In such environments, the standardisation of programming and communications interfaces, towards more open systems, helps limit IT integration costs. This has reduced the requirements for specialist skills and knowledge as well as the costs and time taken to create and install manufacturing applications. Through the use of a CCE platform, the application developer is isolated from lower level details such as manufacturing devices, computer hardware, operating systems, protocol details etc, reducing application development costs and easing integration and migration towards open systems environments. As a testimony to the success of the CCE-CNMA project, many products have been developed by the vendors of the consortium which are now being fully exploited in the global CIM market. These include CCE platforms for the Windows, Unix and OLTP environments, gateways between MMS and proprietary protocols and implementations of the CNMA communications profiles on manufacturing devices, minicomputers and PCs.
Further information is available in two books arising from the project.
A Communication Language of Manufacturing is a guide to the practical use of the Manufacturing Message Specification.