Interoperability for Rockwell FactoryTalk Gateway

The FactoryTalk Integrated Production & Performance Suite, from Rockwell Automation’s Rockwell Software business, offers applications that focus on plant information needs and a range of manufacturing disciplines. These span Design and Configuration applications for creating and modeling production processes, to Production Management applications for handling tasks such as order scheduling, tracking and interactive manufacturing process control.

Decision making tools are available in Performance and Visibility applications, such as user interfaces, reporting, and analysis tools. The suite also provides Asset Management applications for maintenance, with plant operation tasks benefiting Quality and Compliance environments as ensure companies adhere to established standards throughout an entire process, according to Rockwell.

Data Management tools are needed to access, collect and transform production information. This includes integrating data from a variety of third-party sources, as well as providing information to applications in the enterprise. The FactoryTalk Gateway also provides a unified OPC interface for serving data across the FactoryTalk Suite. Most common are third-party control devices such as distributed control systems (DCSs), programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and remote terminal units (RTUs).