industrial//industrial automation//ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the corporate level of the automation pyramid: purchasing, sales, inventory, logistics, finance, human resources and business planning, in products such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the corporate level of the automation pyramid: purchasing, sales, inventory, logistics, finance, human resources and business planning, in products such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics.

The ERP decides what to manufacture; it does not know how a valve is opened. Execution belongs to the MES, control to the PLC and DCS. Its purchasing module is one of the actors of the plant's ecosystem: it is where maintenance contracts, spares and upgrades are bought, and where the aftermarket shows up as a line item for decades.