architecture branch, so any enhancement done to the core is immediately available in all clients without any delay or integration. The projects executed and maintained by Ninety-Five are managed in separate branches.

Within the current implementation the end-users (Plant and Office) of Easy95 only need a browser to access the system and use the functionality. Ninety-Five recommends use of FireFox, but we also have customers using the Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The plant models and MIW (Manufacturing Information Warehouse) are the databases containing all ISA-95 models and their interrelations. Easy95 comes standard with user interfaces to completely maintain the data in the models. The plant models contains mainly the static data while the MIW contains the dynamic data. An example of the standard interface can be found below.

The user can always export the data into local applications by CSV, XLS (Excel), XML, PDF and RTF format (other formats can be implemented on request).

The end product as specified by the green part is the actual implementation of the project for a customer. It is using the red parts as the reference architecture. The result is that the final Easy95 implementation can be completely tailored to the requirements of the end-user while still maintaining the core product. The end product mainly consists of four parts:

• Viewers (data converted into information for users)
• Controllers (business processes and work flow needed for the application)
• Importers (one-time data conversion for systems that will be replaced)
• Interfaces (two-way communication with existing applications)

Because the code will be managed as a seperate branch, the end-user will have the advantage that it can easily upgrade to newer versions without disruption of his existing applications.

The figure below shows an example of a Plant user at Lear Corporation in Genk:

The blue part are so called Easy95 Solutions. These are third party products that work in conjunction with the Easy95 platform. They are not part of Easy95 and are not maintained by Ninety-Five.

Communication with DCS, PLC and SCADA systems can be done with OPC as described in the OPC chapter. The way we communicate with these systems greatly depends on the existing infrastructure.

Communication with ERP systems can be done with B2MML as described in he B2M Transactions chapter. The way we communicate with these systems greatly depends on the existing infrastructure.