Glossary · System coordination, integration and orchestration
Plug and produce
Also known as: Plug-and-produce
German: Plug and Produce
In industrial automation, plug and produce is the ability to add, replace or reconfigure a machine, module or device in a production system with minimal manual engineering, because the component describes itself and the system detects, configures and integrates it largely automatically.
- System integration
In one sentence
Plug and produce means adding or replacing machines or modules with minimal engineering because they describe themselves and are integrated automatically.
Example
A new screwing station is docked to a modular assembly line; the line controller reads its self-description, registers its skills and starts assigning tasks to it.
How it applies
- Engineering: Plug and produce relies on standardized Self-description (for example OPC UA information models, Module Type Package in the process industry or asset administration shells), Service discovery and Self-configuration. Without shared semantics, automatic integration does not work.
- Commissioning: Commissioning time shrinks, but the integrated result still needs to be verified, especially safety functions and interfaces to neighbors. Automatic integration does not replace a risk assessment of the new configuration.
- Operation: Changing configurations makes it important to know which configuration was active when; log configuration changes.
- Documentation: Modular systems need modular documentation: each module brings its own information, and the overall documentation must reflect the current configuration. Topic-based approaches with metadata, such as iiRDS, fit this well.
Plug and produce vs. plug and play
Plug and play comes from IT and means a device is recognized and usable without manual driver installation. Plug and produce extends the idea to production: the component must also be integrated into processes, coordination and safety concepts.