Sensors and approved machine signals
Manual data input for legacy equipment
Protocol adapters and industrial gateways
Local interlocks and equipment safeguards
Development direction
A future controller for connected discrete manufacturing.
Prism is exploring how virtual models, machine data, planning logic and human decisions could be brought into one modular control framework—introduced in stages and governed by security and safety requirements.
Concept under development. This page describes a proposed research and engineering direction derived from the earlier Virtual Manufacturing System (VMS) and manufacturing ERP (mERP) material. It is not a claim of a completed, certified or currently deployed Prism product. Features, interfaces and safeguards would require project-specific design and validation.
Controller purpose
Coordinate information without losing engineering context
Conventional enterprise systems often describe orders, inventory and schedules, while machine controllers focus on immediate equipment behaviour. The proposed direction is a bridge between those layers, using virtual representations and a shared domain model to keep product, process, resource and machine information connected.
The controller would begin as a decision-support and monitoring environment. Any path toward issuing machine commands would be separated, permissioned and validated against the physical equipment, operating procedures and risk assessment.
Orders, product and process definitions
Virtual asset and controller state
Machine, sensor and operator events
Reviewed plans and governed actions
Concept architecture
Three layers with explicit trust boundaries
The architecture separates equipment-facing interfaces from orchestration and user applications. That separation allows each connection, data flow and permission to be reviewed independently.
Asset registry and virtual-state models
Event collection and time-aligned history
Rules, inference and planning services
Identity, authorisation and audit records
Administration and configuration
Design and production planning
Monitoring, diagnostics and quality
Role-specific dashboards and approvals
Proposed modules
A modular VMS application layer
Module boundaries would allow a useful subset to be prototyped first, without assuming that a single system should immediately control every manufacturing activity.
Administrator
Assets, users, roles, interfaces, configuration versions and audit settings.
Design
Product structures, process definitions, resources and virtual asset context.
Planning
Routings, capacity assumptions, schedules and scenario comparison.
Monitor
Equipment state, production events, exceptions and operator-facing context.
Fault diagnostics
Structured symptoms, evidence, domain rules and guided investigation.
Quality assurance
Inspection requirements, traceable results and links to process conditions.
Digital twin registry
Virtual models, physical counterparts, versions and synchronisation status.
Training and help
Role-aware guidance, simulation exercises and maintainable operating knowledge.
Development workflow
Build evidence before increasing authority
The development path intentionally starts with models and read-only data. Greater system authority would be considered only after controlled tests and formal approval.
Scope
Select one decision, machine or cell and define measurable acceptance criteria.
Model
Represent assets, processes, states, constraints and user responsibilities.
Observe
Connect read-only data where feasible and measure quality, timing and gaps.
Advise
Test alerts, scenarios and recommendations with operators and engineers.
Govern
Review permissions, failure modes and approvals before any controlled action.
Engineering principles
Human-centred, modular and defensible by design
A future controller should make system state and decision logic understandable to the people accountable for production. Interfaces may be localised using Unicode-capable text, but language support and terminology would need review with intended users.
Technology choices—including interactive 3D engines, inference services, machine protocols and data stores—would follow the use case rather than define it.
Least authority first
Begin with read-only observation and grant narrowly scoped capabilities only when justified.
Fail safely
Keep equipment protection local and design predictable responses to communication or service loss.
Keep decisions traceable
Version models and rules, record important events and make approvals attributable.
Design with operators
Use domain language, visible system states and clear paths for review and intervention.
Architecture demonstrations
VMS Controller architecture & module demonstrations
These video demonstrations illustrate the core operational modules of the Virtual Manufacturing System (VMS) and manufacturing ERP (mERP) suite engineered by Prism Tech Solutions for discrete industrial manufacturing cells.
VMS Design
An early concept view of design information within a virtual manufacturing system.
Download MP4Help shape a focused first use case.
A useful next step is a bounded discovery study: one production decision, one set of users and one clearly defined information flow.