Plug and Produce refers to the principle of integrating new machines or production modules into a manufacturing environment quickly, largely automatically, and with minimal engineering effort. The goal is to bring equipment into operation without extensive system customization, manual parameterization, or complex reconfiguration of existing IT/OT landscapes.
The concept originates from research on modular, reconfigurable factories and is inspired by the IT idea of Plug & Play. In an ideal Plug-and-Produce setup, a new machine:
identifies itself automatically,
exposes standardized data and capabilities, and
integrates seamlessly into line logic, monitoring systems, and MES platforms.
Manufacturing environments are under constant pressure:
shorter product life cycles,
increasing product variants,
frequent layout changes, and
ongoing capacity adjustments.
Without Plug-and-Produce capabilities, every new or modified machine typically requires:
custom interface development,
manual tag mapping,
and test cycles that can take days or even weeks.
Plug and Produce aims to reverse this by enabling:
rapid machine integration (hours or days instead of weeks),
shorter ramp-up times after re-layouts or retrofits,
lower integration and engineering costs across the asset lifecycle.
Multiple studies and pilot projects show that Plug-and-Produce concepts can significantly improve flexibility while reducing reconfiguration costs in Industry 4.0 environments.
On the shop floor, Plug and Produce is most commonly enabled through OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture):
OPC UA is an open, platform-independent standard for industrial communication with semantic information models.
Devices can be discovered automatically via OPC UA discovery services (“Who is on the network? What data and functions are available?”).
OPC UA Companion Specifications (for example for packaging machines, robots, or machine tools) define standardized states, diagnostics, and process variables that MES or SCADA systems can interpret without custom mapping.
In modern architectures, OPC UA is often combined with MQTT and a Unified Namespace (UNS). This allows data from OPC-UA-enabled machines to be forwarded via edge gateways into cloud platforms and MES solutions in a scalable, event-driven way.
In a Cloud MES environment, Plug and Produce typically works as follows:
Aggregates machines via OPC UA and, where required, additional protocols such as Modbus or proprietary interfaces.
Provides a unified, standardized data layer for MES, SCADA, and ERP systems.
New OPC-UA-enabled machines are detected automatically via discovery mechanisms.
Predefined templates assign standard tags (machine states, counters, alarms) to MES data points without manual engineering.
The machine appears in the MES with a basic KPI set (status, production counts, downtime signals, OEE-relevant data).
Additional process or quality parameters can be added through configuration rather than coding.
Greenfield plants are connected in a standardized way from day one.
Brownfield machines are integrated via retrofit gateways that normalize legacy signals into OPC UA—creating Plug-and-Produce-like behavior even in existing plants.
For a Cloud MES such as SYMESTIC, Plug and Produce means:
OPC-UA-based connectivity via cloud gateways and edge connectors as the standard approach to machine integration.
Rapid onboarding of new equipment using predefined data models for machine states, counters, and core KPIs—allowing production lines and plants to start OEE and transparency use cases quickly.
A consistent data layer that supports downstream applications such as manufacturing visibility, digital work instructions, OEE analytics, and smart maintenance.
This turns Plug and Produce from a research concept into an operational accelerator: new machines deliver production-relevant data to the Cloud MES in a short time, without treating each integration as a standalone engineering project.
Is Plug and Produce only possible with new machines?
No. New machines with native OPC UA support are ideal, but existing equipment can also be integrated using retrofit gateways to achieve Plug-and-Produce-like behavior.
Do I need OPC UA for Plug and Produce?
Strictly speaking, no. In practice, OPC UA is the de facto standard because it provides semantic models, discovery mechanisms, and vendor-independent interoperability. Other protocols can complement it but rarely replace it fully.
How do companies get started pragmatically?
Select a pilot production line, deploy an edge or OPC UA gateway, implement one or two Cloud MES use cases (for example transparency or OEE), measure onboarding time and integration effort, and then reuse the setup as a template for additional machines and plants.