What are the main types of industrial software? What are the commonly used industrial software?

「 1. ERP 」

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the core management software for manufacturing enterprises. The basic idea of ​​ERP system is to determine production based on sales, coordinate and control the production, supply, sales, personnel, finance, materials and other resources of enterprises, and help enterprises to accurately arrange production and procurement plans according to sales orders, based on factors such as product manufacturing BOM, inventory, equipment capacity, procurement lead time, and production lead time, so as to carry out timely procurement and production, thereby reducing inventory and capital occupation, helping enterprises to achieve efficient operation, ensure that enterprises can deliver on time, and realize closed-loop management of business operations. The development of ERP has gone through the development process of MRP (Material Requirements Planning), closed-loop MRP (considering the actual capacity of the enterprise), MRPII (Manufacturing Resource Planning, combining finance and cost, and being able to analyze the profitability of the enterprise). The concept of ERP was proposed by Gartner in the 1990s and can adapt to the application of discrete and process industries. Large-scale ERP software can support multiple factories, multiple organizations, and multiple currencies, and meet the needs of group enterprise management and compliance management of listed companies.

The integration relationship between ERP and other systems is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 ERP integration with other systems

「 2. WE 」

The manufacturing execution system (MES) is a workshop-level management system that is responsible for taking over the production plan issued by the ERP system, scientifically scheduling production according to the various manufacturing processes of the products or parts that need to be manufactured in the workshop, and the actual conditions of the production equipment, and supports closed-loop functions such as production traceability, quality information management, production reporting, and equipment data collection. In terms of application, MES is a system with strong industry characteristics, and the MES applications of enterprises in different industries will vary greatly. Table 1 lists the differences in MES requirements for several key industries.

Table 1 Differences in personalized requirements of MES industry

In recent years, manufacturing operations management (MOM) has gradually attracted the attention of the industry. In 2000, the American Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Association (ISA) first proposed the concept of MOM and defined the scope of MOM as all activities within manufacturing operations management, including production operations, maintenance operations, quality operations, and inventory operations, which greatly expanded the traditional definition of MES, as shown in Figure 2. MOM and MES are not an either-or replacement relationship. MOM is a further extension of MES and a product of the upgrading of manufacturing management concepts. It is relatively more in line with the development trend of integrated standardization and platformization.

Figure 2 The five-layer structure of enterprise informatization proposed by ISA-95 (Source: ISA)

「 3. PLM 」

CIMdata, a global authoritative PLM research institution, believes that product lifecycle management (PLM) is a strategic business approach that applies a series of business solutions to support collaborative creation, management, dissemination and application of product definition information throughout the entire product life cycle within and between enterprises, and integrates people, processes, business systems and product information. With the development of PLM technology, CIMdata has further extended the definition of PLM on this basis: PLM is not only a technology, but also an integrated collection of business solutions; collaborative creation, use, management and sharing of product-related intellectual assets; including all product/factory definition information, such as MCAD, AEC, EDA, ALM analysis, formulas, specifications, product groups, documents, etc., and also includes all product/factory process definitions, such as those related to planning, design, production, operation, support, scrapping, and recycling; PLM supports collaboration between enterprises, spanning the entire life cycle of products and factories, from conceptual design to the end of the life cycle.

The core functions of PLM software include graphic document management, R&D process management, product structure, structure management, BOM management, R&D project management, etc. (Figure 3). To meet specific data management needs, PLM provides a series of centralized functions, such as engineering change management, configuration management, component management, product configurator, design collaboration, design cost management, content and knowledge management, technical specification management, demand management, process management, simulation management and design quality management. For embedded software development, the ALM (application lifecycle management) system is derived; for the maintenance service process, the MRO (overhaul maintenance management) and SLM (service lifecycle management) systems are derived. Through the integration of PLM with ERP, MES and other operation management systems, unified product data can be shared and utilized at different stages of the life cycle.

Figure 3 PLM full life cycle management

「 4. CAD 」

Computer aided design (CAD) software refers to software programs that use computers and their graphics devices to help engineers design and manufacture physical products. CIMdata mainly divides CAD software into multidisciplinary mechanical CAD (multidisciplinary CAD) and design-based mechanical CAD (design CAD). Multidisciplinary CAD mainly refers to full-featured mechanical CAD systems that support drawing, 3D geometric modeling, solid modeling, surface modeling (including Class A surfaces for automotive industry applications) and feature modeling, constraint- and feature-based design (or similar functions, such as related design), integrated engineering analysis, integrated CAM systems including CNC programming, and other product development functions; design CAD provides fewer professional software packages than multidisciplinary mechanical CAD, for example, it does not provide wiring harness design, profound analysis functions, CAM, etc. These professional modules are provided by third-party developers and integrated through a relatively simple CAD data management software. Design-based mechanical CAD systems usually only provide basic solid modeling and 2D drawing functions, do not provide data management functions, and are file-based systems. In addition to being used in the mechanical field, there are also electrical CAD software used in the electrical design field, which can help electrical engineers improve the efficiency of electrical design, reduce repetitive work and error rates; there are also professional software such as sheet metal CAD and mold CAD. In recent years, the CAD software based on direct modeling and the CAD system that combines solid modeling and direct modeling technology with synchronous modeling have further improved the flexibility of CAD systems for three-dimensional modeling and editing. At the same time, two-dimensional CAD software with engineering drawing functions as the main function will also exist for a long time. However, the realization of full three-dimensional CAD design and MBD (model-based product definition) has become a consensus in the industry.

「 5. EDA 」

Electronic design automation (EDA) refers to the use of computer-aided tools to complete the functional design, synthesis, verification, physical design and other processes of large-scale integrated circuit chips. CIMdata defines EDA as a tool for designing, analyzing, simulating and manufacturing electronic systems, including printed circuit boards to integrated circuits. Since EDA involves all aspects of electronic design, there are many EDA software, which can be summarized into categories such as electronic circuit design and simulation tools, PCB design software, PLD design software, and IC design software. The core functions of EDA include the design process of digital systems, printed circuit board design, programmable logic devices and design methods, hardware description language VHDL, EDA development tools, etc. At present, EDA has become the lifeblood of the integrated circuit industry chain. From chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing to the design of electronic products, EDA tools are indispensable.

「 6. CAPP 」

Computer-aided process planning (CAPP) software includes related work of manufacturing process design, such as process scheme design, process route formulation, process specification design, and process quota compilation. CAPP is the link between product design and manufacturing, which transforms product design information into manufacturing process information. CAPP technology can be divided into card-based process compilation and structured process design. Card-based process compilation uses the form of "what you see is what you get" to fill in process cards, and can also introduce CAD tools through OLE and other methods to complete the drawing of process diagrams, which can significantly improve the efficiency of process compilation. However, card-based process compilation lacks product structure information because it is out of touch with the product digital model. Structured process planning software is based on a three-dimensional CAD environment, focusing on the generation and management of process design data, and can realize the visualization of processing and assembly processes. Materials, process resources, and process knowledge are all digitized and modeled. It can undertake design BOM and design models through the PLM/PDM system, and is used for the construction of manufacturing BOM and the compilation of SOP content. During the compilation process, the information of materials, process resource library, and process knowledge library can be retrieved and filled in, which improves the compilation efficiency and accuracy, and supports collaborative process design and version management of process information. By integrating with the MES system, the structured process planning software can send the SOP to the machine for direct use in production and manufacturing. At the same time, the execution status of the process planning can be fed back through MES to optimize the process.