MES and ERP integration, from the shop floor to your business systems.
Connect production records, work orders, and traceability across your equipment and business software. Start with one useful data flow, including NetSuite integration where it fits your operation.
- 01
Equipment
PLCs · machines · test stands
Signals, counts, process values
- 02
SCADA & history
Ignition · operator screens · historian
Context, alarms, trends
- 03
MES & ERP
Production records · work orders
Validated business transactions
Equipment signals gain meaning in SCADA and history. Validated production records move to MES/ERP; approved work instructions can flow back. The connection method depends on your systems.
Illustrative reference architecture. Project scope and software licensing vary.
Replace a specific manual handoff
Start with a record someone retypes today: completed quantities, material consumption, scrap, or quality results. Identify the source, the destination, and who resolves exceptions. A machine count becomes a business transaction only after it has the right product, work-order, unit, and quality context.
Deliverables you can build a scope around
HillPoint connects the controls layer to manufacturing and business systems. The scope distinguishes equipment connectivity, application development, and ERP configuration.
- An agreed data map, ownership rules, and transaction definitions.
- Equipment connections and production context capture.
- An integration interface with authentication, validation, and acknowledgement.
- Exception visibility, retry handling, and reconciliation procedures.
- Acceptance tests, documentation, project handover, and a rollout plan.
NetSuite and manufacturing data
An Ignition-based application can connect equipment data to supported NetSuite interfaces. The implementation depends on your account, enabled features, permissions, record types, and business workflow.
We agree which event should post a transaction, how to identify it uniquely, and how to prevent a retry from creating a duplicate. Work-order completion, consumption, and scrap are scoped business processes, not automatic consequences of connecting a PLC.
Make failures visible and recoverable
Define what happens when the ERP is unavailable or a record is rejected. Keep a durable record of pending work where required, separate retryable failures from invalid data, and make exceptions visible to an owner. Reconcile the source and destination after recovery.
Production visibility and traceability
OEE needs agreed availability, performance, and quality definitions. Traceability needs a reliable relationship between materials, equipment, processes, and finished units. Signals alone rarely contain that full context.
The application can support production and quality records. Compliance requirements, record retention, audit trails, and approval workflows must be agreed with your quality team; an integration by itself does not establish certification.
Start with one line and one transaction
Choose one process area and a measurable acceptance condition: for example, every approved completion is recorded once in the target system, and rejected records appear in an exception queue. Expand after operations and finance agree that the records reconcile.
A simple integration may use direct interfaces. MQTT, a Unified Namespace, and MES modules are options when the requirements justify them; they are not mandatory on every project.
Let’s define your first integration project.
Tell us which controllers and software you use, what you want to improve, and your production constraints. Start with a 15-minute project discussion.