In today's production processes it is necessary to document data from all phases of the product life-cycle from the product idea and development, construction and prototyping to manufacturing and recycling. This data should be made available in a quick, flexible and efficient way. Diverse software solutions for process data gathering and analysis are available as solution approaches. In the meantime, individual complex production machines are highly specialized and the special software of their electronic closed-loop control and open-loop control components must be built into the cycle. Integrated process management systems take care of almost zero-error quality and thereby satisfy strict customer and quality requirements.

24 hour production with little downtime in the year requires low machine standstill times in addition to a sophisticated shift model with various working time models. Interlinking with materials procurement is essential for running resource management.

New framework conditions in production pre-phases such as digitalization and rapid prototyping led to acceleration of lifecycles and in a further step to the possibility of more rapid production changeover. Product end monitoring and quality inspection constantly takes place during and after production. Data which is gathered thereby must be archived and documented. In the event that errors are discovered in the course of this inspection process, all process and basic data acquired during production are drawn on in order to discover the source of the error and analyze it.

Security and quality requirements for products and the production process have been significantly tightened in recent years in individual sectors. Many national and international standards call for integrated process control.

COI solutions allow unified and central compilation of production data and information. This includes both archiving of control system data such as from SAP and provision of information on production. Retention of documents generated during the production phase is supported by the system. These shall form the basis for other processes and company departments so that decisions can be made on a more substantiated basis.