Industrial digitalisation glossary for manufacturing.

AAS · Asset Administration Shell

A standardised digital model for describing an industrial asset and its submodels. It can contain technical data, identification, documentation and other properties throughout the life cycle.

In plastics processing, EUROMAP develops AAS submodels for moulds and injection moulding machines.

AddressSpace

The structured set of objects, variables, methods and relationships that an OPC UA server exposes to its clients. It represents both structure and semantics, extending beyond individual tags.

Explore OPC UA and EUROMAP →

API

A defined interface through which two applications exchange data or perform operations in software. An API describes how information is requested or delivered; standardisation of an industrial model depends on the interface specification.

Brownfield

In industrial digitalisation, this term refers to projects that integrate with machines, networks and systems already installed. Different generations, brands and protocols commonly coexist.

Explore data acquisition in existing plants →

Client / server

A communication model in which a client requests services or data from a server. OPC UA Client/Server uses this pattern to discover, read, write or subscribe to information exposed by a server.

Companion Specification

An information model for a specific sector, device or use case, built on OPC UA. It defines shared objects, variables, types and relationships to achieve semantic interoperability.

Explore EUROMAP 77, 79, 82 and 83 →

DAQ · Data acquisition

The capture of physical or digital signals from sensors, meters, machines and controllers. It includes signal conditioning, sampling, timestamping and transmission or storage.

Explore KERN IoP | SMARTPRO →

Data contextualisation

The process of relating a signal to information that makes it interpretable: asset, state, product, order, batch, mould, material, cycle, shift or event. Even a correct temperature measurement may require context to explain the process.

Explore industrial data architecture →

Data semantics

The shared meaning of data: what a variable represents, which asset it belongs to, its unit and its relationships with other elements. EUROMAP over OPC UA is an example of sector-specific semantics.

Digital model

A computational representation of a product, asset or process. It can include CAD, CAE, equations, logic or statistical models and can operate independently of automatic synchronisation with the physical system.

Digital shadow

A term used in the literature for a representation fed by data from the physical system, generally with a predominant flow from the asset to the digital environment. It is useful for organising contextualised states and historical data.

Digital thread

Structured information continuity connecting life cycle stages, such as design, planning, production, inspection and service, while maintaining relationships between data and digital representations.

Digital twin

A digital representation persistently linked to a physical asset or process and used, depending on the application, to observe, estimate, predict, simulate or support decisions. It can combine physical models, data and contextual information.

Explore modelling and engineering capabilities →

Edge computing

Processing performed close to the machine or data source before information is sent to central or cloud systems. It can reduce latency, traffic and dependence on external connectivity.

ERP

A system for integrating business processes such as materials, purchasing, inventory, sales, costing and finance. In manufacturing, it can exchange orders and results with operational systems.

ERP, MES and plant data →

EUROMAP

A family of technical recommendations. Some standardise electrical interfaces, such as EUROMAP 67 and 71; others define sector-specific OPC UA models, such as EUROMAP 77, 79, 82 and 83.

Explore the EUROMAP overview →

Greenfield

A project designed from the outset, allowing architecture, networks, equipment and interfaces to be selected independently of the constraints of an existing installation. The term is commonly contrasted with brownfield.

HMI

An interface through which an operator views states, variables and alarms and interacts with a machine or process.

Hybrid model

A model combining physical knowledge with components learned or fitted from data. It can combine the interpretability of a physics-based model with the ability of data to represent effects that are difficult to formulate explicitly.

IIoT

The use of connected devices, sensors, edge computing, networks and software platforms to exchange and use industrial data.

Industrial analytics

The use of historical data, indicators, statistics or models to interpret machine and process behaviour. It requires data with adequate quality, timing and context.

Explore the KERN IoP platform →

Industrial gateway

A device or software component connecting different networks, protocols or models. It can read data from one source and expose them through another interface, as well as filter, convert or process information.

Industrial historian

A system specialised in storing and querying industrial time series, events and variables over long periods. Its value increases when the data remain linked to manufacturing context.

Interoperability

The ability of different systems to exchange information and use it consistently. Syntactic interoperability enables the data to be read; semantic interoperability supports the same interpretation at both ends.

ISA-95 / IEC 62264

A family of standards organising models and activities across control, manufacturing operations and business systems. It helps define the roles of plant systems, MES/MOM and ERP.

Explore ISA-95 in practice →

KPI

A metric used to evaluate performance against an objective. In manufacturing, it may include availability, production rate, rejects, specific consumption or OEE.

Explore OEE according to ISO 22400 →

Latency

The time between an event and the availability of information or a response elsewhere in the system. The acceptable latency depends on the industrial decision being supported.

Legacy

Equipment or software that remains in operation using older technologies or limited interfaces. Legacy assets may still be productive and require a suitable integration strategy.

MES / MOM

MES coordinates and records production execution. MOM is a broader framework that can cover production, quality, maintenance and operations inventory.

Explore the MES–ERP–KERN IoP relationship →

Middleware

Software that facilitates communication or integration between applications and services. An MQTT broker can form part of a messaging middleware layer.

Modbus

A widely used protocol for exchanging data between devices. Its simple model generally requires additional documentation to establish what each register represents, together with its unit and scale.

Explore integration of existing machines →

Model calibration

Adjustment of model parameters using measurements from the physical system so that the model better represents observed behaviour within a defined domain.

Explore engineering modelling and validation →

MQTT

A lightweight publish/subscribe protocol. Publishers send messages to topics through a broker, and subscribers receive the messages of interest to them. MQTT is agnostic to the meaning of the payload.

Explore MQTT, Sparkplug and OPC UA →

MQTT broker

A server that receives messages published by MQTT clients and distributes them to clients subscribed to the corresponding topics. It decouples the producer from the consumer.

Explore MQTT in industrial architectures →

MQTT topic

A hierarchical string used by MQTT to organise messages. Publishers publish to topics, and subscribers subscribe to topics or topic patterns.

Namespace

A mechanism for organising identifiers and avoiding naming conflicts. In OPC UA, it distinguishes information models; in Sparkplug, the namespace forms part of the topic convention.

OEE

An indicator combining availability, performance and quality to evaluate losses against planned production time.

OEE guide and calculator →

OPC UA

An open set of industrial interoperability standards covering communication services, security and information modelling. It can be used from the device level through to enterprise applications.

Explore OPC UA in detail →

OPC UA node

The basic element of an OPC UA AddressSpace. It can represent an object, variable, method, type or other element and connects to other nodes through references.

OT

Technologies used to monitor or control processes, machines and physical infrastructure. These include controllers, HMI, SCADA, industrial networks and related systems.

Payload

The data carried within a message. In MQTT, payload structure and meaning are defined by the application or an additional specification.

Physics-based model

A mathematical model built from knowledge of the phenomena and physical laws governing the system, such as mass and energy balances, heat transfer or mechanical relationships.

Explore process engineering and modelling →

PLC

An industrial controller designed to execute logic, sequences and control of machines or processes. It can be a valuable source of states and variables for data acquisition.

Signals and controllers as data sources →

Process variable

A quantity describing the state or behaviour of a process, such as pressure, temperature, flow, speed, energy or position.

Monitoring variables in injection moulding →

Publish / Subscribe · PubSub

A communication pattern in which producers publish information and consumers subscribe to it, allowing exchange without a direct connection between every pair. MQTT uses this pattern; OPC UA also defines PubSub.

QMS

A system for managing quality processes, inspections, nonconformities, specifications, corrective actions and other quality records.

Process and quality data with KERN IoP →

SCADA

A supervisory control and data acquisition system used to visualise processes, alarms, states and trends and, depending on the application, perform supervisory actions.

SCADA within the industrial architecture →

Sensor

A device that converts a physical quantity, such as temperature, pressure, flow, position, humidity or vibration, into a signal usable by a control or acquisition system.

Shop floor

The environment where production physically takes place: machines, operators, materials, auxiliary equipment and operations. “Shop-floor software” is a broad description encompassing several types of system.

Explore shop-floor software and KERN IoP →

Sparkplug

An Eclipse specification defining a topic namespace, payload and state management over MQTT for industrial applications. It helps reduce proprietary conventions between publishers and consumers.

MQTT and Sparkplug →

State estimation

Calculation of internal variables or system conditions from measurements and a model. It is used when the relevant state is inaccessible to direct measurement or when combining several signals is useful.

Timestamp

The date and time associated with a measurement or event. Appropriate time synchronisation is essential for relating signals from different sources.

Traceability

The ability to relate a product, batch or event to relevant manufacturing information: machine, time, material, parameters, quality results and other conditions.

Traceability using manufacturing data →

UNS · Unified Namespace

An architectural pattern for publishing operational information in a structured form accessible to multiple consumers. It is often implemented using publish/subscribe technologies; its quality depends on governance, semantics and context as well as the broker.

Virtual sensor

An estimator that calculates a variable that is difficult, costly or impossible to measure directly, using other available signals and a mathematical or data-based model.

WIP

Material or a product that has entered the production process and is still undergoing operations. MES and traceability systems frequently use this concept.