industrial//industrial automation//ERP

**Enterprise Resource Planning**, the corporate level of the automation pyramid: purchasing, sales, inventory, logistics, finance, human resources and business planning. Examples: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics.

Enterprise Resource Planning, the corporate level of the automation pyramid: purchasing, sales, inventory, logistics, finance, human resources and business planning. Examples: SAP, Oracle, 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.