Patent ID: 8380842

Claim:
A server platform for integrating a plurality of diverse plant floor equipment with at least one computerized management (CM) system, said server platform comprising: a processor; a memory; a plurality of plant floor drivers adapted to interface with a plurality of diverse plant floor data sources to at least receive first information from said plant floor data sources, at least one of the plurality of diverse plant floor data sources providing a measurement associated with a first plant equipment; at least one CM system driver adapted to interface with said at least one CM system to at least receive second information from said at least one CM system; a discovery application adapted to: automatically discover and import defined device objects and types from said plurality of diverse plant floor data sources via said plant floor drivers, said defined device objects including a first device object representing said first plant equipment and a second device object representing at least one of the plurality of diverse plant floor data sources, and automatically discover and import defined management objects and types from said at least one CM system via said CM system driver; one or more mapping applications configured to map said defined device objects and types and said defined management objects and types to universal identifiers to generate mappings, the one or more mapping applications being configured to map said first device object, said second device object and a first management object of said defined management objects to a first universal identifier, thereby relating the first plant equipment and the at least one of the plurality of diverse plant floor data sources to the first management object; and a message translator adapted to, based on said mappings, associate portions of the first information from said plant floor data sources with portions of the second information from said at least one CM system.