# Shopfloor

> Industrial technology, indexed. Industrial automation, manufacturing, and OT.

## Originals

- [Semiconductor fab automation: the data path from lot to tool](https://shopfloor.space/articles/semiconductor-fab-automation-data/): A plain-language map of lots, FOUPs, AMHS, equipment interfaces, MES, and process data in high-mix, high-discipline semiconductor manufacturing.
- [Safety instrumented systems: the boundary between control and protection](https://shopfloor.space/articles/safety-instrumented-system-basics/): Basic SIS and SIF concepts, independence, SIL targets, proof testing, bypasses, and the questions to answer before connecting safety to a control system.
- [Robot cell safety basics: from hazard list to validated mode](https://shopfloor.space/articles/robot-cell-safety-basics/): A practical sequence for robot-cell risk assessment, safeguarding, operating modes, safety functions, and commissioning without confusing speed with safety.
- [ISA-88 recipe management: keep process intent separate from equipment logic](https://shopfloor.space/articles/recipe-management-isa-88-basics/): Procedures, parameters, equipment phases, versions, and approvals explained for batch systems that need repeatability without hard-coding every product into the controller.
- [Predictive maintenance starts with signal quality](https://shopfloor.space/articles/predictive-maintenance-signal-quality/): Sampling, timestamps, operating context, labels, and work-order feedback matter more than choosing a sophisticated model too early.
- [PLC scan cycle: what actually happens every millisecond](https://shopfloor.space/articles/plc-scan-cycle-explained/): Inputs, logic, outputs, watchdogs, and the timing choices that decide whether a PLC program is predictable or merely fast on a good day.
- [OPC UA security: a practical model for certificates, users, and trust](https://shopfloor.space/articles/opc-ua-security-model-practical/): A field guide to OPC UA application identity, encrypted channels, user authentication, trust lists, and the operational work that keeps them healthy.
- [OEE loss trees: make availability, performance, and quality actionable](https://shopfloor.space/articles/oee-loss-tree-explained/): Why one OEE percentage is not a diagnosis, and how a loss tree turns downtime, speed loss, and defects into work the plant can actually prioritize.
- [MES versus ERP integration: a practical ownership checklist](https://shopfloor.space/articles/mes-vs-erp-integration-checklist/): Decide which system owns orders, materials, quality, genealogy, and production results before building another fragile interface between the business and the plant.
- [Machine vision lighting and lenses: the variables that decide inspection](https://shopfloor.space/articles/machine-vision-lighting-lens-guide/): A factory-floor guide to field of view, working distance, contrast, light geometry, exposure, and the validation discipline behind reliable vision.
- [Industrial time synchronization: NTP, PTP, and TSN in context](https://shopfloor.space/articles/industrial-time-synchronization-guide/): Why accurate clocks matter for motion, sequence-of-events, historians, and incident response—and how to choose the least complex design that works.
- [Industrial MQTT gateway checklist for a brownfield plant](https://shopfloor.space/articles/industrial-mqtt-gateway-checklist/): The decisions that matter before an MQTT edge gateway leaves the lab: protocol drivers, buffering, namespaces, quality, security, and ownership.
- [Industrial AI pilot checklist: from promising demo to useful shift tool](https://shopfloor.space/articles/industrial-ai-pilot-checklist/): Choose the decision, build a baseline, validate data and labels, design the human workflow, and measure whether the pilot changes plant outcomes.
- [HMI alarm design principles that operators can use](https://shopfloor.space/articles/hmi-alarm-design-principles/): Alarm rationalization, priorities, deadbands, shelving, and high-performance graphics for HMIs that support decisions instead of creating noise.
- [Industrial historian tag naming: a guide that survives the next integration](https://shopfloor.space/articles/historian-tag-naming-guide/): Asset hierarchy, units, quality, timestamps, metadata, and versioning patterns for process data that engineers can still understand years later.
- [Edge versus cloud analytics in industrial operations](https://shopfloor.space/articles/edge-vs-cloud-industrial-analytics/): Use latency, availability, bandwidth, data gravity, and governance to decide which analytics belong beside the machine and which can travel farther.
- [Digital twin versus digital shadow: choose the decision first](https://shopfloor.space/articles/digital-twin-vs-digital-shadow/): The difference between a live model and a one-way data representation, with practical tests for deciding whether a twin will improve an industrial decision.
- [Choosing an industrial network topology](https://shopfloor.space/articles/choosing-industrial-network-topology/): Star, line, ring, and redundant designs explained through failure modes, commissioning effort, latency, and the maintenance team’s real needs.
- [CANopen and industrial fieldbus: where the object model fits](https://shopfloor.space/articles/canopen-vs-fieldbus/): A practical introduction to CAN frames, CANopen objects, PDOs, SDOs, network management, and the motion-control decisions behind a deployment.
- [Building a brownfield OT asset inventory without stopping production](https://shopfloor.space/articles/brownfield-ot-asset-inventory/): A safe sequence for discovering controllers, networks, software, owners, and business criticality when the plant’s documentation is incomplete.
- [The unified namespace, explained](https://shopfloor.space/articles/unified-namespace-explained/): One broker, one topic tree, every producer and consumer decoupled. What a UNS is, what it demands, and where it goes wrong.
- [Time-Sensitive Networking: a primer for automation engineers](https://shopfloor.space/articles/tsn-primer-converged-ethernet/): Scheduled traffic, preemption, and time sync on standard Ethernet — what TSN guarantees, what it still needs, and where it meets the fieldbus.
- [Sparkplug B in one page](https://shopfloor.space/articles/sparkplug-b-in-one-page/): The topic namespace, birth certificates, and state awareness that turn MQTT from a transport into a plug-and-play OT data fabric.
- [SCADA, MES, and historian: where each one ends](https://shopfloor.space/articles/scada-mes-historian-where-each-ends/): Three systems that all "collect plant data" but answer different questions. Boundaries, handoffs, and how to stop buying two of them for one job.
- [ROS 2 in industrial robotics: where it fits](https://shopfloor.space/articles/ros-2-industrial-robotics/): DDS middleware, real-time profiles, and the ROS-Industrial consortium — a controls engineer's map of the Robot Operating System.
- [The predictive maintenance data stack, end to end](https://shopfloor.space/articles/predictive-maintenance-data-stack/): From vibration sensor to work order: sensing, transport, context, models, and the analytics layer where predictions become decisions.
- [OT zones and conduits: segmentation that follows IEC 62443](https://shopfloor.space/articles/ot-zones-conduits-iec-62443/): How to divide a plant network into zones, control what crosses between them, and why flat OT networks keep making incident reports.
- [OPC UA, MQTT, and Sparkplug B: how they fit together](https://shopfloor.space/articles/opc-ua-mqtt-sparkplug-how-they-fit/): Three technologies that get compared as rivals but usually work as layers. What each one owns, and how to stop choosing between them.
- [OPC UA companion specifications: a guided tour](https://shopfloor.space/articles/opc-ua-companion-specs-guide/): The base standard models anything; companion specs model your industry. How to find, read, and actually use them.
- [MTConnect: getting data off the machine tool](https://shopfloor.space/articles/mtconnect-cnc-connectivity/): Adapters, agents, and streams — how the open machine-tool connectivity standard works and where it fits beside OPC UA.
- [MQTT QoS, retained messages, and sessions, explained](https://shopfloor.space/articles/mqtt-qos-retained-sessions-explained/): The three MQTT features that decide whether your telemetry is lossy, stale, or exactly-once — and when each setting is correct.
- [Modbus RTU vs Modbus TCP: a practical guide](https://shopfloor.space/articles/modbus-rtu-vs-tcp-practical-guide/): The world's most common industrial protocol in its two dominant forms — framing, addressing, gateways, and the mistakes that break integrations.
- [Machine vision on the factory floor: the basics that decide projects](https://shopfloor.space/articles/machine-vision-factory-basics/): Optics, lighting, and pass/fail discipline matter more than the algorithm. A practical map of inspection, guidance, and identification.
- [ISA-95 levels, explained without the diagram worship](https://shopfloor.space/articles/isa-95-levels-explained/): What levels 0–4 actually mean for MES integration, B2MML exchanges, and conversations between IT and operations.
- [A field guide to industrial Ethernet](https://shopfloor.space/articles/industrial-ethernet-field-guide/): PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, and TSN serve different masters. What each was designed for and how to tell them apart.
- [IEC 61131-3 PLC languages: which one to use](https://shopfloor.space/articles/iec-61131-3-plc-languages-guide/): Ladder, function block, structured text, and the rest — what each of the five languages is good at and how shops actually mix them.
- [Edge gateway patterns for brownfield connectivity](https://shopfloor.space/articles/edge-gateway-patterns-connectivity/): Protocol conversion, buffering, and context at the edge — the four gateway patterns that connect legacy equipment to modern platforms.
- [DCS, explained through ABB 800xA and Freelance](https://shopfloor.space/articles/dcs-explained-abb-800xa-freelance/): What distributed control is, how the two ABB flagships differ, and when a DCS beats a PLC/SCADA stack.
- [AMR vs AGV: what the letters actually decide](https://shopfloor.space/articles/amr-vs-agv-difference/): Fixed paths versus autonomous navigation — capabilities, fleet management, safety, and which one your material flow needs.

## Sections
- [Fresh headlines](https://shopfloor.space/fresh/) (JSON: https://shopfloor.space/fresh/?format=json)
- [Index](https://shopfloor.space/links/)
- [Topics](https://shopfloor.space/topics/)
- [Glossary](https://shopfloor.space/glossary/) (JSON: https://shopfloor.space/glossary.json)
- [Search](https://shopfloor.space/search/) (server-rendered; index: https://shopfloor.space/search.json)
- [About](https://shopfloor.space/about/)

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## Recommended reading
- [Understanding the Shop Floor](https://theknowledgeproject.gumroad.com/l/shopfloor?wanted=true): A practical companion for understanding the systems and concepts behind the shop floor.

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