We have been into the Industry 4.0 implementation for sometime. An important mandate is having a more cross functional and cross communication enabled system for the best out come of the customer ( production manufacturing company). Today we have a lot of closed systems and un revealed information on the machineries which were never required some two years back.
PLC is the heart of all the modern CNC machines. A particular PLC data / communication is more generic. However when it goes into the machine it gets customized as per the need of the machine being produced. So the way in which the PLC is configured ( connected )with the other components like drives , HMI , etc., is more proprietary to the machine manufacturer. The disconnect happens here as the Machine vendor intentionally or without intention does not document the way the PLC works in their system and this info is not shared with the customer.
With the current trend to bring all the data under one umbrella, It is very important to bring more transparency on the need to know basis for the end customer.