MSI Central Mapping

One of the key problems with data integration between the shopfloor and the MES layer are the different naming conventions and actual names given to devices and data.

While the shopfloor layer is driven by automation engineers who defined thousands of tags in a very technical manner, the MES layer uses the same data in an pharmaceutical context, where the naming is not derived from the technical origin of an information, but rather indicates its meaning within the MES recipe.

Therefore, we added several means to use a harmonised mapping between an EquipmentId+Tag on the MES side and a full qualified path on the inmation side.

This mapping can be generated automatically based on information given in the ISA95 equipment model.

The central Mapping is done once per 'MessageProcessor' as described in in the System Objects for MSI Integration. It must be made certain that the mapping is unique in both directions, so that each EquipmentId+Tag pair matches exactly one path in the inmation system.

Mapping Content

The mapping table itself holds the following information:

Entry Meaning

EquipmentId

Equipment Id with the name known to the MES.

Tag

Tag(name) for the given equipment as known to the MES.

Path

The path within the inmation system, which holds the requested data.

Historian

the type of historian, which olds the information for this path.

The mapping between the pair of EquipmentId and Tag to an inmation path shall be unique in both directions (bijective).

Additional information may follow in further releases.

Auto generation of Mapping

The Message Processor Objects allows to generate the mapping content automatically, this feature is intended to keep the configuration consistent between different use cases without adding additional effort.

This automatic generation requires, that the ISA95 model includes all MES relevant equipment and configures Data Mesh items on these equipments for all relevant MES Tags.

The Supported Equipment elements are:

  • Unit (Processing)

  • Equipment Module

  • Control Module

For all these MES relevant equipments the MESName must be configured.

The supported Data Mesh items are:

  • Analog Measurement

  • Calculated Value

  • Binary State

  • Discrete State

  • Textual State

  • Performance Index

For all of the MES relevant elements an MESName must be configured, which is then used for the mapping. Each Data Mesh item must be linked to an item in the I/O Model (for example, an I/O Item beneath a Datasource). This is required to provide the data from the shopfloor via the Data Mesh configuration to the MSI interface.

The automatic generation works as follows:

  • Starting from the path defined in the Root Folder configured in the MessageProcessor all relevant Equipments are searched in the catalog. If no Root Folder is given "/" is used as default.

  • For all equipments found, the Data Mesh items below each equipment are identified.

  • For each Data Mesh item one entry in the mapping table is generated.

  • If an I/O Item is linked to the Data Mesh item, the path of the linked I/O Item is used. Otherwise the path of the Data Mesh Item is used.

  • The historian type is currently fixed at "inmation", if another historian shall be used, then currently a manual configuration of the mapping table is required.

  • If the "Add EquipmentId" setting is active, an aditional entry is generated for each equipment, whith the Tag="EquipmentId" and the path pointing to the 'MESName' property of the S95 object of the Equipment. The historian type is set to "inmation".

Usage of the Mapping

The mapping in the Message Processor can be used from all types of message configuration but the usage of this feature depends on the individual mapping type and is described for each mapping type individually:

Status and Abort Messages can also make use of the Central Mapping, depending on their Message Configuration as described here: Abort- and Status Messages with Direct Mapping, Abort- and Status Messages with Group Mapping.

Exception Messages themselves are not linked to the Central Mapping, but the exception provider may use the central mapping as well as described here: Exception Messages.