At concircle, we are seeing firsthand how the industrial landscape is rapidly evolving through digitalization. The seamless integration of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) systems is more critical than ever. One of the most effective strategies for achieving this integration is the Unified Namespace (UNS) — a concept that transcends traditional point-to-point connections by creating a unified, scalable communication model for modern manufacturing.
How?
A Unified Namespace spans the entire network of an organization. It serves as a central model for organizing and accessing data across all layers of the enterprise — from sensors on the shop floor to business systems in the cloud.
At its core, the UNS mirrors enterprise assets, operations, and events in real time. This data is typically structured in a hierarchical, topic-based format using protocols like MQTT. Each node in this hierarchy must have a unique identifier, and values should be published directly to the namespace under the appropriate topic.
Consider a common scenario in production: multiple machines connected to a MES (Manufacturing Execution System) using various protocols like Modbus, OPC etc. As more machines are added, these point-to-point connections multiply, making the system:
- Hard to maintain
- Lacking in contextual data
- Completely unscalable
The complexity of machine integration is then inherited by every connected system — MES, ERP, analytics platforms — increasing technical debt with every addition.
Now imagine a better way.
With a Unified Namespace in place, the MES doesn’t need to know the technical specifics of every individual machine. If it needs to send a message to the coating cell of the pretreatment line in the printing area of the Munich plant, it can do so by publishing to a predefined MQTT topic within the standardized namespace.
The result? Scalable, plug-and-play integration that works across lines, plants, and systems.
At Concircle, we put this concept to the practice in combination with SAP Digital Manufacturing. Thanks to native MQTT support, everything worked out of the box. The benefits were immediate:
- We reused production logic across different lines
- The number of custom cases dropped significantly
- Special handling logic was reduced
- Our MES became smarter and more efficient
Most importantly, we could focus on what really matters: optimizing the production process, not managing connections.
