Machines and Work Centers

Within Objective MES, a global distinction is made between work centers and machines. In a work center, the operator is central: he determines the work rate and uses mainly tools (drill, hammer, chisel,...) to perform his work. For a machine, the machine itself is central and determines the work regimen.

Furthermore, there are 2 essential differences between a machine and a work center:

1. The way of planning: a work center offers the possibility to support parallel job execution because multiple orders can be worked on simultaneously, while a machine always works sequentially.
2. PLC integration: a work center does not support PLC integration by default, because a manual work center usually has little automation.