ARCwire -- Rockwell Automation has added two new tools to its FactoryTalk integrated production and performance software suite. FactoryTalk Integrator, a key component in the FactoryTalk data management discipline, allows manufacturers to more easily connect their plant-floor applications with higher-level business systems for more responsive and informed decision making. FactoryTalk Portal, part of the FactoryTalk performance and visibility discipline, helps manufacturers increase productivity by allowing them to consolidate their Web-based interfaces into one manageable and configurable launch point.
FactoryTalk Integrator extends the reach of the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture by allowing plant systems to transmit data and exchange transactions with virtually any other system. The expandable architecture of FactoryTalk Integrator helps feed common types of information required by a manufacturing execution system (MES) system, such as work orders, schedules or recipes, directly from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. FactoryTalk Integrator is built on the FactoryTalk service-oriented architecture.
FactoryTalk Portal is a Web-based framework that allows manufacturers to quickly build highly scalable portals designed to improve employee productivity through personalized and collaborative access to information, applications, and people. FactoryTalk Portal eliminates the need for multiple reporting interfaces by consolidating the MES reporting space into an enterprise-level portal that Rockwell Automation has adapted for the manufacturing environment.
FactoryTalk Integrator and FactoryTalk Portal incorporate IBM's WebSphere middleware technology for increased application-to-application connectivity with substantial performance and scalability.