OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 2/2020

94 IT and Automotive Low-code MES preserves IT resources and budgets VALERIS new development: modern Manufacturing Execution System (MES) with seamless traceability, free configuration and intuitive operation By Uwe Zylka, Head of Product Management Digital Supply Chain at WSW Software Image/Graphics: ©WSW Software GmbH VALERIS is a new development. There are over 140 established ME systems on the German market. What was the reason for the new development by WSW Software? One of our customers, a plastics processor, gave the impetus in 2018. An MES was being used, but it was not capable of mapping the traceability of its most important core process. It was quickly determined that upgrading and expanding the old systemwould have involved too much work and would have been too ex- pensive. Replacement was inevitable. The cus- tomer started to look for a newME system. The requirements? It should save IT costs in the long term and be capable of configuration, param- eterization and maintenance by its employees independently and without a lot of IT knowl- edge. A system that employees control and not the other way around. The customer could not find it on the market and so they asked us to de- velop a system - as a “fifty-fifty” joint project. That was ho w Link VALERIS was born. What sets VALERIS apart fromother MES? VALERIS first and foremost guarantees a seamless product traceability. It maps all pro- duction lines andwork stations as digital twins and mirrors the processes on the shop floor and production logic one to one. Communica- tion with the machinery usually occurs bidirec- tionally via OPC-UA. If necessary, old systems can also be made OPC-UA-capable with I/O couplers and can be connected. The target-ac- tual comparisons of process parameters occur in real time. In this way, defective products can be identified directly in the respective produc- tion step. Process interlocking functions auto- matically intervene if there are irregularities in the process sequence and, if necessary, block the further production of the product. 3 key features clearly set VALERIS apart from other ME systems: ›  The development of VALERIS is based on the low-code modeling approach. Logic re- lationships and dependencies of processes are mapped into pre-defined actions via a graphical editor. ›  VALERIS was developed with the help of a usability designer and has an ultra-modern user interface in UX design. ›  VALERIS was designed from the start as a web-based application for maximum flexi- bility and scalability. What are the user benefits? The big advantage of Link VALERIS is the free configurability and intuitive opera- tion. S pecialized users and process engineers can easily and quickly configure process se- quences and parameters themselves without additional IT know-how. They can then be compared with target values or historical data or linked to the reporting process. In the fu- ture, it will also be possible to create precisely tailored worker dialogs independently that are aimed at maximum usability. The state- of-the art UX design user interface intuitively, efficiently and safely guides users through all process, configuration or administrative steps. The scalability is another advantage. If produc- tion requirements grow or change, VALERIS grows and changes with them. Only a terminal device with an up-to-date Internet browser is needed to work with the system as a user. Complex client installations/services are not necessary, as are needed with traditional ap- plications. This frees up your in-house IT department and reduces the strain on your IT budget by VALERIS – definition of a process, example “weighing”