The Unified Namespace – to boldly go where we should have gone before

In the manufacturing world, we’ve built stacks of software. We have ERP systems that are put on top of MES systems, which in turn are on top of Scada, which itself rests on PLCs. At the bottom, below the PLCs, you find the actual sensors and actuators that run a production line. Such was also the picture I used a few years ago to explain the idea of ERP+ (or ERP in the cloud).

In these stacks, commands go down and information, like statuses and errors, goes up. Between the different layers, there’s a lot of point-to-point communication. A lot of information isn’t even shared at all because it would require too much communication. Also, storing all data in all layers would take up a lot of space – while most layers don’t use it.